Thermobiological Diagnostics
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Thermobiological diagnostics dates back to the time of the ancient Greeks when Hippocrates noted in 480 BC that when a person was covered with mud, the parts that dried first were thought to indicate a pathological condition in that area (Amalu, 2001). In the 1950s, military research into night vision equipment for monitoring troop movements renewed interest in diagnostic thermography, and in 1957, R. Lawson discovered that the skin temperature over an area of breast cancer was higher than that of a normal breast. In 1972, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare issued a position paper saying that medical experts believed thermography had gone beyond the stage of research in four areas: pathology of the female breast..., and in 1982, the Food and Drug Administration approved thermography and classified it as an adjunctive diagnostic screening procedure for breast cancer detection. Since then, thermography has been used for a variety of diagnostic procedures. Some insurance companies are now paying for thermography scans for women to detect breast cancer in its early stages (Fratt, 2003). In terms of the physics of thermography, all objects with a temperature above absolute zero emit infrared radiation from their surface (Amalu, 2001). The Stefan Boltzmann Law states that "the total radiation emitted by an object is directly proportional to the area of the object emissivity and the fourth power of its absolute temperature." The emissivity of human skin is very
. . .
to designated anatomic distributions and aid in diagnosing disease when differences from the normal distribution are found. Thermography has been used to detect breast cancer, deep vein thrombosis, musculoskeletal disorders, temporomandibular joint disorder and rheumatoid conditions.
Computerized Regulation Thermography (CRT) evaluates body functions by a direct temperature probe, giving a much more precise scanning mechanism than measuring emissions (Computerized, 2005). It maps out the complete autonomic nervous system as it projects to and from each organ and tissue. It does not diagnose disease, but identifies patterns that lead to disease.
Evidence that breast cancer alters skin surface temperature has been gathering since 1963 (Amalu, 2001). Thermography of breast cancer may have diagnostic significance because it may correlate with several different pathological prognostic features of the tumors such as size, grade, lymph node status and markers of tumor growth. It may be that increased blood flow as the tumor is vascularized causes thermal changes in the tissues (Fratt, 2003). Angiogenesis was emphasized as an integral part of early breast cancer in a 1996 study which suggested it may occur before the tumor cells
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Boltzmann Law, Medical Center, Thermography CRT, Drug Administration, Retrieved Oct, Greeks Hippocrates, Black CM, Education Welfare, breast cancer, Amalu WC, amalu 2001, , retrieved oct 20, oct 20 2005, retrieved oct, oct 20, 20 2005, percent specificity, infrared radiation, cigna 2005, fratt 2003, localized scleroderma, regulation thermography crt, thermography retrieved oct, designated anatomic distributions,
Approximate Word count = 1405
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
