[Thermologic studies in inflammatory rheumatic diseases--general presentation and personal results in rheumatoid...

The registration of the temperature of the body surface gains an increasing significance among others for the diagnosis of inflammatory rheumatic diseases. A criterion of the inflammation of the joint, the hyperthermy as well as the disturbances of the microcirculation may be made evident by means of the thermological methods. Own results in healthy persons and patients with rheumatoid arthritis as well as evidence of the literature confirm the possibilities of the measurements of temperature for the rheumatology. On account of the great inter- and intra-individual variability of the skin temperature an orientation at the temperatures of normal values of certain measuring regions is not reasonable. When the results of the temperature measurement are estimated, therefore, a comparison with temperature patterns of healthy persons must be done. Using dynamic measuring methods the evidence of thermological investigations may essentially be enlarged. The evaluation of the results of the measurement is increasingly performed with the help of computers.