“Infrared thermal images taken out of the image of a red piece of green piece, the old scary, in the end what is it? I don’t understand!” We often encounter similar questions from patients in our pain clinic. If you want to figure out infrared thermography, don’t worry, today the professionals will tell you what it’s really for. What exactly is an infrared thermal image? If the surface temperature of an object exceeds absolute zero, electromagnetic waves will be radiated, and as the temperature changes, the radiation intensity and wavelength distribution characteristics of electromagnetic waves also change, the wavelength of electromagnetic waves between 0.75μm and 1000μm is called “infrared”, and the human visual visible “beam “The wavelength of 0.78~2.0 microns is called near infrared, and the wavelength of 2.0~1000 microns is called thermal infrared. Infrared thermal imaging technology is a modern physics detection technology that uses photoelectric technology to detect the infrared specific wavelength signal generated by the thermal radiation of an object, convert the signal into images and graphics that can be distinguished by human vision, and can further calculate the temperature value so that people can “see” the temperature distribution on the surface of the object. The process is like a photo studio “photo”, a few “images” are taken, and the distribution of the temperature of various parts of the body is “obvious”. Because infrared thermography is a purely green examination method, no radiation, no trauma, pregnant women and the elderly can also rest assured that the examination. What is the role of infrared thermography? Role 1: It is a functional imaging, which makes the invisible pain visible, and objectively expresses the temperature changes generated by the tissue metabolism in the painful part of the body. For example, whether there is inflammatory reaction (congestion, causing temperature increase), whether there is nerve and blood vessel compression (ischemia, causing temperature decrease), as well as nerve injury, chronic strain, cystic lesion, acute soft tissue injury, etc., the pain site through temperature contrast to provide objective clinical evaluation, as one of the clinical diagnosis and differential diagnosis basis. Role two: to investigate the untreated disease, that is, early detection, early treatment, with a certain function. When certain parts of the body or an organ is in a subhealthy state, or in the early stage of disease, the body may not send out “disease” signals, but the intervention of infrared thermal imaging has a certain “forward-looking”. For example, when cancer cells start to grow and multiply and are in a highly active phase, the thermogram will show abnormal high temperature. If the abnormal temperature change can be caught in time, it will be a favorable time for early clinical intervention. Role 3: Pain, which is subjective. Because infrared thermography can readily capture temperature changes at different times at the pain site, as one of the methods of tracking and monitoring the clinical efficacy, and at the same time combined with the patient’s complaints, it can more comprehensively and objectively assess the efficacy dynamics and timely adjust the treatment plan. In summary, infrared thermography is still very useful.