Thermography Health Dictionary

A technique by which temperature patterns on the surface of the skin are recorded in the form of an image. Thermography provides clues to the presence of diseases and abnormalities that alter the temperature of the skin, such as problems of the circulation, inflammation, and tumours. There are 2 types of thermography. In one, a camera or scanner picks up infrared radiation naturally emitted from the skin. In the other, sheets of temperature-sensitive liquid crystals are applied to the skin; they change colour in response to changes in temperature.

A method of detecting the amount of heat produced by di?erent parts of the body. This is done with an infra-red sensitive photographic ?lm. High blood ?ow in an area shows up as a heat zone and thus tumours such as breast cancer can be identi?ed. The process records such changes in temperature in a record known as a thermogram. Unfortunately, such hot areas of skin are caused by a number of other conditions; this is therefore a diagnostic method that can be used only as a rough screening procedure.

n. a technique for measuring and recording the heat produced by different parts of the body by using photographic film sensitive to infrared radiation. The picture produced is called a thermogram. The heat radiated from the body varies in different parts according to the flow of blood through the vessels; thus areas of poor circulation produce less heat. On the other hand a tumour with an abnormally increased blood supply may be revealed on the thermogram as a ‘hot spot’. The technique was formerly used in the diagnosis of tumours of the breast (mammothermography) before the development of more sensitive techniques (see mammography).