Nutrition
Thermology
Dianne Irene 2008
'''Breast Thermology-Infrared Mammography'''
Infrared technology is now being used more extensively by the military as a means of evaluating information in living and non-living organisms. More than 40 years ago Thermology technology was used as a passive non-x-ray technique. While it's early start was slow and improvements were needed in the technology, digital provided a leap in diagnosis. It involves no compression of the breast and thus no concern of compressing a possible malignancy. It is painless and non-contact. According to one of the major thermology labs in the US this technology is, " approved by the US FDA for breast cancer detection. Thermology involves the use of a very sophisticated infrared camera to passively image features of the body's own cellular function. Abnormal cellular features can be detected and used to screen for different forms of breast disease with high reliability. The United States and Canada have lagged behind in applying this completely safe and sensitive technique because of poor results from false starts about thirty years ago and complacency with mammography. With the development of an objective criteria system in 1975 at the prestigious Pasteur Institute in France, thermology has emerged as a proper science and reliable means of screening for breast disease. Thermology can provide the earliest detection of breast cancer and even pre-cancerous changes." (thermascan.com)
Some radiologists have resisted the use of thermology saying that it can give false positives, but thermology also indicates a diagnosis long before a mammogram. The false positives appear to be more of an early idication of what is there and science is still exploring that type of progress. The benefits of non-radiation detection has quickly become preferred among some women. Also, the fact that mammography also can give false positives lends to the fact that until further tests are done in both cases the exact etimology of the growth cannot be determined 100%. However, thermology has been extensively studied in New Zealand and according to one study, "Notably, two large University hospital based studies in the USA and Canada published in the past 5 years have validated breast thermal imaging as an adjunctive investigative procedure that can better differentiate between a benign and a malignant lesion. Thermal imaging is pure science. While still prone to misinterpretation by untrained clinicians, its diagnostic potential is unique. With respect to breast thermal imaging, a number of studies by researchers in different parts of the world using different technologies have all demonstrated the usefulness and clinical value of the procedure. Twenty years ago, in the United States, William Hobbins,(1) demonstrated in a sample of 37,050 patients, a yield of 56 cancers per 1,000 abnormal thermograms as compared to the 5.6 per 1,000 in the BCDDP studies utilizing mammography. A decade earlier, Gauthrie (2) using “primitive” thermography determined 73% correct diagnosis in 486 breast cancer patients. In worldwide retrospective studies, thermograms were positive in a minimum of 71% to a maximum of 93% in patients with breast cancer as reported by Nyirjesy (3). (Godfrey & Davies)
Another important point is made that, "neither thermography nor mammography detects cancer. Cancer can be suspected but the only proof comes from a subsequent positive biopsy or lumpectomy. Furthermore, altered physiology precedes anatomy i.e. physiological changes occur well before a tumour appears and these blood vessel changes and increased cellular activity can be detected with properly performed thermography sometimes years before a tumour can be found. This was inferred in Jan 2003 when a study in a U.S. journal of radiology involving 875 biopsies, compared preoperative thermographic diagnoses with mammography(4). Notably, Parisky is one of the foremost US radiologists and his 4 year study involved 5 institutions. In this study 78% of the biopsies were confirmed as benign i.e. mammographic false positives. Thermography identified 95% of them as benign. However, thermography only had a 24% positive predictability i.e. 76% of the suspicious ones were found to be benign on subsequent biopsy. This would initially appear as if this screening modality is very inaccurate. However, a different interpretation is required in that the thermal image can show abnormal changes long before an actual tumour can be detected and biopsied. In this regard, and according to some senior thermologists who have followed up these earlier patients with abnormal thermograms, they confirmed that a significant number of these so-called false positives subsequently did develop breast cancer in the suspect area". (Godfrey & Davies)
REFERENCES
Maybe it's not too late. Godfrey & Davies May 2006 retrieved from http://www.thermographynz.co.nz/about_us.html on June 15, 2008.
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Breast Cancer, a review and comments, J. Reproductive Medicine, 18/4;165-175
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evaluate mammographically suspicious lesions. Am. J. Roentgenology 2003:180;283-289.
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Keyserlingk, J. R. et al. (1998). Infrared imaging of the breast: Initial reappraisal using highresolution
digital technology in 100 successive cases of stage I and II breast cancer. Breast
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Code of Federal Regulations 21 sec. 884.2980
Kriege M. et al. (2004) Efficacy of MRI and mammography for breast cancer screening in
women with a familial or genetic predisposition. N.Engl.J.Med.351(5):497-500
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Quoted in Moss Report www.cancerdecisions.com also see:
www.umassmed.edu/pap/news/2004/11_25_04.cfm
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