Determination of mean temperatures of normal whole breast and breast quadrants by infrared imaging and image analysis

In clinical testing it is standard to determine the normal ranged and then to determine if a test can differentiate normal from diseased patients. Now with the advent of uncooled staring array digital infrared imaging systems (Prism 2000; Bioyear Group, Houston, TX) and image analysis, numerical results (mean temperatures of the whole breast and quadrants of the breast) can be used to determine the normal range and cutoff temperatures for risk assessment and detection of breast cancer. In this study we determined mean temperatures of whole breast and breast quadrants of women being screened for breast cancer. The mean temperatures for the right breast, left breast, right upper outer quadrant (UOQ), left UOQ, right upper inner quadrant (UIQ), left UIQ, right lower outer quadrant (LOQ), left LOQ, right lower inner quadrant (LIQ), and left LIQ were 32.79, 32.65, 32.60, 32.46, 32.91, 32.69, 32.28, 32.12, 33.29, and 33.00°C, respectively. Temperature differences were calculated between the right and left breasts and quadrants, and temperature differences greater than 0.5°C for whole breasts and 1.00°C for breast quadrants were considered asymmetric and abnormal. This resulted in 4 (17%) patients with differences in whole breast temperatures and 3 (13%) patients with quadrant differences from the 23 screened patients. These results are consistent with our previous results with both objective image analysis and subjective visual analysis (15% of screened patients have asymmetric breast infrared patterns). Further objective infrared measurements in breast cancer patients are needed to determine the sensitivity and specificity of this objective method for risk assessment and detection of breast cancer.