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Home Pain referral
Trigger points
Cranial nerve
Spinal nerve
Historical
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Infrared Studies (Thermograms)
Due to the extensive education, significant cost of equipment and controversial
findings, thermography is usually restricted in application to research. The
primary reason that it has been excluded from mainstream medicine is due to the
variance of subjective interpretation from one practitioner to another. It
should be noted that in a clinical trial to depict the early stages of breast
neoplasm,
thermograms
identified ten individuals with possible neoplastic
development. The individuals also received MRI’s that failed to detect the
neoplasms. As only the neoplasms confirmed by MRI received treatment, nine of
the ten engaged in litigation when it was later determined that they had breast
cancer. Supposedly, as part of the terms of the settlement the names of the
individuals as well as the facility could not be released. Therefore, this
cannot be viewed as scientific fact, but food for thought as it pertains to the
scientific application of infrared.
Additional areas in which thermograms have been utilized are in the assessment
of peripheral vascular disease; diabetic neuropathy, reflex sympathetic
dystrophy and myofascial trigger points to list but a few. In reviewing the
thermograms provided, you should note that the subjects were prepared by
allowing their skin temperature to regulate for 20 minutes and that the
equipment was calibrated to +/- 5 degrees of their average skin temperature.
White represents the hottest point within the spectrum graduating down to shades
of yellow, red, green, and blue with black being the coldest. More detailed
information may be acquired from the internet by browsing medical thermograms
and/or infrared studies.
Click here
to view thermograms.
Hilton’s Law states: “a
nerve trunk which supplies the muscles of any given joint also supplies the
muscles which move the joint and the skin over the insertions of such muscles.”
Based upon this law and
supporting EMG studies, we can assume that underlying dermatomes are residing
myotomes and sclerotomes with resulting sensory and motor dysfunction. Should there be an organic or biomechanical
encroachment or compression affecting the ventral nerve root you would
anticipate autonomic impairment and subsequent viscerotomes.
If the practitioner is
attempting to trace dermatome patterns, they should be aware that segmental
nerve supply could vary as to site of innervation or supply from the
dermatome charts
that they are referencing. Therefore, they should view segmental
innervation as a close approximation, but not an absolute. Dermatome, myotome, viscerotome and
sclerotome patterns have been developed from an author’s pool of individuals
studied. Not only can the segmental supply be off by one or two segments, but
also the patterns overlap, thus, making objective specificity difficult to
interpret. Additionally, multiple
trigger point patterns and their subsequent satellite referral can skew the
subjective input of the individual.
Pain referral reference guide
Thermograms
Dermatome charts
Trigger point referral charts
Click here to view dermatome charts.
The link below will send you to thumbnails for 26 trigger point referral charts , as referenced by Travell and Simons.
Click here to view trigger point referral charts.
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