Thermography as a Supporting Tool for the Diagnosis of Patellar Tendon Dysfunctions: A Systematic Review

The present study aimed to analyze the use of thermal images as a tool to aid in the diagnosis of dysfunctions in the patellar tendon. A systematic review of the literature was carried out, following the PRISMA protocol with a search in international databases: Web of Science, SCOPUS, and Pubmed. Descriptors in English were used with the following combination ("thermal imaging" OR thermography OR "Infrared image" OR "Skin Temperature" OR "thermal image" OR "Infrared imaging") AND ("patellar tendon"). The evaluation of the methodological quality of the selected works was carried out by two evaluators independently, using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) tool. Six original articles were selected. Three papers evaluated changes in skin temperature in pathological situations. Two other works evaluated the reliability and reproducibility of thermography specifically in the patellar tendon region, and one article monitored skin temperature before and after two physical training protocols. It can be concluded that the use of thermal images proved to be an excellent tool to support the diagnosis of dysfunctions in the patellar tendon region, as well as for monitoring the physiological changes in this region also in non-pathological conditions, such as during physical training.