Thermograms vs. Mammograms: Which is Better for Breast Health?
By Ingrid LeVasseur, BA, CCT
ferent as night and day. That leads to scant opportunity for comparison, or substitution, for that matter.
W
Anatomy vs. Physiology For starters, no screening is 100%
effective. Thermography and mammography have completely different roles in monitor- ing breast health and they do this through vastly different technologies.
Mammograms reveal structures such as lumps or calcifi cations, (i.e. anatomy). Unfortunately, according to the American Cancer Society, one out of 5 breast cancers are missed by the mammogram screening. Mammograms use compression (measured at approximately 4 pounds per square inch) to spread the breast tissue over the imaging plate in order to separate tissue and better see any lumps or calcifi cations. During this compression of the breast, x-ray images are taken of the breast. This technology is not particularly effective for women with dense breast tissue; more on this in a moment.
Thermograms indicate metabolic ac-
tivity; something new in the developmen- tal process, (i.e. physiology). As a result, thermography can screen for early stages
16 ELM® Maine - September/October 2019
hat is better for your breast health, mammograms or thermograms? The two technologies are as dif-
of breast disease; the stages where some- thing may be in the process of becoming. Thermography is a screening tool that is highly sensitive to subtle differences in skin surface temperature. Unlike most screening modalities, thermography is non-invasive. It uses no radiation, injec- tions or compression to achieve its images. It is less reliable for later stage imaging, when a lump is already palpated by the patient or provider.
The Principle of Thermography Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI),
better known as thermography or thermal imaging, is based on the principle that blood vessel activity in both pre-diseased tissue and its surrounding area is almost always higher than in healthy breast tissue. Lumps or masses in a pre-diseased state are highly metabolic entities which need a blood supply to maintain growth. They increase circulation to these diseased cells and create a new blood supply called neovascularity. The result of this process is an increase in the skin surface temperature at the affected site. This neovascularity only occurs during the early stages of the disease process. State-of-the-art breast thermogra- phy uses ultra-sensitive infrared cameras and sophisticated computers to detect, ana- lyze, and produce high-resolution images of these temperature and vascular changes.
Breasts are like snowfl akes,
no two are alike I often say, “Breasts are like snow-
fl akes, no two are alike.” For instance, some breasts are dense (small amounts of fatty tissue present) and others are low density indicating the presence of more fat com- pared to breast tissue.
Breast density becomes a limiting fac-
tor when using a mammogram for screen- ing. Dense breast tissue can actually hide cancer on a mammogram. Not only that, women with dense breasts may be at an increased risk of 4-6 times when com- pared to women with fatty breast tissue. Unfortunately, 35% of breast cancer can go undetected in women with dense breast tissue. Why is it that fatty breasts are more accurately screened by mammography than dense breasts? Both dense tissue and lumps appear white on a mammogram.
Surely you’ve heard the saying: it’s like
fi nding a snowball in a snowstorm. It’s hard to see white anomalies when they are on a white background. Fatty tissue appears dark on a mammogram so the whiteness of a lump is more easily assessed with the
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