Cold sodium chloride solution 0.9% and infrared thermography can be an alternative to radiopaque contrast agents in phlebography

Sir, Nowadays methods of X-ray diagnostics together with medical drugs or devices with contrasting properties may be used for imaging of humans and animals body parts. Intravascular and intracavitary injection of the X-ray contrast agent solutions is a common practice in clinical settings. However, it is known that the use of radiological methods of X-ray diagnostics together with contrast agents may carry an iatrogenic threat for human health.[1] Recent studies showed that infrared thermography is one of the safest methods for X-ray diagnostics.[2] The method provides a continuous and noncontact monitoring of the infrared images temperature and spectrum for all the parts of the human body.[3-5] However, the traditional methods for infrared monitoring have significant drawbacks, since they allow to obtain a thermogram only for the body surface which often have color images on the thermal imager screen, and this essentially limits the capability of subcutaneous formations imaging and in particular saphenous veins.