Medical Aspects of Thermography

This chapter was written in 1976. Since then a national study has proved that thermography is not sufficiently sensitive as a screening procedure to detect small, particularly nonpalpable, breast carcinomas. Better discrimination among the various causes of venous heat asymmetry is needed. Asymmetry may be secondary to the depth of the vein under the skin or the size of the vein as well as due to a vein carrying blood of increased temperature. The latter group includes increased temperature secondary to inflammatory and neoplastic disease, which two causes might possibly be differentiated by circadian rhythm. Research efforts directed toward better discrimination of the thermographic signal, particularly quantitative discrimination, may well prove to be quite rewarding.