Evaluation of Breast Thermography Images according to Ultrasound Reports and Temperature Pattern

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancers among women and researchers have been trying to examine it by various methods for several years. Different imaging methods have different precisions and accuracies, so choosing an appropriate imaging method, particularly for women with dense breast tissue, is very important. Since vascular structure and consequently regional temperature are different between cancerous and non-cancerous tissues, thermography imaging is able to diagnose cancer earlier than other methods. Methods: In this research, vascular pattern and symmetry is checked in thermography images. Also, a special protocol has been derived from up-to-date ones, and it has been tested on 113 objects which were classified into normal and abnormal groups. Ultrasound reports are used for evaluation. Since some of the ultrasound images were suspicious, the biopsy reports were used as more accurate criteria for assessment. Results: The results of this study have an acceptable accuracy and sensitivity which are 86% and 82%, respectively. Conclusion: Final evaluations in this study show that thermography is not only an inexpensive, painless and radiation-free imaging technique that is appropriate for all ages, but also, if it is conducted according to the mentioned protocol, it will yield good results.