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Updated: Jan 4, 2026
Infrared Thermography for the Detection of Changes in Brown Adipose Tissue Activity
Published on: September 28, 2022
Infrared Thermography for Estimating Supraclavicular Skin Temperature and BAT Activity in Humans: A Systematic Review
David Jimenez-Pavon1,2, Juan Corral-Perez1,2, David Sánchez-Infantes3,4
1MOVE-IT Research Group, Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain.
Objective:
Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a thermogenic tissue with potential as a therapeutic target in the treatment of obesity and related metabolic disorders. The most used technique for quantifying human BAT activity is the measurement of 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake via a positron emission tomography/computed tomography scan following exposure to cold. However, several studies have indicated the measurement of the supraclavicular skin temperature (SST) by infrared thermography (IRT) to be a less invasive alternative. This work reviews the state of the art of this latter method as a means of determining BAT activity in humans.
Methods:
The data sources for this review were PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCOhost (SPORTdiscus), and eligible studies were those conducted in humans.
Results:
In most studies in which participants were first cooled, an increase in IRT-measured SST was noted. However, only 5 of 24 such studies also involved a nuclear technique that confirmed increased activity in BAT, and only 2 took into account the thickness of the fat layer when measuring SST by IRT.
Conclusions:
More work is needed to understand the involvement of tissues other than BAT in determining IRT-measured SST; at present, IRT cannot determine whether any increase in SST is due to increased BAT activity.
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