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Abstract

Introduction As a part of a new researching line about establishing a specific thermal profile for high performance athletes of each specialty, we have analyzed the irradiated heat variation in judokas. Infrared thermography is a fast and non-invasive technique to control muscular thermal balance. The aim of creating a thermal profile for each sport is based on controlling the thermal singularities, which could influence the thermographic interpretation (Ring et al., 2002). Methods We have developed a pilot study with 2 right-handed high performance judokas from the Spanish National League, with an average age of 21,75±0,65 years, weight of 78,5±10,5 kg, and height of 187,5±4,5 cm, and a minimal training frequency of 4 times per week. Our aim was to start with a small sample to set the main points for further researches about thermal profile for Judo athletes. Athletes were monitored for 5 months, since October until February, with a number of 10 thermographic assessments along this period. Images were taken following the patterns set by Gómez Carmona et al. (2010) patented protocol. All images were taken in the same isolated room and conditions: 10 minutes of acclimation; a temperature average of 18,04ºC and a humidity of 43,75%. The assessments took place before the training session and the frequency was at least once per month. A T335 FLIR Thermographic camera was used to take the images, which were analyzed through TermoTracker 1.0.0.4 software. We used the average temperatures of each body areas in order to obtain thermal differences between bilateral body areas. Results After analyzing all thermal images through the software, bilateral significant differences (p<0,05) were only found on dorsal exterior forearm, with an upper 0.4-degree difference in favor of the dominant hand. Discussion The thermal results obtained are into the normal distribution established by Nomura Cabrera et al. (2008). In terms of the significant differences founded, they could be due to the asymmetry in the dominant forearm diameter in judokas -7% bigger- (Krawczyk, 1998), or the influence of the repetitive rotational movements characteristic from judo practice (Zakynthinaki, 2010). Furthermore, the 0.4-degree difference would not be considered as injury risk (Gómez Carmona et al., 2010) but a thermal singularity in judokas because of their practice. References Gómez Carmona, P. M. (2010). Spain Patent No. P201031080. Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas: UPM. Krawczyk, B. (1998). Lateral asymmetry in upper and lower limb measurements in selected groups of male athletes. Biology of sport, 15(1), 33-38. Nomura Cabrera, I. (2008). Thermography techniques. In M. H. M. Lee & J. M. Cohen (Eds.), Rehabilitation medicine and thermography (pp. 25-32). Wilsonville, OR: Impress Publications. Ring, E. (2000). The Technique of Infra red Imaging in Medicine. Thermology International, 10(1), 7-14. Zakynthinaki, M. S. (2010). Rotated balance in humans due to repetitive rotational movement. Chaos, 20(1), 013118.
... Athletes who participate in different sports have been assessed using IRT. These studies have been performed on athletes that participate in running ( Merla et al., 2010), swimming (Ludwig, Formenti, Gargano, & Alberti, 2014; Wade & Veghte, 1977; Zaïdi et al., 2007), tennis (Smith, Bandler, & Goodman, 1986), football (Bouzas Marins et al., 2014; Tauchmannova et al., 1993), handball (Buckhout & Warner, 1980; Chudecka & Lubkowska, 2010b; Chudecka et al., 2008), cycling (Bertucci et al., 2013; Malkinson, 2002), rowing (Tauchmannova et al., 1993), basketball (Chudecka & Lubkowska, 2011; Sampedro, Piñonosa Cano, & Fernández-Cuevas, 2012), judo (Arnaiz Lastras et al., 2011), water polo (Chudecka & Lubkowska, 2010a), wrestling and weight lifting (Tauchmannova et al., 1993), volleyball (Chudecka & Lubkowska, 2012), American football (Garza et al., 2008), rugby (Bandeira et al., 2014; Selfe et al., 2014), gymnastics (Pušnik & Čuk, 2014; Sands et al., 2011), and skiing (Hildebrandt, 2009), as well as less conventional athletic disciplines, such as Taijiquan (Liu et al., 2003). These studies are important because, as certain publications have shown, specialization can lead to sport-specific, but " normal " asymmetries. ...
