The Difference Between Mammography and Thermography By April Beaman, RDH, CTT
mammography and thermography?” “Is thermography better than mammography?” “Does it replace mammography?” There’s often confusion on this subject, by thinking one replaces the other. Nothing could be further from the truth! One could say com- paring these two breast screening tools is like comparing apples to oranges. Let’s dive a little deeper, first looking at the differences between the two.
A
Mammography Mammography is an X-ray that utilizes
ionizing radiation to image the internal structure of the breast. During a mam- mogram, the breasts are positioned and compressed between two plates. Two X-ray images are taken of each breast, one from the top and one from the side. A mam-
18 Natural Nutmeg - January/February 2021
s a Medical Thermographer, I’m asked these several questions repeat- edly, “What’s the difference between
mogram is a structural test, its purpose is to detect a change of the anatomy within the breast, for example a mass or tumor. A radiologist studies the X-ray images to look for abnormalities, specifically densities and calcifications.
Thermography
Thermography is a pictorial representa- tion of the heat emissions of the breasts. Think of a thermogram as a map that depicts heat, thermal patterns and tem- perature variations on the surface of body, which is represented by colors. Thermog- raphy utilizes a specialized infrared camera that does not touch or emit any radiation to the body. Because Thermography does not use compression, the entire chest including the breasts and axillary regions (armpit) are imaged. There’s a total of 6-8 images taken of all views of the chest and breast area in a series. A thermogram is a functional test,
its purpose is to detect physiological activ- ity of the breast tissue, for example, heat. A thermologist studies the thermal images to look for abnormalities, specifically un- even temperature variations and irregular vascular patterns.
Comparing Apples to Oranges Mammography is a test of structure
(anatomy) and can locate a mass or a tumor that already exists within the breast. It can also locate something that looks like a tumor that is most likely harmless. None the less, this usually leads to addi- tional mammograms or worse, unnecessary biopsies and treatment. Because Breast Thermography is a test of function (physiol- ogy) it cannot detect the exact location of a tumor, it detects heat and inflammation. It’s known that inflammation is the root cause of many diseases, including cancer. A find-
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