Excerpted from The American Journal of Surgery (2008) 196, 523–526
Infrared thermography has been in use in medical diagnostics since the 1960s, and in 1982 was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an adjunctive tool for the diagnosis of breast cancer. Its applicability, however, was limited by the temperature resolution capability of earlier imaging technology, the bulky equipment necessary to perform procedures, and the general lack of computer analytical tools. Since then, major advances have been made in infrared thermal imaging technology.
Now, DITI has the capability of making significant impact in medicine.
Results
The study consisted of 94 biopsies in 92 female patients with an average age of 51 years (range 23– 85). Of the 94 breast lesions, 60 were malignant (including 2 with lobular carcinoma in situ, since these tumors are considered stage 0) and 34 were benign on biopsy. As seen in Table 1, the majority of malignancies were infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IFDC). The median size of invasive tumors was 1.4 cm, with a range of .5–14 cm. Of 60 malignancies identified on biopsy, the SBS identified 58 correctly on both the screening mode and using ANN, and 54 of 60 using the clinical mode.
Conclusion
In this prospective clinical trial of 92 women undergoing DITI with suspicious breast lesions identified on prior mammogram or ultrasound, we have shown that the SBS can detect breast pathology with sensitivity up to 97% and a negative predictive value of 82%. DITI is painless, noninvasive, does not emit harmful radiation, has no patient risk, provides immediate results, and is relatively inexpensive.
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