Thermographic Findings in Patients with Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Before and After Walking

Objective: Patients with lumbar spinal stenosis experience a variety of symptoms, including back pain, and neurogenic claudication. However, these symptoms appear only after walking for a certain distance. Therefore, it is difficult to make an accurate diagnosis using conventional methods, which involve tests performed under resting conditions. Therefore, infrared thermography could be a helpful diagnostic tool. Methods: Eight patients, who had neurogenic claudication after walking a certain distance, were enrolled in this study. These patients underwent infrared thermography at least twice after they walked a certain distance (about 50 meters after walking for 10 minutes). Four other patients, who only had back pain but no claudication, were enrolled as the comparison groups. Results: Seven patients in the patient group showed a decrease of 0.6 to 2.3 degrees in body temperature, depending on the body regions evaluated, after walking a certain distance. However, in the comparison groups, only 1 patient had decreased body temperature after walking. Conclusion: Neurogenic claudication symptoms are present in spinal stenosis patients because of venous congestion, which causes neurogenic claudication and decreases surface temperature. Therefore, infrared thermography can be performed in patients not only in resting conditions but also in symptom-expression conditions. Hence, infrared thermography can help in the accurate diagnosis of lumbar spinal stenosis.