{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T05:01:32Z","timestamp":1784782892835,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784592000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. Clin. Med.","JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Repeated radiographic monitoring exposes scoliosis patients to cumulative radiation. Dynamic infrared thermography (DIT) may provide a non-invasive alternative by characterizing thermal recovery behavior following controlled cooling. This study investigated whether reheating-based thermographic analysis could reveal scoliosis-related asymmetry. Methods: A total of 13 healthy controls and 10 individuals with radiographically confirmed scoliosis were enrolled. Following controlled thoracolumbar cooling, DIT images were acquired. Bilateral paraspinal cold regions were segmented during a 5-min rewarming period. Dynamic thermal asymmetry features were extracted; Sustained Asymmetry Index (SAI) and Dynamic Thermal Asymmetry Index (DTAI) were calculated to quantify asymmetry persistence over time. Results: Mean Asymmetry demonstrated significant group-level separation (0.027 \u00b1 0.021 vs. 0.079 \u00b1 0.070, p = 0.038, AUC = 0.762). The SAI demonstrated the strongest discriminative performance (0.299 \u00b1 0.114 vs. 0.521 \u00b1 0.143, p = 0.0014, AUC = 0.900; sensitivity 0.70, specificity 1.00), indicating persistent bilateral thermal divergence throughout reheating. The DTAI was significantly higher in the scoliosis group (\u22120.405 \u00b1 0.407 vs. 0.527 \u00b1 0.878, p = 0.0084, AUC = 0.831). Inspection of recovery curves revealed distinct thermal recovery phenotypes, including persistent asymmetry, delayed asymmetry peaks, and near-normal thermal recovery patterns. No significant correlation was observed between DTAI and Cobb angle (\u03c1 = 0.183, p = 0.611). Conclusions: DIT combined with quantitative thermal recovery analysis can reveal bilateral thermo-physiological asymmetry associated with scoliosis. Persistence-based thermal recovery metrics, particularly the SAI, demonstrated strong discriminative performance. These findings support the potential utility of DIT recovery analysis as a non-invasive physiological biomarker framework for scoliosis assessment.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm15145720","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T15:17:52Z","timestamp":1784647072000},"page":"5720","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Dynamic Infrared Thermography Reveals Bilateral Thermal Recovery Asymmetry in Scoliosis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-6581-8126","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"Faizy","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, Istanbul 34752, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ramazan Be\u015fir","family":"Yaman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, Istanbul 34752, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4651-4018","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Seda Nilg\u00fcn","family":"Dumlu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, Istanbul 34752, Turkey"},{"name":"Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, Istanbul 34752, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-5671-7563","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tu\u011f\u00e7e","family":"Yavuz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Central Hospital, Istanbul 34752, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1312-9933","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammet Alptekin","family":"Kocao\u011flu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Central Hospital, Istanbul 34752, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1218-7357","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Akif","family":"Albayrak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Central Hospital, Istanbul 34752, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hande","family":"Argunsah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, Istanbul 34752, Turkey"},{"name":"Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, Istanbul 34752, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1527","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(08)60658-3","article-title":"Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis","volume":"371","author":"Weinstein","year":"2008","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"54","DOI":"10.1007\/s12178-024-09939-2","article-title":"Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Advances in Diagnosis and Management","volume":"18","author":"Jinnah","year":"2025","journal-title":"Curr. 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