Use of infrared imaging in the assessment of breast tuberculosis

Abstract

Breast Tuberculosis (Tb) is a chronic granulomatous disease predominantly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is difficult to diagnose. The non-specific clinical and imaging characteristics and lack of familiarity of clinicians with this entity have led to increased rates of misdiagnosis as breast cancer or pyogenic breast abscess and make it a difficult diagnosis. Medical Infrared imaging is a non-invasive technology that records the temperature pattern of the skin by detecting emitted infrared radiation. This technology has been investigated as an aid in the detection and evaluation of several medical conditions such as psoriasis, burn wounds and breast cancer. In this work the thermal pattern of the breast of fourteen women with breast tuberculosis were obtained and compared to thermal patterns of healthy subjects and breast cancer patients. Results show that the average breast temperature in breast Tb patients is higher (34.0±0.7 °C) than the average temperature observed in healthy women (32.2±1.3 °C) but lower than the average temperature observed in breast cancer patients (35.8±1.6 °C). Also the thermal images of breast Tb did not present the characteristic vascularity patterns present in breast cancer thermal images. These results could be used for the implementation of digital infrared imaging as an adjunct method for differential diagnosis of breast pathologies.