Skin temperature

[2] Patterns in skin temperature often provide crucial diagnostic data on pathological conditions, ranging from locomotion to vascular diseases.

Interactions between skin and temperature occur constantly in relation to each of these functions and often hold considerable medical and physiological significance.

[4] The skin is composed of three main layers, the epidermis, dermis and hypodermis, and contains a variety of cells, receptors and junctions which enable performance of a multitude of functions.

[5] The capacity of our skin to cope under a range of conditions and at various tissue temperatures, whilst simultaneously delivering these functions, attests to the resilience of the organ.

[8] In practice, the temperature gauged by thermometry is dependent on specific setup conditions, and as such requires consideration of key variables.

[1] Consequently, a uniform temperature is not typically maintained by skin as a whole, as demonstrated by inconsistencies between different regions of the body even in spite of measurements taken under various external conditions.

[10] Other notable influences on skin surface temperature include instances of heat stress (in which significant portions of cardiac output are directed to the skin), lowered skinfold thickness (contributes to significantly greater surface temperature variation during exercise)[13] and local thermal control of cutaneous blood vessels (local heating may prompt vasodilation whilst local cooling decreases blood flow to the skin).

[14] Skin temperature is a crucial aspect of human physiology and often plays a significant role in affecting thermoregulatory processes.

[16] When ambient temperature is high, cutaneous blood flow is increased (vasodilation), facilitating the transfer of internal body heat to the skin.

Cryotherapy is an established means for treatment of soft tissue injuries, spraining and soreness, where skin is typically cooled at the site of distress.

[21] Beyond injury management, cryotherapy has notable surgical applications (referred to as cryosurgery), in which extremely cool temperatures produced by liquid nitrogen and argon gas are targeted towards malignant tumours in efforts to damage and destroy such tissue.

[31]Hyperthermia is defined as the condition where an individual's body temperature is elevated beyond normal parameters as a result of the failure of thermoregulatory processes.

[19] Hyperthermia is a common symptom of conditions such as heat stroke, where it manifests as hot, dry skin or heavy perspiration.

[36] ‘Raynaud attacks’, which can begin in parts of the body and spread, effectively lowering skin temperature to dangerous levels in short periods.

Widespread methods for detection of cancer involve identification of non-neuronal thermoregulation of blood perfusion as well as periodic alterations to, or aberrant oscillations in, the spatial homogeneity of skin temperature.

In screening for breast cancer, measurement of skin temperature (particularly instances of hyperthermia) hold great significance.

Accordingly, fluctuations in skin temperature over large portions of the breasts are often investigated in hopes of revealing sites of tumour growth.