[Clinico-experimental studies of the diagnostic value of plate thermography in the detection of thyroid cold nodules].

Thermography was employed in addition to scintiscanning in the preoperative diagnosis of 87 surgically treated cold thyroid nodes. A new thermographic method was used. Comparison with the scanning and clinical data and the histological finding showed it to be useful, so that its routine employment has been principally in the investigation of cold nodes in addition to hyperfunctioning nodes. The results obtained are of particular value, since they enable a resonably reliable differential diagnosis to be made of benign and malignant forms prior to surgery.