What is medical thermography?
Infrared technology has been used since the 1970’s and medical books listed thermography as one of the tools to detect breast cancer as early as 1975. Maurice Bales, a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley developed the basics, and then upgraded the equipment for the Thermal Image Processor (TIP). It was used to identify musculoskeletal problems, like stress fractures. For breast examinations, the same principle applies. The procedure is based on the principle that chemical and blood vessel activity in both pre-cancerous tissue and the area surrounding a developing breast cancer is almost always higher than in the normal breast tissue. Since pre-cancerous and cancerous masses are highly metabolic tissues, they need an abundant supply of nutrients to maintain their growth. In order to do this they increase circulation to their cells by sending out chemicals to keep existing blood vessels open, recruit dormant vessels, and create new ones (neoangiogenesis). This process res
