Evaluation of body surface temperature variations in dogs affected by spinal cord injuries during physiotherapy exercise in a water treadmill

The aim this study was to evaluate variation in body surface temperature (BST) in healthy and spinal cord injured (SCI) dogs, and to outline temperature variation at rest (T0), during (T1) and after (T2) water-treadmill physiotherapy sessions in SCI using infrared thermography (IRT). Sixty-seven dogs of different sex, breed, body weight and age were enrolled: 14 healthy dogs and 53 dogs affected by disc pathologies. The study examined three regions of interest (ROIs): the total image of the spine (IMAGE), the spinal cord area from 1st thoracic vertebra to the last lumbar vertebra (AR01) and the surgery wound or spinal cord lesion area (AR02). Significant BST variations between healthy and SCI were reported in T°max and T°max-min (ΔT) values in IMAGE (P < 0.05). In SCI group, AR01 and AR02 assessment showed an increase in temperature ate the sited of the injured area and adjacent body structures. In SCI, a significant effect of water-treadmill exercise in AR01 and AR02 was reported. In fact, both AR01 and AR02 reported higher BST (T°max, T°mean, T°min and ΔT) during the physical exercise (T1), representing the response to physical activity of the spine vascularization, muscles and column contiguous tissues. Furthermore, in T2, the same areas reported a significant lower BST (T°max, T°mean, and ΔT), related to a decrease in tissue inflammation on the target area of the water treadmill physiotherapy. This study highlights how IRT can detect BST variations associated with injured areas. In addition, IRT revealed a positive effect of water-treadmill exercise on the injured spinal cord areas, thus it could be a viable non-invasive and rapid method to support both clinical examination and assessment of the effectiveness of medical treatment in SCI.