Medical Thermography

Digital Infrared Breast Thermography

A pro-active approach to promoting breast health must go beyond just screening for the presence of breast cancer. We need to use testing that could signal breast tissue physiological dysfunction long before a woman was at the cancer tumour stage.

What is medical thermography?

Digital infrared imaging, also known at infrared thermography, is equipment or method, which detects infrared energy emitted from object, converts it to temperature, and displays image of temperature distribution. It has increasingly been used to assess breast tissue for neoangiogenic changes in circulatory function.

Why use infrared digital thermography for breast evaluation?

Normal blood vessels contain smooth muscles controlled by the autonomic nervous system. As tumours reach a certain size (perhaps as small as 1/8″) and need more blood to keep growing, they initiate development of neoangiogenic blood vessels. These do not have smooth muscles and do not respond to commands from the nervous system, and are thus out of homeostatic balance. By using a cold challenge to the autonomic nervous system, thermography can assess if the breast is cooling down normally or not, and thus detect when neoangiogenic development is present.

Certification has not yet been established in Canada – only the American Academy of Thermology (www.americanacademyofthermology.org) provides certification at a professional level and without the conflict of also selling equipment, which leaves an opening for bias.