ArticleRMD open2022
Assessment of inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis using thermography and machine learning: a fast and automated technique.
Article in RMD open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing disease activity in inflammatory arthritis using optical spectral transmission: a systematic review compared to joint ultrasound, MRI, and clinical activity markers.BMC rheumatology · 2026Pooled it
- Infrared thermography in the detection of arthritis: a systematic review of diagnostic performance compared with joint ultrasound.Rheumatology international · 2026Pooled it
- Sex bias consideration in healthcare machine-learning research: a systematic review in rheumatoid arthritis.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Cutaneous Thermography in Arthropathies: Quantitative Imaging, Machine Learning, and Clinical Translation.Journal of imaging · 2026Review
- Untargeted metabolomics reveals immune-metabolic signatures in established cases of rheumatoid arthritis.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2026Article
- Clinical Application of Infrared Thermography in Rheumatic Diseases: A Systematic Review.Mediterranean journal of rheumatology · 2025Article
- Review
- Tongue feature-based model for assessing disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Large language models and rheumatology: are we there yet?Rheumatology advances in practice · 2025Review
- Current application, possibilities, and challenges of artificial intelligence in the management of rheumatoid arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis, and psoriatic arthritis.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2025Review
- [Application and prospects of infrared thermography in rheumatic diseases].Beijing da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Peking University. Health sciences · 2024Review
- Understanding Ultrasound Power Doppler Synovitis at Clinically Quiescent Joints and Thermographic Joint Inflammation Assessment in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- RA-XTNet: A Novel CNN Model to Predict Rheumatoid Arthritis from Hand Radiographs and Thermal Images: A Comparison with CNN Transformer and Quantum Computing.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- External Validation of the Machine Learning-Based Thermographic Indices for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Prospective Longitudinal Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Implementation of a hybrid healthcare model in rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases: 6-months results of the multicenter Digireuma study.BMC rheumatology · 2023Article
- Microwave Radiometry for the Diagnosis and Monitoring of Inflammatory Arthritis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- A Thermographic Disease Activity Index for remote assessment of rheumatoid arthritis.RMD open · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesSensitive detection of joint inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is crucial to the success of the treat-to-target strategy. In this study, we characterise a novel machine learning-based computational method to automatically assess joint inflammation in RA using thermography of the hands, a fast and non-invasive imaging technique.
methodsWe recruited 595 patients with arthritis and osteoarthritis, as well as healthy subjects at two hospitals over 4 years. Machine learning was used to assess joint inflammation from the thermal images of the hands using ultrasound as the reference standard, obtaining a Thermographic Joint Inflammation Score (ThermoJIS). The machine learning model was trained and tuned using data from 449 participants with different types of arthritis, osteoarthritis or without rheumatic disease (development set). The performance of the method was evaluated based on 146 patients with RA (validation set) using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, area under the receiver-operating curve (AUROC), average precision, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value and F1-score.
resultsThermoJIS correlated moderately with ultrasound scores (grey-scale synovial hypertrophy=0.49, p<0.001; and power Doppler=0.51, p<0.001). The AUROC for ThermoJIS for detecting active synovitis was 0.78 (95% CI, 0.71 to 0.86; p<0.001). In patients with RA in clinical remission, ThermoJIS values were significantly higher when active synovitis was detected by ultrasound.
conclusionsThermoJIS was able to detect joint inflammation in patients with RA, even in those in clinical remission. These results open an opportunity to develop new tools for routine detection of joint inflammation.
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