[Thermography in the diagnosis of spontaneous lumbosacral radiculitis].

Employing the Soviet thermal scanner "Rubin", 59 patients aged 20 to 65 years suffering from lumbosacral radiculitis were examined. Clinical examinations were supplemented with spondylography , epidurography, pneumomyelography and myelography. Operation performed on 29 patients showed a slipped disk in 26 and hypertrophy of the yellow ligament in three patients. The level and the side of compression of one or another neural root by the slipped disk detected at operation correlated with the thermographic data in 72% of all cases. An analysis of the thermograms in 59 patients with lumbosacral radiculitis demonstrated that thermographically the given disease was manifested by the zone of hyperthermia in the lumbosacral area and the disruption of the thermal flow in the form of hypothermia in the lower extremities which in 72% of cases was distributed according to the stripe type. The side and the level of compression of the neural root are also outlined.