Authors: Parvis Gamagami, M.D., Melvin J. Silverstein, M.D., James R. Waisman, M.D. Abstract: In 1982, inspired by the notion of angiogenesis in experimentally transplanted cancer in animals showing that a small transplanted cancer could not "take" in the recipient organ unless tumor angiogenesis was established. We undertook a clinical research in 530 breast cancer patients who had previous mammography to see whether angiogenesis could be seen on mammography in early breast cancer and if so, could it have any impact on the detection of early breast cancer. Furthermore, we studied angiogenesis by infra-red imaging camera in a large number of symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, in 148 non-palpable cancers and in 20 inflammatory breast carcinomas. We found the following: 1. Angiogenesis was the first sign appearing on mammography before the appearance of image of breast cancer, predicting in 91 % of the cases which breast might develop breast carcinoma. This is an important finding in the detection of the early stages of breast cancer development. 2. Infra-red imaging goes hand in hand with mammography. Hypervascularity and hyperthermia could be shown in 86% of non-palpable breast cancer. In 15% it helped to detect the cancer upon an unsuspicious image on mammography. 3. Infra-red imaging was found to be the only test showing the efficiency of chemotherapy in inflammatory breast carcinoma. View Complete Text <a href="../downloads/InfraredImagingInBreastCancerGamagami1997.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.infraredmedicalsolutions.com/downloads/InfraredImagingInBreastCancerGamagami1997.pdf</a>

2009-04-29T22:06:16Z

Infrared Imaging In Breast Cancer

Published:

1997

we studied angiogenesis by infra-red imaging camera in a large number of symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, in 148 non-palpable cancers and in 20 inflammatory breast carcinomas.

2009-05-04T22:19:28Z

Authors: Deborah Kennedy, BSc (Hons), MBA, ND, Tanya Lee, BSc, and Dugald Seely, ND, MSc Abstract Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer of women in North America. The probability of developing breast cancer increases with age and the largest risk factors associated with its development, specifically age and gender, are not modifiable. Despite advances in treatment that have reduced breast cancer mortality over the past two decades, next to lung cancer, this disease still remains the second leading cause of cancer induced death in women. Several well established tools are currently used to screen for breast cancer including clinical breast exams, mammograms, and ultrasound. Mammography has been the gold standard for screening breast cancer, though as a screening tool its sensitivity and specificity are limited. Ultrasound and clinical breast exams are adjunctive tools used in the breast screening process, particularly for women with mammographically dense breasts. Thermography, first introduced as a breast screening tool in 1956 has been approved for use by the FDA since 1982 and was initially well accepted. However, after a 1977 study found thermography to lag behind both mammography and ultrasound, the medical community quickly lost interest in this tool and its application has been greatly limited. In this review, each of the breast screening tools and their associated limitations are discussed, with a focus brought to thermography. No single screening tool provides excellent predictability but a combination of tools that also incorporates thermography has been shown to boost both sensitivity and specificity. In light of developments in computer technology, and the maturation of the thermographic industry, additional research is required to confirm and/or continue to develop the potential of this technology to provide a more effective noninvasive adjunctive tool to provide early detection of breast cancer. View Complete Text <a href="../downloads/review-of-thermography-as-breast-screening-technique.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.infraredmedicalsolutions.com/downloads/ComparativeReviewThermographyBreastScreening12-06-32.pdf</a>

2009-04-29T21:38:29Z

A Comparative Review of Thermography as a Breast Screening Technique

Published: Integrative Cancer Therapies

2009

In this review, each of the breast screening tools and their associated limitations are discussed, with a focus brought to thermography