... Contrarily, in a study performed in junior Brazilian high-level soccer players the thermal profile was symmetric (Bouzas Marins et al., 2014 ); however , it should be considered that the ROI were only the legs and thighs, without considering the ankles. Similar asymmetric results due to sport specialization have been reported in other sports such as judo (Arnaiz Lastras et al., 2011), where bilateral significant differences (p<0.05) were observed on the dorsal exterior forearm, with an upper 0.4-degree difference in favor of the hand-dominant side that has to perform a strong grip on the adversary's kimono. Another example is the higher dominant-hand thermal values in tennis and baseball pitchers (Smith et al., 1986). ...
Chapter
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Sports injuries are one of the most important problems in sports. Moreover, professional sports injuries lead to a difficult recovery process for the athletes, reduced athletic performance, and large economic costs. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a safe, non-invasive and low-cost technique that allows for the rapid and non-contact recording of Skin Temperature (Tsk). Recent research results have demonstrated new applications for this technique; among them, the monitoring and prevention of sports injuries appears to be one of the most interesting applications. Although IRT is not as objective as other methods, it may be sufficiently accurate and reliable as a complementary tool considering the theory that musculoskeletal structures should be in thermal equilibrium when in a healthy state. Therefore, the main contribution of IRT is to help identify an injury before it occurs, providing an opportunity for preventative action.
... Athletes who participate in different sports have been assessed using IRT. These studies have been performed on athletes that participate in running [47,68,361,366], swimming [68,[385][386][387][388], tennis [389], football [34,68,101,344], handball [39,372,390], cycling [137,351,363,367,391], rowing [344], basketball [392,393], judo [394], strength training [334,395], water polo [396], wrestling and weight lifting [344], volleyball [337], American football [397], rugby [144,289], triathlon [68], gymnastics [345,398], and skiing [68], as well as less conventional athletic disciplines, such as Taijiquan [376]. ...
... Knowing the specific thermal patterns of each athlete and the pattern that is generally exhibited by participants in a particular sport aids in the proper evaluation of such asymmetries. These studies are important given that, as certain publications have shown, specialisation can lead to sport-specific but ''normal'' asymmetries, such as the forearm in tennis players [389], the tibialis anterior in football players [34], the arm in volleyball and handball players [39,337,372], and the grasping forearm of a judoka [394]. ...
Article
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Body temperature is one of the most commonly used indicators of health status in humans. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a safe, non-invasive and low-cost technique that allows for the rapid and non-invasive recording of radiating energy that is released from the body. IRT measures this radiation, directly related to Skin Temperature (Tsk) and has been widely used since the early 1960s in different areas. Recent technical advances in infrared cameras have made new human applications of IRT (beyond diagnostic techniques) possible. This review focuses on the lack of comprehensive information about the factors influencing the use of IRT in humans, and proposes a comprehensive classification in three primary groups: environmental, individual and technical factors. We aim: to propose a common framework for further investigations; to reinforce the accuracy of human IRT; to summarise and discuss the results from the studies carried out on each factor and to identify areas requiring further research to determine their effects on human IRT.
... , football, handball(Chudecka et al., 2008), cycling (Afraoui et al., 2012, judo (ArnaizLastras et al., 2011), volleyball(Chudecka et al., 2012), American football(Garza et al., 2008), gymnastics(Sands et al., 2011), skiing(Hildebrandt et al., 2009a) and even less ...
... anterior in football players, the arm in volleyball and handball players(Chudecka et al., 2010 and and the grasping forearm of a judoka player(Arnaiz Lastras et al., 2011). ...
