[Assessment of diagnostic criterion of coldness in women with thermography]

In this study 99 women were examined by thermography to diagnose coldness. We investigated the correlation between the surface temperature of various parts of the body and the atmospheric temperature during a day in 66 women with coldness and 33 without coldness by means of thermography.

1) Peripheral portions of the lower limbs giving readings lower than 26 degrees C in thermography were found in 67% of women with coldness and in 6% of those without coldness. 2) In the group of women with coldness, the mean surface temperatures in the peripheral portions of limbs were closely correlated with the mean atmospheric temperatures (r = 0.63, p less than 0.001), and the gradient of temperatures from the abdomen to the peripheral portions of limbs was greater at lower mean atmospheric temperatures. 3) A significantly large number (p less than 0.001) of women with coldness had a gradient of more than 6 degrees C observed compared with the other group. 4) The gradient was significantly larger (p less than 0.001) in women with coldness when the mean atmospheric temperature was under 15 degrees C than in women without coldness.

When the gradient of the surface temperature from the abdomen to the peripheral portions of the limbs in thermography was more than 6 degrees C, we might be able to conclude that the subjects have coldness.