2009-04-29T21:39:53Z

Authors: Harold H. Szu, Charles Hsu, Philip Hoekstra, Jerry Beeney, a George Washington Univ. Wash DC and Army NVESD, Ft. Belvoir VA 22060. b Trident Systems Inc., Fairfax Virginia 22030;cTherma-Scan Inc. Birmingham, MI; eFLIR, Boston MA Abstract Biomedical Wellness (BMW) surveillance system may become indispensible in public health riding on four confluent trends: (i) The surge of retirement waves of WWII baby boomers; (ii) The longevity of the seniors, thanks to 3 decades steady NIH budgets~$23B per year; (iii) The economic melting down is exasperating resources for entitlements; (iv) The emergent Next Gen Internet having the last mile challenges solved entirely and friendly with IT wired and wireless delivery system, thanks to DoD/DARPA pioneer and numerous entrepreneurs visionary efforts. To be effective in job re-creation in current economic slag, BMW needs a jump start, WH/HHS should establish a balanced investment policy in health care, not just to illness but to wellness, and a BMW blue ribbon panel (BMWbrp), which must be, however, independent of NIHbrp, recommending additional resources, say $5B budget for BMW infrastructure building that will surely create new jobs to prepare badly needed geriatric caretakers.  Being governmental investment, the BMWbrp must come back with an upward-conversion compatible infrastructure Blue-Print, version#1, an open architecture of standard interfaces, workable with distributed data bases and programming languages. The infrastructure must be simple, transparent, scalable, to leverage with a win-win-win (senior) CRADA from the private investments worldwide, e.g. from the insurance companies and home security companies, etc. that can further attract senior community center BOT.  To start whenever the rubber meets the road, we shall enlist the military infrastructure, their sensors suite located in DoD & DHS labs supported with their affiliated contractors and universities.  However, the down selections should be done under open bids, oversight by BMWbrp, under HHS $5B budget, to translate their sophisticated military persistent and precision surveillance know-how technology to watch out, no longer the enemy of USA but also, the enemy of mankind, the malicious microorganisms and disorders. The degree of friendliness must be demanded and measured by the standoff methodology such as 4 nones: noninvasive, noncontact, and none-stop-to-measure, in this order. Since the regulatory red tapes are historically targeted primarily at drug treatment of disease analysis in three phases progressions, there is no category or direct regulation rules for BMW investigations. Avoiding legal complication, one may wish to collaborate initially with the Far East as AFOSR/AOARD did well with their category IRB/PCF rules, because the BMW is a BMW, no matter where and who there are seniors. To facilitate this purpose, one may create BMW phase zero feasibility study worldwide, say as an earmark of US annul contribution to WHO, which would be a Middle East peace dividend for a global village Marshall Plan. All PI’s and inventors worldwide can test their own gadgets in these and other federal labs to serve three parties well, at least in one of the following resolution scales:  (i) the users (seniors of a family, a large community retirement or senior center, Desert Storm return PDS veterans, etc) to be monitored; (ii) the caretakers including home visit aids, nurses and physicians, and (iii) the nerve center including PC and/or data bases, and 6W searching engine with 3W hub linked to US CDC, UN WHO in all regions on Earth.   Thus, a smart daily user-friendly screening and diagnostics is ideal to read, analyze and tabulate both physiological and mental wellness signs in a household PC hub.  We illustrate such an end unit of the smart BMW sensor web, in order to capture early malign tumors by means of a doublet of two commercial FLIR cameras, emulating the Army one cryogenic camera for two passive infrared spectral bands called the 3rd Gen FLIR. The twin FLIR cameras must first solve, not without errors, the 3D-subject 2D-projection correspondence challenge, and then the pair spectral vector per pixel becomes amenable to a patented unsupervised, and thus un-cohort-bias, smart learning algorithm called the Blind Sources (malign vs. benign) Separation (BSS). To entice the cost-reduction of the 3rd Gen FLIR camera development, besides the current modest success of breast cancer watcher, we need join force in dual usages, namely watching noninvasively over potential skin cancers of return sun-over-exposure soldiers, and watching covertly the distant biometric surveillance by a passive facial vein map against terrorist attack.View Complete Text <a href="../downloads/BioMedicalWellnessStandoffScreeningByUnsupervisedLearning.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.infraredmedicalsolutions.com/downloads/BioMedicalWellnessStandoffScreeningByUnsupervisedLearning.pdf</a>

2009-04-29T18:04:43Z

Biomedical Wellness Standoff Screening by Unsupervised Learning

Biomedical Wellness (BMW) surveillance system may become indispensible in public health

