New Frontiers in Breast Cancer Detection American Fitness, September - October 2003 The most exciting, yet overlooked, diagnostic procedure of this century is Contact Regulation Thermography (CRT), otherwise simply termed thermography. Dr. Ali Meschi is a board-certified naturopathic physician at the forefront of this technique. "Thermography is a non-invasive, objective [and] non-radiative tool that uses [body heat] to diagnose the causes of a host of health conditions," he explains. Because it uses no radiation, it is completely safe. Utilizing high speed computers and very accurate thermal imaging cameras, body heat is processed, recorded and translated by a computer. The image map it produces can then be analyzed on screen, printed or sent via e-mail. During the thermography procedure 112 electrodes are placed on the patient's body to acquire temperature readings. Two different readings are taken. First, the patient sits in a fairly cool, but not uncomfortable, room for 10 minutes. Then, the first temperature readings of the face/head, teeth and neck are taken by gently touching the body part's surface with the probe. The patient is then asked to remove her clothes from the waist up to create "cold stress" at about 68 degrees Farenheit and complete the first reading of the 112 data points. Then, the patient stands in her underwear another 10 minutes. After this period, the second reading of the data points is taken and the test is concluded. Doctors use the image map acquired from these readings to determine if abnormal hot or cold areas are present. These hot and cold areas can relate to a number of conditions for which the FDA, Bureau of Medical Devices, has approved the thermography procedure. These include screening for breast cancer, extra-cranial vessel disease (head and neck vessels), neuro-musculo-skeletal disorders and vascular disease of the lower extremities. In the past decade, a number of advancements have brought thermal imaging to the diagnosis forefront. Nonetheless, the utilization of thermography as a breast cancer screening tool has been a very controversial topic within the health care community for the past decade. However, the technology has gained scientific acceptance, been approved for screening purposes and is clearly a powerful tool in early breast cancer detection. "The concept is quite simple," Meschi reveals. "Thermography measures the heat from one's body. Metastatic cancers create heat, which can be imaged by digital infrared imaging. This is due to the metabolic activity of the tumor tissue as compared with the temperature of tissue adjacent to the tumor and in the opposite breast. By comparing the breast in question with the normal breast, which acts as the patient's own control, abnormal heat signatures associated with the metabolism of the tumor can be easily detected." Cancer tumors produce a chemical which promotes the development of blood vessels supplying the area where the tumor resides. Also, normal blood vessels under the control of the sympathetic nervous system are essentially paralyzed, causing an increase in blood vessel size. The blood increase in the region simply means more heat. Since "thermal imaging has demonstrated in numerous studies to be capable of measuring these heat signatures years before conventional technologies can see a mass, the procedure uses no radiation, compression of breast tissue and is totally safe, thermography or DITI/CRT provides a safe early warning detection system," Meschi adds. A monthly self-exam, annual physician exam, yearly thermal imaging and mammography, when indicated, increase the effectiveness of early detection to greater than 95 percent. Once a suspicious (positive) breast thermal exam is found, the appropriate follow-up with mammography and other clinical laboratory procedures would be ordered. With this protocol, cancer will be detected at the earliest possible occurrence. This is exciting as we now have the opportunity to intervene long before the intervention stage has passed and cancer has settled in to the body. Source: (2003, September - October). New Frontiers in Cancer Detection. American Fitness. Retrieved April 4, 2006 from:  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0675/is_5_21/ai_112982437 Back to Articles