Since to date, no studies have compared thermographic patterns of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) in remission and with healthy individuals, members of the Department of Podiatry at the University of Malta sought to investigate this matter.
Using convenience sampling, RA patients were recruited and thermal images of their feet were taken. Temperatures in the different regions of the foot (medial, lateral, forefoot and heel regions) were analysed and compared to a cohort of healthy adults.
The data from 32 RA patients were compared to that of 51 healthy controls.
The Independent samples T-Test demonstrated a significant difference in temperatures in all the regions of the forefoot between RA and healthy patients.
This data will provided the basis of future studies to assess whether thermographic patterns change with disease activity.
The results of the study, titled “Thermal characteristics of rheumatoid feet in remission: Baseline Data”, is available in its entirety online.