Contralateral temperature differences in the body are one of the key areas studied by thermal imaging.
Below are some guidelines on the contralateral temperature difference for the most common body parts in normal subjects. (1) (2)
| Body segment | Mean temperature difference (°C) |
|---|---|
| Forehead | 0.12 |
| Cheek | 0.18 |
| Chest | 0.14 |
| Abdomen | 0.18 |
| Neck (posterior) | 0.15 |
| Lumbar (back) | 0.25 |
| Trunk average | 0.17 |
| Arm (biceps) | 0.13 |
| Palm (medial) | 0.23 |
| Thigh (anterior) | 0.11 |
| Thigh (posterior) | 0.15 |
| Foot (dorsal) | 0.30 |
| Finger-tips average | 0.38 |
| Toe-tips average | 0.50 |
(1) Jones, B.F. “A reappraisal of the use of infrared thermal image analysis in medicine,” in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 1019-1027, Dec. 1998, doi: 10.1109/42.746635.
(2) Uematsu, S. “Symmetry of skin temperature comparing one side of the body to other”, Thermology, 1 (1986), pp. 4-7