Infrared Thermography for Estimating Supraclavicular Skin Temperature and BAT Activity in Humans: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a thermogenic tissue with potential as a therapeutic target in the treatment of obesity and related metabolic disorders. The most used technique for quantifying human BAT activity is the measurement of 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake via a positron emission tomography/computed tomography scan following exposure to cold. However, several studies have indicated the measurement of the supraclavicular skin temperature (SST) by infrared thermography (IRT) to be a less invasive alternative. This work reviews the state of the art of this latter method as a means of determining BAT activity in humans.

Methods: The data sources for this review were PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCOhost (SPORTdiscus), and eligible studies were those conducted in humans.

Results: In most studies in which participants were first cooled, an increase in IRT-measured SST was noted. However, only 5 of 24 such studies also involved a nuclear technique that confirmed increased activity in BAT, and only 2 took into account the thickness of the fat layer when measuring SST by IRT.

Conclusions: More work is needed to understand the involvement of tissues other than BAT in determining IRT-measured SST; at present, IRT cannot determine whether any increase in SST is due to increased BAT activity.