Thermal imaging measures muscle soreness

Scientists from Loma Linda and Asuza Pacific Universities have employed thermal imaging to help in quantifying muscle soreness.

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) or exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) is one of the most common sports injuries, but without a reliable method of quantifying muscle soreness, assessing treatments is difficult.

Traditionally, muscle soreness has been measured using a visual analog scale (VAS). But rather than measuring soreness subjectively, the researchers used thermal infrared imaging techniques to detect subtle changes in the temperature of the skin above exercised muscles.

"The main advantage of this technique is that unlike visual scales, which are a subjective measure of whether someone is sore or not, this technique gives you quantifiable, absolute data,” said Dr. Jerrold Petrofsky, a professor of physical therapy at Loma Linda University (Loma Linda, CA, USA).

The research describing the new technique will be published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE).

-- By Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design