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Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society 1999;28(1): 48-54. |
| Retrospective Outcome Evaluation of Cervical Chemonucleolysis with Digital Infrared Thermographic Imaging. |
| Tae Young Kim, Byung Chan Jeon, Hwa Dong Lee, Sung Woo Seo |
1Department of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine, Kosin University Gospel Hospital, Pusan, Korea.
2Department of Neurosurgery, Gilmary Hospital, Ulsan, Korea. |
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| ABSTRACT |
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The diagnostic efficacy and comparability of digital infrared thermographic imaging(DITI), computerized tomographic(CT) scan and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) in the assessment of outcome of chemonucleolysis for herniated soft cervical disc patients with ce rvicobrachial neuralgia were evaluated. Forty seven patients of herniated cervical discs who were treated with nucleolysis using chymopapain for last 2 years were assessed by each studying modality and clinical examinations. All the cases received DITI, CT scan and/ or MRI, and the thermal difference of each patient between symptomatic and asymptomatic limb was analyzed pre- and post-operatively. The diagnostic efficacy of each technology was similar, and inter-rater comparability did not differ significantly. DITI showed significantly good correlation with clinical outcome although there existed a considerable inaccuracy in assessing individual subjects.
Digital infrared thermographic imaging was shown to be very useful method in the outcome evaluation of cervical chemonucleolysis. |
| Key Words:
Cervical chemonucleolysis; Digital infrared thermographic imaging |
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