What is the difference between thermography and mammography?
Thermography uses no radiation or compression of delicate breast tissue during the scan making it completely safe and painless. Thermography is a test of physiology or function and can detect the earliest signs of angiogenesis or blood vessel growth. Because blood vessels ordinarily start to grow before any other significant changes a thermogram can see these abnormal physiological processes as early as five to ten years before a cancer can be seen by a mammogram, MRI, or ultrasound or felt by a physical exam. Age or breast density is not a factor with thermography. Mammography uses radiation and compression of breast tissue in a test of anatomy or structure. Mammography looks for evidence of a growth or tumor within the breast tissue. By the time a mammogram can detect evidence of a tumor, it may have been growing for several years. Suspicious areas must be dense enough to be seen. In Canada mammography is contraindicated for women under 50.
