Table 1.
Characteristics and summarization of the included studies.
| Disease | Study Type | Country | Treatment | Population (Intervention/Control) |
Outcome Measurements | Key Outcomes | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS | RCT | China | wIRA | 120 (60/60) | BASDAI, pain VAS, morning stiffness VAS, RI | ↓ BASDAI ↓ pain VAS (↓ 17.5%) ↓ morning stiffness VAS ↑ RI |
Xu/2019 [12] |
| Knee OA | RCT | Taiwan | MIRE Λ = 890 nm |
73 (38/38) | KOOS, LKS, HADS, OAQoL |
OAQoL ↓ 14.3% | Hsieh/2012 [13] |
| RCT | Italy | FIR emitting plaster |
60 (30/30) | pain VAS | ↓ pain VAS 1 week: ↓12.5% 4 weeks: ↓25% |
Bagnato/2012 [14] | |
| RCT pooled data | China | 10.6 μm infrared laser vs. traditional moxibustion | 143 (55/88) | WOMAC SF-36 |
pain VAS: ↓ 60.9% no significant differences |
Lin/2020 [24] | |
| FM | RCT | Germany | mild water-filtered NI-WBH | 139 (69/70) | MPQ, FIQ | VAS: ↓ 37.5% FIQ: ↓ 40.4% |
Brockow/2007 [15] |
| RCT | Brazil | AE, FIR | 28 (14/14) | pain VAS SF-MPQ FIQ |
VAS: ↓ 41.4% FIQ: ↓ 14.7% |
Salm/2019 [16] | |
| RCT | Spain | fabric coated with bio-ceramics | 39 (20/19) | pain VAS FIQ SF-12 |
VAS: ↓21.76% FIQ: ↓16.46% |
Campos/2017 [17] | |
| OS | Japan | Waon therapy | 13 | pain VAS FIQ |
VAS: ↓52.7% FIQ: ↓34.6% |
Matsushita/2008 [18] | |
| Injuries (athletes) | RCT | Brazil | cFIR | 20 (10/10) | performance biochemical markers delayed-onset muscle soreness training strain |
↑ recovery | Nunes/2020 [19] |
| OS | Japan | Waon therapy | 11 | PSS | ↓ perceived fatigue ↑ performance status PSS: ↓19.23% |
Soejima/2015 [20] | |
| MPS | RCT | Taiwan | FIR patches | 125 (61/57) |
pain VAS pressure pain threshold maximal pain tolerance |
pain VAS: ↓8.2% ↓ pressure pain threshold ↓ maximal pain tolerance |
Lai/2017 [21] |
| CLBP | RCT | Egypt | MIPE vs. LLLT | 70 (35/35) | FRI pain VAS modified Schober test |
MIPE: 36% improvement LLLT: 27.87% improvement |
Ammar/2015 [22] |
| Gulf War Illness | Case series | USA | NTIP | 2 | KGWMHHQ ISI BPI |
pain, sleep, insomnia improvements | Chao/2019 [23] |
Legend: AE, aquatic exercise. AS, ankylosing spondylitis. BASDAI, Bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity index. BPI, and Brief Pain Inventory. cFIR, far-infrared emitting ceramic materials. CLBP, chronic low back pain. FIQ, FM Impact Questionnaire. FIR, Far infrared. FM, fibromyalgia. FRI, Functional rating index. HADS, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. ISI, Insomnia Severity Index. KGWMHHQ, Kansas Gulf War Military History and Health Questionnaire. KOOS, knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score. LKS, Lysholm Knee Scale. LLLT, Low Level Laser Therapy. MIPE, Monochromatic Infrared Photo Energy. MIRE, monochromatic infrared energy-treatment. MPQ, McGill Pain Questionnaire. MPS, myofascial pain syndrome. NI-WBH, near infrared whole-body hyperthermia. NTIP, Near-infrared transcranial and intranasal photobiomodulation. nm, nanometers. OA, osteoarthritis. OAQoL, OA Quality of Life Questionnaire. OS, observational study. PSS, pain self-rate scale. RCT, randomized placebo-controlled trial. RI, resistance index. SF-12, Short Form-12 health survey. SF-36, Medical Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey. SF-MPQ, short form of McGill Pain Questionnaire. VAS, pain-visual analogue scale. wIRA, water-filtered infrared-A-radiation. WOMAC, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index. ↑, increase. ↓, decrease. Λ, wavelength.