Thermography v Mammogram

Is thermography as good as mammography?  What’s an alternative to a mammogram? Are mammograms bad for you? What is the most accurate test for breast cancer? What Is Thermography Testing? How accurate is Thermography? Do breast implants affect mammograms?  are the same.

Thermography, DITI, IRT or Thermal Imaging explained by Pauline Rose, Clinical Director, Complementary Ecological Medicine, NSW Australia.

Video 1

• Is thermography as good as mammography?   So the goal of thermography is to measure the temperature variations that a biological process might cause, using light; whereas the goal of mammography is to measure what is physically apparent using X-rays.
• What is the most accurate test for breast cancer?
• Women especially ask What is an alternative to a mammogram? Why? Should you not get a mammogram?
• You refer women for anatomical screening, meaning mammograms, when that is needed. However as mammography is better suited for women over 50, shouldn’t thermography be top priority for younger women, especially when they now appear to be suffering from breast cancer? As it measures a finely tuned biological function and records it over time, wouldn’t it register any anomalies quite early? 
• Do breast implants affect mammograms? 
• Why an ultrasound, not mammogram?  
• Are there any exceptions to a normal breast thermography session?  
• Does thermography help with fibrocystic breast tissue?
• Do you ever advise against thermography screening?
•  How long can you have breast cancer without knowing?
• And I imagine you discover lumps that people have been unaware they had? 
• Would you recommend thermography for women who are in menopause? What about post-menopausal women?
• Pauline you’ve said you refer patients for mammograms when necessary, yet I’ve read numerous studies including one conducted by researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and other institutions in Europe and the US urging caution.  The study suggests that there’s a  risk of breast cancer if, before the age of 30, certain women are exposed to even low doses of radiation used in diagnosis. The researchers call for diagnostic imaging techniques that do not involve radiation to be considered in higher risk women. What’s your view on this?

• Mammography was thoroughly investigated with results published in the Cochrane Report and that’s readily available and I would hope read by any patient or practitioner. Has that information affected how we use mammograms?
• What do the colours mean in thermography?   

Video 2  – includes a thermography session.

What Is Thermography Testing | What do you do and what should you expect

What Is Thermography Testing? What do you do and what should you expect. What is infrared thermography used for? Can thermography detect inflammation? What do the colours mean in thermography? What can full body thermography detect? What are the benefits of thermography? Is thermography reliable? Is thermography for men? What cancers can thermography detect? How safe is thermography? So many questions from you about thermography! What do you do to get answers?  

• What is thermography testing?
• What is Infrared Thermography used for?
• Can thermography detect inflammation?
• What do the colours mean in thermography?
• What can full body thermography detect?
• So would it be wasteful if I didn’t need a full body thermogram?
• Is IR and Thermal the same?
• What are the benefits of thermography?
• Is Thermography reliable?
• Is thermography just for women?
• Any symptom common to men you’ve seen that prompted you to advise them to have a thermograph?  That sounds about right!
• What cancers can thermography detect?
• Pauline, is anything injected in a thermography? Is radiation or X-Rays involved? Will anything affect the DNA or future offspring’s DNA?  So it’s only a photograph being taken?
• Therefore it’s absolutely ‘non-invasive’.
• Is there an age limit for thermography?
•  How young can you have a thermogram?
• Having said that, let’s have a look at a Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging or DITI, Infrared Thermography or IRT, Thermal imaging or thermography session, as it’s all the same thing. Pauline now has her patient in her rooms so let’s observe. Thanks Pauline, over to you.
• Thermography Session demonstration video.

Video 3

How Accurate Is Thermography | What do you do to know what is thermography

How accurate is Thermography? What do you do to know what is thermography?  What is the principle of thermography? Who performs thermography? What do the colours mean in thermography? Can thermography detect heart disease? What cancers does thermography detect? What do you do to find out?

• How accurate is thermography, say when   screening the breast?
• What is the principle of thermography?
• What do the colours mean in thermography?
• So those thermography colours mean a lot. So in effect, any air traveller who’s flown into a reasonable sized airport in the last 10 years will have had a thermography scan even though they weren’t aware of it.
• Do you use the same thermography machines as airports?   Same manufacturer? Anything different at all?
• Who performs thermography?
• What cancers does thermography detect?
• Can you have breast cancer without any symptoms?
• Can thermography detect heart disease? Yes please Pauline and maybe a few other men watching also.  So actually you pretty much saved his life.
• Thanks for qualifying how accurate is thermography and I’ll come back with the last set of questions the fourth video showing what do you do. 

Video 4

Thermography Near Me | What do you do to find Breast Thermography in Australia

Thermography near me. What do you do to find breast thermography in Australia? How do I prepare for thermography?    What is thermography maintenance? Where do the thermography images go? Does health insurance cover thermography? What do you do to know?

• How do I find thermography near me?   That includes Australia?
• Are there many approved thermology clinics?
• Is Thermography in regional Australia?
• How do I prepare for thermography?
• Can I eat before thermography?
• What is thermography maintenance?
• Who analyses the thermogram images?   
• Where do the thermography images go?
• So, what would you advise a good physician who wants to become a thermographer?
• Does health insurance cover thermography?
• Are you aware of any safety issues with the machines themselves?

Medical references cited up to and including September 2020:

Lancet August 2020: Final results of the UK Age trial on breast cancer screening age. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(20)30428-9/fulltext?rss=yes

BRCA Gene

https://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e5660

Abolishing Mammography screening programs: Switzerland 2014

Link: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1401875?

Cochrane Report 2013

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD001877.pub5/full

Cochrane Review (Overdiagnosis) 2018 https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD013076/full

Cochrane Report

Alan Cassels is a pharmaceutical policy researcher at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, a journalist, and author of The Cochrane Collaboration: Medicine’s Best-Kept Secret.

Breast Implants 

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/breast-cancer/screening-tests-and-early-detection/mammograms/mammograms-for-women-with-breast-implants.html

Breast Density 

https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/cancer-articles/breast-density-notification-laws-could-affect-millions

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2733521

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-019-05026-2

http://www.cancerscreening.gov.au/internet/screening/publishing.nsf/Content/0C586AE66702F52DCA258367001498DA/$File/Breast%20Density%20-%20A%20literature%20review.pdf

Mammography Screening Reviews

https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2017/01/one-key-detail-youre-unlikely-to-see-in-news-stories-about-mammography-screening-guidelines/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3225414/

https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/news/target.cfm?id=401  

https://kresserinstitute.com/the-downside-of-mammograms/

Breast Cancer

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3225421/

Accredited Thermography Clinics

http://www.thermologyonline.org/Breast/breast_thermography_clinics.htm