Thesis
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Infrared thermography (IRT) is a safe, non-invasive and low-cost technique that allows for the rapid and non-contact recording of the irradiated energy that is released from the body (Akimov & Son’kin, 2011; Merla et al., 2005; Ng et al., 2009; Costello et al., 2012; Hildebrandt et al., 2010). This technique has been used since the early 1960s, but due to poor results with respect to its use as a diagnostic tool and a lack of methodological standards and quality assurance (Head et al., 2002), it was rejected from the medical field. Nevertheless, the technological improvements in IRT in the previous years have allowed for its resurgence (Jiang et al., 2005; Vainer et al., 2005; Cheng et al., 2009; Spalding et al., 2011; Skala et al., 2012), paving the way to novel applications that are not solely focused on diagnostic uses. Among these novel applications, we highlighted those in the fields of physical activity and sports. It has recently been conclusively demonstrated that high-resolution thermal images can provide interesting information regarding the complex thermoregulation system of the body (Hildebrandt et al., 2010). This information can further be used for training workload quantification (Čoh & Širok, 2007), to determine fitness and performance conditions (Chudecka et al., 2010, 2012; Akimov et al., 2009, 2011; Merla et al., 2010; Arfaoui et al., 2012), for the prevention and monitoring of injuries (Hildebrandt et al., 2010, 2012; Badža et al., 2012, Gómez Carmona, 2012) and even for the detection of delayed onset muscle soreness -DOMS- (Al-Nakhli et al., 2012). In this context, there is a necessity to broaden our knowledge of the factors that influence the application of IRT on humans and to better explore and describe the thermal response of Skin Temperature (Tsk) in both normal conditions and under the influence of different types of exercise. Consequently, the present study presents a literature review of the factors that affect the application of IRT on humans and a proposal for classifying these factors. We analysed the reliability of the Termotracker® software and its reproducibility in determining Tsk in young, healthy normal-weight subjects. We lastly examined the Tsk response prior to endurance, speed and strength training, immediately following this training and over an 8-hour recovery period. With respect to the literature review, we proposed a classification with which to organise the factors that affect the accuracy of IRT into three primary groups: environmental, individual and technical. Thus, improved exploration and description of these influence factors should represent the basis of further investigations for the use of IRT in the optimal conditions, with the ultimate aim of improving its accuracy and results. We observed excellent reproducibility of the results for consecutive images; however, the reproducibility of the Tsk measurements slightly decreased with time, primarily in the cooler Regions of Interest (ROI) (i.e., distal and joint areas). The side-to-side differences (ΔT) (which are normally used to follow the evolution of an injured or overloaded ROI) also exhibited highly accurate results. In this case, however, more accurate values for joints and central ROIs were observed (i.e., knee, ankles, dorsal and pectoral) than for the hottest muscle ROI (i.e., the thighs and the hamstrings). The reliability results of the IRT software Termotracker® were excellent for all of the conditions and parameters. With respect to the study of the effects of endurance, speed and strength training on Tsk, the temperatures exhibited specific responses depending on the type of training, the ROI, the time of the assessment and the function of the considered ROI. The results revealed that the majority of the muscle ROIs exhibited significantly higher Tsk values 8 hours following the training, indicating that the effect of exercise on Tsk lasts a minimum of 8 hours in the majority of ROIs. This result also indicates that IRT could aid in the quantification of the recovery status of an athlete as a workload assimilation indicator. Those results may be very useful to better understand complex skin thermoregulation behaviours and therefore indicate that IRT could be used in a more objective, accurate and professional manner to enhance the usefulness of new IRT applications in the physical activity and sport sectors.
... To investigate this relation, it is important to consider the environmental conditions in which the test is carried out, as large variations in the environmental parameters may influence the interpretation of the results [15]. Some studies were then focused on the determination of the thermal profile of different types of sport (e.g., soccer [29] and judo [30]), in order to correlate the thermal behaviour with the sport performance. In fact, especially for elite athletes, it is important to be aware of the comparison between the thermal behaviour of the single athlete and the common thermal profile of the sport performance. ...
