Thermal profile classification of the back of sportive and sedentary healthy individuals

Bruno Trovato; Federico Roggio; Martina Sortino; Lucia Rapisarda; Luca Petrigna; Giuseppe Musumeci

doi:10.1016/j.jtherbio.2023.103751

Thermal profile classification of the back of sportive and sedentary healthy individuals

J Therm Biol. 2023 Dec:118:103751. doi: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2023.103751. Epub 2023 Nov 18.

Authors

Bruno Trovato¹, Federico Roggio², Martina Sortino¹, Lucia Rapisarda³, Luca Petrigna⁴, Giuseppe Musumeci⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Anatomy, Histology and Movement Science, School of Medicine, University of Catania, Via S. Sofia n°97, 95123, Catania, Italy.
² Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Anatomy, Histology and Movement Science, School of Medicine, University of Catania, Via S. Sofia n°97, 95123, Catania, Italy; Sport and Exercise Sciences Research Unit, Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, Via Giovanni Pascoli 6, Palermo, 90144, Italy.
³ Spine Unit, Cannizzaro Hospital, Catania, 95123, Italy.
⁴ Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Anatomy, Histology and Movement Science, School of Medicine, University of Catania, Via S. Sofia n°97, 95123, Catania, Italy. Electronic address: luca.petrigna@unict.it.
⁵ Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Anatomy, Histology and Movement Science, School of Medicine, University of Catania, Via S. Sofia n°97, 95123, Catania, Italy; Research Center on Motor Activities (CRAM), University of Catania, Via S. Sofia n°97, 95123, Catania, Italy; Department of Biology, Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, College of Science and Technology, Temple University, Philadelphia, 19122, PA, United States.

PMID: 38000144
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2023.103751

Abstract

Background: Infrared thermography (IRT) is a non-harmful, risk-free imaging technique and it has application for healthy and pathological population.

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the thermographic profiles of the back of sport practitioners from different disciplines and compare it with those of sedentary healthy individuals.

Method: The back of 160 healthy subjects were evaluated, and participants were grouped considering their sport practice: team sport (TS), individual sport (IS), weight training (WT), inactive (I). Three regions of interest were identified to analyze the cervical, thoracic and lumbar temperatures of the back.

Results: The Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) resulted significant showing statistical differences for the cervical (p < 0.001), dorsal (p = 0.0011), and lumbar areas (p = 0.0366). The Tukey post-hoc test for pairwise comparison showed statistically significant differences between groups. For the cervical area significance was found between the IN and WT group (p = 0.002), the IN and IS group (p < 0.001), IN and TS group (p = 0.020). The dorsal area resulted significant between the IN and WT group (p = 0.007), the IN and IS group (p < 0.001), IN and TS group. The lumbar area showed significant differences only between the IN and WT group and the IN and IS group (p = 0.043).

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that inactive individuals manifest a statistically significant higher temperature in the cervical, dorsal and lumbar area of the back compared to sportive individuals.

Keywords: Back; Evaluation; Infrared thermography; Kinesiology; Sport science.

MeSH terms

Fever
Humans
Lumbosacral Region
Skin Temperature*
Temperature
Thermography* / methods