breast thermography

Thermography is new to most people, especially for the application of breast health evaluation. Thermography has been used for over forty years in both the medical and industrial professions.

With industrial applications, fire fighters use thermography to detect heat behind walls; building inspectors can determine if heat is escaping through cracks in the wall. Veterinarians have used thermography on horses looking for inflammation from broken bones. And airport and government officials used thermography to detect if someone had a fever as they walked through the scanner during the swine flu pandemic in 2009.

What is Thermography?

Thermography is also known as Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI). Simply defined, thermography is the detection of heat. A thermography technician manipulates the cameras computer to view the breast. The computer displays blue as cold and red as hot. Yellow and green represent temperatures in between hot and cold. Once she has the correct variance of temperature, she snaps the picture.

Both breasts should have approximately the same temperature and therefore same color. Variations in color or unequal distribution of color must be interpreted by a medical doctor specially trained in reading thermographic images. Not all variation in color is a reason for concern.