Article
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In recent times, infrared thermography has been often applied to sport science, in order to evaluate athletes’ performance in relation to their thermal behaviour. As there is a lack of studies for the sport of fencing, this paper aims to provide preliminary results showing the thermal behaviour of fencers of different competitive level and to provide a methodology for its assessment. In particular, thermal images were acquired before, during and after the training, as well as the metabolic rate and the rate of perceived exertion, for eight fencers with different competitive levels (international/national/veteran). Results showed that in moderate environments there was any correlation between the environmental parameters and temperature trend on athletes’ bodies, while competitive level and thermal behaviour were connected. The presence of thermal asymmetries was also detected. In general, from these preliminary results, professional athletes presented the same temperature trend. Therefore, further studies should be carried out in order to investigate these findings on a larger sample of elite athletes, as their thermal response may be important for improving their performance.
... In addition, T sk in the forearm was always greater in relation to the non-dominant side. Our results are consistent with those presented in the pilot study of Arnaiz-Lastras et al. (2011), held with judokas from the Spanish National League. The authors reported asymmetry of 0.19°C in the anterior view and 0.36°C in the posterior view, both with higher values for the dominant forearm compared to the non-dominant forearm. ...
Article
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At higher levels of competitiveness, there is a need to create injury prevention programs in the judo and jiujitsu modalities. Both modalities present in common the excessive forearm muscular request. One tool that has been used within these programs is the Infrared Thermography (IRT), which allows the identification of a possible injury. However, in order to avoid misunderstanding of the results, it is necessary to know the athlete's thermal profile. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify and compare the skin temperature (T sk) of judo and jiujitsu athletes in the forearm region, as well as to verify the level of attention for asymmetry in the forearm of these athletes. The sample consisted of 26 male athletes, 12 judokas and 14 jiujitsu practitioners. The results of the comparison of T sk of the forearm between the groups did not present any significant differences. The T sk of judo and jiujitsu athletes in the forearm are similar, something that may help in future research using thermography with both modalities.
... The knowledge of individualized thermal profiles are important when applying IRT to sports (Marins et al., 2014b). Constant asymmetries in Tsk along the time are produced among others by the specialization of the sport, as seen in the comparison between D and ND forearms in judo athletes (Arnaiz Lastras et al., 2011). The thermal profile in football was firstly defined in the doctoral dissertation of Gomez- , who observed that in non-injured Spanish 1 st division professional football players, the only Tsk differences observed were for the D ankle, possibly because of the repetitive action of ball kicking. ...
... This application was implemented in a Spanish professional football team with positive results over a preseason, with a 90% reduction in the number of days absent from training caused by injury among the players . We did not record the subjects' hand and foot dominances, however, there is some evidence of increased T sk in the dominant limb both in normal subjects (Smith et al., 1986) and in athletes (Gómez-Carmona et al., 2009;Arnaiz-Lastras et al., 2011). Determination of dominant side asymmetries could be important for better understanding the normal thermal profiles of athletes with high unilateral physical workload (i.e., tennis or fencing) but might be less relevant in other sports such as cycling. ...
... This application was implemented in a Spanish professional football team with positive results over a preseason, with a 90% reduction in the number of days absent from training caused by injury among the players (Gomez Carmona et al., 2011). We did not record the subjects' hand and foot dominances, however, there is some evidence of increased T sk in the dominant limb both in normal subjects (Smith et al., 1986) and in athletes (Gomez-Carmona et al., 2009; Arnaiz-Lastras et al., 2011). Determination of dominant side asymmetries could be important for better understanding the normal thermal profiles of athletes with high unilateral physical workload (i.e., tennis or fencing) but might be less relevant in other sports such as cycling. ...
