What Is Breast Thermography?
Filed Under Breast Health |
Thermography measures the infrared radiation (heat) that is constantly radiating (emitting) away from the surface of the human skin. Skin is an organ, and it breathes, exchanges gases with the environment, cools us as well and keeps us warm by letting heat out or keeping it in by controlling the amount of circulation, or blood flow, in the skin. This automatic regulation is done without conscious thought and is controlled by the autonomic nervous system via the sympathetics. The whole process is called thermoregulation.
The thermography procedure is based on the principle that chemical and blood vessel activity in both pre-cancerous tissue and the area surrounding a developing breast cancer is almost always higher than in the normal breast. Since pre-cancerous and cancerous masses are highly metabolic tissues, they need an abundant supply of nutrients to maintain their growth. In order to do this they increase circulation to their cells by sending out chemicals to keep existing blood vessels open, recruit dormant vessels, and create new ones (neo-angiogenesis). This process results in an increase in regional surface temperatures of the breast.
Abnormal thermographic scans of the breast clearly demonstrate abnormal areas of heat. This gives the clinician an alert that something might be wrong with physiology of the breast. It could be an infection, inflammatory disease, trauma or cancer.
Thermography uses no painful breast compression, no radiation and is non-invasive. It is an ideal tool for mass screening not only for women over 40, but younger women as well. Breast pathologies have been found in women as young as 18 utilizing thermal imaging equipment. It would be a grave error to deny the efficacy of thermal imaging of the breast as an adjunctive diagnostic procedure in the overall management of the patient.
The procedure is both comfortable and safe, using no radiation or compression. By carefully examining changes in the temperature and blood vessels of the breasts, signs of possible cancer or pre-cancerous cell growth may be detected up to 10 years prior to being discovered using any other procedure. This provides for the earliest possible detection of cancer. Because of breast thermography’s extreme sensitivity, these temperature variations and vascular changes may be among the earliest signs of breast cancer and/or a pre-cancerous state of the breast.
Dr. Alex Mostovoy
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The thermography procedure is based on the principle that chemical and blood vessel activity in both pre-cancerous tissue and the area surrounding a developing breast cancer is almost always higher than in the normal breast.