2009-04-29T21:39:36Z

Authors: Y. R. Parisky, A. Sardi, R. Hamm, K. Hughes, L. Esserman, S. Rust and K. Callahan Abstract Objective: The purpose of this clinical trial was to determine the efficacy of a dynamic computerized Infrared imaging system for distinguishing between benign and malignant lesions in patients undergoing biopsy on the basis of X-Ray Mammographic findings. Subjects and Methods: A 4-year clinical trial was conducted at five institutions using Infrared imaging of patients for whom breast biopsy had been recommended. The data from a blinded subject set were obtained in 769 subjects with 875 biopsied lesions resulting in 187 malignant and 688 benign findings. The Infrared technique records a series of sequential images that provides an assessment of the Infrared information in an X-Ray Mammographically identified area. The suspicious area is localized on the Infrared image by the radiologist using X-Ray Mammograms, and an index of suspicion is determined, yielding a negative or positive result. Results: In the 875 biopsied lesions, the index of suspicion resulted in a 97% sensitivity, a 14% specificity, a 95% negative predictive value, and a 24% positive predictive value. Lesions that were assessed as false-negative by Infrared analysis were microcalcifications, so an additional analysis was performed in a subset excluding lesions described only as microcalcification. In this restricted subset of 448 subjects with 479 lesions and 110 malignancies, the index of suspicion resulted in a 99% sensitivity, an 18% specificity, a 99% negative predictive value, and a 27% positive predictive value. Analysis of Infrared imaging performance in all 875 biopsied lesions revealed that specificity was statistically improved in dense breast tissue compared with fatty breast tissue. Conclusion: Infrared Mammography offers a safe noninvasive procedure that would be valuable as an adjunct to X-Ray Mammography in determining whether a lesion is benign or malignant. View Complete Text <a href="../downloads/ajr_biopsy_prediction2003.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.infraredmedicalsolutions.com/downloads/ajr_biopsy_prediction2003.pdf</a>

2009-04-23T21:01:37Z

Efficacy of Computerized Infrared Imaging Analysis to Evaluate Mammographically Suspicious Lesions

Published: American Journal of Radiology

2003

The purpose of this clinical trial was to determine the efficacy of a dynamic computerized Infrared imaging system for distinguishing between benign and malignant lesions in patients undergoing biopsy on the basis of X-Ray Mammographic findings

2009-04-29T21:39:18Z

Authors: Nimmi Arora, M.D., Diana Martins, B.S., Danielle Ruggerio, B.S., Eleni Tousimis, M.D., Alexander J. Swistel, M.D., Michael P. Osborne, M.D., Rache M. Simmons, M.D. Abstract Background; Infrared Mammography has resurfaced in this era of modernized computer technology. Its role in the detection of Breast Cancer is evaluated. Methods; In this prospective clinical trial, 92 patients for whom a breast biopsy was recommended based on prior X-Ray Mammogram or Ultrasound underwent Infrared Mammography. Three scores were generated: an overall risk score in the screening mode, a clinical score based on patient information, and a third assessment by artificial neural network. Results; Sixty of 94 biopsies were malignant and 34 were benign. Infrared Mammography identified 58 of 60 malignancies, with 97% sensitivity, 44% specificity, and 82% negative predictive value depending on the mode used. Compared to an overall risk score of 0, a score of 3 or greater was significantly more likely to be associated with malignancy (30% vs 90%, P < .03). Conclusion; Infrared Mammography is a valuable adjunct to X-ray mammography and ultrasound, especially in women with dense breast parenchyma. View Complete Text <a href="../downloads/DetectionOfBreastCancer.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.infraredmedicalsolutions.com/downloads/DetectionOfBreastCancer.pdf</a>

2009-04-23T20:57:12Z

Effectiveness of a non-invasive Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging System in the detection of Breast Cancer

Published: The American Journal of Surgery Volume 196, Issue 4, Pages 523-526

2008

Infrared Mammography has resurfaced in this era of modernized computer technology

2009-04-23T20:57:12Z

Authors: Head, J.F. Lipari, C.A. Fen Wang Davidson, J.E. Elliott, R.L. Med. Thermal Diagnostics, LBTC, Baton Rouge, LA; Abstract Infrared imaging of the breast for breast cancer risk assessment with a second generation focal plane staring array system was found to produce images superior to a first generation scanning system. The second generation system had greater thermal sensitivity, more elements in the image and greater dynamic range, which resulted in a greater ability to demonstrate asymmetric heat patterns in the breasts of women being screened for breast cancer. The improved imaging of the second generation infrared system allowed more objective and quantitative visual analysis, compared to the very subjective qualitative results of the first generation infrared system. The greater sensitivity and resolution of the digitized images of the second generation infrared system also allowed image analysis of total breasts, breast quadrants and hot spots to produce mean, standard deviation, median, minimum and maximum temperatures. View Complete Text <a href="../downloads/application_of_infrared_imaging.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.infraredmedicalsolutions.com/downloads/application_of_infrared_imaging.pdf</a>

2009-04-23T20:50:06Z

Application of second generation infrared imaging with computerized image analysis to breast cancer risk assessment

Published:

2002

Infrared imaging of the breast for breast cancer risk assessment with a second generation focal plane staring array system was found to produce images superior to a first generation scanning system