Article
Thermography for scientific research and practical purposes requires a series of procedures to obtain images that should be standardized; one of the most important is the time required for acclimatization in the controlled environment. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify the appropriate acclimatization time in rest to reach a thermal balance on young people skin. Forty-four subjects participated in the study, 18 men (22.3 ± 3.1 years) and 26 women (21.7 ± 2.5 years). Thermographic images were collected using a thermal imager (Fluke ®), totaling 44 images over a period of 20 minutes. The skin temperature (TSK) was measured at the point of examination which included the 0 minute, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20. The body regions of interest (ROI) analyzed included the hands, forearms, arms, thighs, legs, chest and abdomen. We used the Friedman test with post hoc Dunn’s in order to establish the time at rest required to obtain a TSK balance and the Mann-Whitney test was used to compare age, BMI, body fat percentage and temperature variations between men and women, considering always a significance level of p<0.05. Results showed that women had significantly higher temperature variations than men (p<0.01) along the time. In men, only the body region of the abdomen obtained a significant variance (p<0.05) on the analyzed period, both in the anterior and posterior part. In women, the anterior abdomen and thighs, and the posterior part of the hands, forearms and abdomen showed significant differences (p<0.05). Based on our results, it can be concluded that the time in rest condition required reaching a TSK balance in young men and women is variable, but for whole body analysis it is recommended at least 10 minutes for both sexes.
Chapter
Sports injuries are one of the most important problems in sports. Moreover, professional sports injuries lead to a difficult recovery process for the athletes, reduced athletic performance, and large economic costs. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a safe, non-invasive and low-cost technique that allows for the rapid and non-contact recording of Skin Temperature (Tsk). Recent research results have demonstrated new applications for this technique; among them, the monitoring and prevention of sports injuries appears to be one of the most interesting applications. Although IRT is not as objective as other methods, it may be sufficiently accurate and reliable as a complementary tool considering the theory that musculoskeletal structures should be in thermal equilibrium when in a healthy state. Therefore, the main contribution of IRT is to help identify an injury before it occurs, providing an opportunity for preventative action.
Article
Objectives: To determine normal temperatures over the Achilles tendon over nine weeks. Design: A prospective cohort study with nine weeks of observation. Setting: University's Human Biomechanics and Physiology Laboratory. Participants: Male or female competitive runners running at least 25 miles per week who did not report pain in the region of the Achilles over 9 weeks of data collection. Main outcome measure: Thermal images taken at the same time and day of the week, were used to measure the temperature of the skin over the Achilles tendon. Results: Seventeen athletes were eligible for analysis. The Achilles tendon temperatures were right 28.7 °C ± 1.3 °C, left 28.8 °C ± 1.3 °C. ICC demonstrated a very high consistency and minimal variations in temperatures (right 0.86 (95% CI = 0.58, 0.98), left 0.79 (95% CI = 0.38, 0.97). The mean difference between sides over the season was 0.50 °C ± 0.43 °C (p = 0.681). A decreasing trend in the Achilles tendon temperatures as the season progressed was observed. Conclusion: This is the first report of normal thermal profiles over an extended period. Variations in Achilles temperatures left to right, and over time were not significant. The decreasing temperature trend over the season warrants further investigation.
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We show how asymmetries in the movement patterns during the process of regaining balance after perturbation from quiet stance can be modeled by a set of coupled vector fields for the derivative with respect to time of the angles between the resultant ground reaction forces and the vertical in the anteroposterior and mediolateral directions. In our model, which is an adaption of the model of Stirling and Zakynthinaki (2004), the critical curve, defining the set of maximum angles one can lean to and still correct to regain balance, can be rotated and skewed so as to model the effects of a repetitive training of a rotational movement pattern. For the purposes of our study a rotation and a skew matrix is applied to the critical curve of the model. We present here a linear stability analysis of the modified model, as well as a fit of the model to experimental data of two characteristic "asymmetric" elite athletes and to a "symmetric" elite athlete for comparison. The new adapted model has many uses not just in sport but also in rehabilitation, as many work place injuries are caused by excessive repetition of unaligned and rotational movement patterns.