Infrared thermography for indirect assessment of activation of brown adipose tissue in lean and obese male subjects.

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) plays a key role in adaptive thermogenesis in mammals, and it has recently been considered as an attractive therapeutic target for tackling human obesity by increasing energy expenditure. Thermal imaging using infrared thermography (IRT) has emerged as a potential safe, rapid and inexpensive technique for detecting BAT in humans. However, little attention has been given to the reliability of this method in obese subjects.