Trigger Points are 2~5mm in diameter, hyperirritable palpable taut band in a tissue, when compressed, is locally tender, if sufficiently hypersensitive, gives rise to referred pain and tenderness, and sometimes to referred autonomic phenomena and distortion of proprioception. Thermography is a diagnostic procedure that measure infrared energy emitted by the skin, Trigger points manifest on the thermogram by hot-spot, which are disc-shaped, 5-10cm in diameter. The referred pain zone is variously identified as cold, as cold or hot, and as hot. Thermography is extremely sensitive to both false positive and false negative, which are of great interest in any evaluation of thermography. There would be virtually no validity to comparing pain-temperature change correlations between peoples because pain ratings are entirely subjective. Thermography is a simple, non-invative, safe adjunctive physiological procedure which may be reliable tool for diagnosis and management of musculoskeletal conditions. In those applications, thermography does not stand alone as a primary diagnostic tool, may aid in the interpretation of the significance obtatined by other test. The medical utilization of the thermographic test for the localization and verification of pain attains added importance because of the potential legal implications of the result. |