Assessing work-related upper limb disorders with infrared images and mouse repetitive challenge

The Work-Related Upper Limb Disorders (WRULD) are the most common occupational condition at modern workplaces and can become chronic. WRULD needs an accurate quantitative and objective diagnostic test to aid clinicians in the judgment of the degree of injury and assess the adequate treatment, and to provide a permanent evidence record of the degree of injury. Medical thermography was used with a mechanical provocation test involving a computer mouse exercise, which was followed by a thermal provocation of the hand. The proposed method is objective and repeatable, can discriminate between asymptomatic controls and patients (p<0.05). Medical thermal imaging can be used as complementary diagnostic tool to provide evidence of WRULD in support to medical history in medico-legal liabilities.