2009-04-23T20:50:06Z

Authors: Head, J.F. Elliott, R.L. Mastology Res. Inst., Elliott-Hailey-Head Breast Cancer Res. & Treatment Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA; Abstract Discusses past, present, and future applications of infrared imaging in medicine. The topics mentioned include: breast cancer; helmet-mounted infrared for battlefield medical application; burns; image analysis and algorithm development. View Complete Text <a href="../downloads/infrared_imaging.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.infraredmedicalsolutions.com/downloads/infrared_imaging.pdf</a>

2009-04-23T20:47:57Z

Infrared Imaging: making progress in fulfilling its medical promise

Published:

2002

Discusses past, present, and future applications of infrared imaging in medicine

2009-04-23T20:47:57Z

Authors: Hairong Qi Head, J.F. Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Tennessee Univ., Knoxville, TN; Abstract Thermal infrared imaging has shown effective results as a diagnostic tool in breast cancer detection. It can be used as a complementary to traditional mammography. Asymmetry analysis are usually used to help detect abnormalities. However, in infrared imaging, this cannot be done without human interference. This paper proposes an automatic approach to asymmetry analysis in thermograms. It includes automatic segmentation and pattern classification. Hough transform is used to extract the four feature curves that can uniquely segment the left and right breasts. The feature curves include the left and the right body boundary curves, and the two parabolic curves indicating the lower boundaries of the breasts. Upon segmentation, unsupervised learning technique is applied to classify each segmented pixel into certain number of clusters. Asymmetric abnormalities can then be identified based on pixel distribution within the same cluster. Both segmentation and classification results are shown on images captured from Elliott Mastology Center. View Complete Text <a href="http://aicip.ece.utk.edu/publication/01ir.pdf" target="_blank">http://aicip.ece.utk.edu/publication/01ir.pdf</a>

2009-04-23T20:45:07Z

Asymmetry analysis using automatic segmentation and classification for breast cancer detection in thermograms

Published:

2001

Thermal infrared imaging has shown effective results as a diagnostic tool in breast cancer detection

2009-04-23T20:45:07Z

Authors: Hairong Qi , Nicholas A. Diakides Abstract This article discusses some new developments in medical thermography, including the new-generation infrared technologies, the smart image processing algorithms, and the pathophysiological-based understanding of infrared images. These developments have largely advanced the role of thermography in health monitoring and examination, as well as in assisting diagnosis. View Complete Text <a href="http://aicip.ece.utk.edu/publication/06thermography.pdf" target="_blank">http://aicip.ece.utk.edu/publication/06thermography.pdf</a>

2009-04-23T20:40:38Z

Infrared Imaging in Medicine

Published:

2006

This article discusses some new developments in medical thermography

2009-04-23T20:40:38Z

Authors: Arena, F. Barone, C. DiCicco, T. Arena Oncology Associates, Great Neck, New York, NY, USA; Abstract Infrared imaging of the breast has been primarily hampered by the many factors inherent in its technology. With the use of computer automated digital infrared technology, problems with subjectivity, reproducibility and spatial localization have been eliminated. The digital infrared imaging (DII) discussed herein has 99% detection sensitivity in a study of 109 tissue proven cases of breast cancer. Its sensitivity has been successfully demonstrated in lesions as small as 4 mm. Additionally, DII, can now be used in the clinical monitoring of localized breast cancer to access therapeutic response. In conjunction with mammography and ultrasound, DII can be utilized in the early detection of breast cancer. View Complete Text <a href="http://www.infraredsciences.com/pdf/IEEE%20Biomedical%20Imag.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.infraredsciences.com/pdf/IEEE%20Biomedical%20Imag.pdf</a>

2009-04-23T20:38:28Z

Use of digital infrared imaging in enhanced breast cancer detection and monitoring of the clinical response to treatment

Published:

2003

Infrared imaging of the breast has been primarily hampered by the many factors inherent in its technology

2009-04-23T20:38:28Z

Authors: Head, J.F. Wang, F. Lipari, C.A. Elliott, R.L. Med. Thermal Diagnostics, Baton Rouge, LA; Abstract The results reported support the use of IR imaging in risk assessment, detection, and as a prognostic indicator. We present preliminary evidence showing that the improvements in technology that have been incorporated into second-generation, focal-plane, indium-antimonide detector systems can significantly improve breast IR images. View Complete Text <a href="http://www.iamtonline.org/breastcancer.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.iamtonline.org/breastcancer.pdf</a>

2009-04-23T19:33:04Z

The important role of infrared imaging in breast cancer

Published:

2000

The results reported support the use of IR imaging in risk assessment, detection, and as a prognostic indicator.

2009-04-23T19:33:04Z