Thermography as an Economical Alternative Modality to Mammography for Early Detection of Breast Cancer

Advances in far-infrared research: therapeutic mechanisms of disease and application in cancer detection

Far infrared (FIR) irradiation is commonly used as a convenient, non-contact, non-invasive treatment for diseases such as myocardial ischemia, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease. In this review, we focus on reviewing the potential therapeutic mechanisms of FIR and its cutting-edge applications in cancer detection. Firstly, we searched the relevant literature in the last decade for systematic screening and briefly summarized the biophysical properties of FIR. We then focused on the possible mechanisms of FIR in wound healing, cardiovascular diseases, and other chronic diseases. In addition, we review recent applications of FIR in cancer detection, where Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and infrared thermography provide additional diagnostic methods for the medical diagnosis of cancer. Finally, we conclude and look into the future development of FIR for disease treatment and cancer detection. As a high-frequency non-ionizing wave, FIR has the advantages of safety, convenience, and low cost. We hope that this review can provide biological information reference and relevant data support for those who are interested in FIR and related high-frequency non-ionizing waves, to promote the further application of FIR in the biomedical field.

Joint Response to Exercise Is Affected by Knee Osteoarthritis: An Infrared Thermography Analysis

Infrared thermography can be used to evaluate the inflammation characterizing the joint environment of OA knees, but there is limited evidence on the response to physical exercise. Identifying the response to exercise of OA knees and the influencing variables could provide important information to better profile patients with different knee OA patterns. Sixty consecutive patients (38 men/22 women, 61.4 ± 9.2 years) with symptomatic knee OA were enrolled. Patients were evaluated with a standardized protocol using a thermographic camera (FLIR-T1020) positioned at 1 m with image acquisition of an anterior view at baseline, immediately after, and at 5 min after a 2-min knee flexion-extension exercise with a 2 kg anklet. Patients' demographic and clinical characteristics were documented and correlated with the thermographic changes. This study demonstrated that the temperature response to exercise in symptomatic knee OA was affected by some demographic and clinical characteristics of the assessed patients. Patients with a poor clinical knee status presented with a lower response to exercise, and women showed a greater temperature decrease than men. Not all evaluated ROIs showed the same trend, which underlines the need to specifically study the different joint subareas to identify the inflammatory component and joint response while investigating knee OA patterns.

Three-dimensional numerical evaluation of skin surface thermal contrast by application of hypothermia at different depths and sizes of the breast tumor

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Thermal procedures can provide improvements in the thermal contrast of thermographic images in an attempt to diagnose early cases of breast cancer. This work aims to analyze the thermal contrast of different stages and depths of breast tumors from hypothermia treatment using an active thermography analysis. The influence of variation in metabolic heat generation and adipose tissue composition on thermal contrasts is also analyzed.

METHODS

The proposed methodology was based on the solution of the Pennes equation for a three-dimensional model similar to the real anatomy of the breast by commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics. The thermal procedure consists of three steps: Stationary, hypothermia and thermal recovery. During hypothermia, the boundary condition of the external surface was replaced by a constant temperature of 0, 5, 10, and 15 ^∘C, simulating a gel pack, for cooling times of up to 20 min. In the thermal recovery, after the removal of the cooling, the breast was submitted again to the condition of natural convection on the external surface.

RESULTS

Thermal contrasts in superficial tumors, for all hypothermia resulted in improvements in thermographs. For smallest tumor, the use of high resolution and sensitive thermal imaging cameras to acquire this thermal change may be necessary. For tumor of diameter of 10 cm, cooling from 0 ^∘C can increase the thermal contrast by up to 136% compared to the passive thermography. Analyzes with deeper tumors showed very small temperature variations. Even so, the thermal contrast gain in cooling at 0 ^∘C for the tumor with a diameter of 1 cm reached 37% in relation to passive thermography.

CONCLUSIONS

Thus, this work contributes as an important tool in the analysis of the appropriate use of hypothermia for different cases in early stages of breast cancer, considering that long times are needed to obtain the best thermal contrast.

Thermography as a Breast Cancer Screening Technique: A Review Article

Globally, breast cancer is the most frequently occurring cancer in women and is the reason for more disability-adjusted life years lost than any other type of cancer. Hence, early screening plays a vital role in reducing breast cancer mortality. Although mammography is the standard procedure used for screening and diagnosis of breast cancer, it still has some limitations. Other methods used for screening include ultrasound and clinical breast examination. Despite its limitations, mammography is the gold standard for screening breast malignancy. Another emerging method for screening is thermography. With recent technological advances, breast cancer screening through thermography has demonstrated several advantages over existing modalities. For this review, a literature search was performed using databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect. The keywords searched included breast cancer, early detection, breast cancer screening, mammography, and thermography. This review discusses the benefits of thermography showing that it can be a significant modality for breast cancer screening. The recent developments in thermal sensors, imaging protocols, and computer-aided software diagnostics hold great promise for making this technique a mainstream screening method for cancer. Moreover, the use of artificial intelligence and thermal imaging to detect early-stage breast cancer can provide impressive results. Therefore, thermography will be a promising technology for the early detection of breast cancer.