Improved infrared thermography based image construction for biomedical applications using Markov Chain monte carlo method

Abstract

Breast Thermography is one of the scanning techniques used for breast cancer detection. Looking at breast thermal image it is difficult to interpret parameters of tumor such as depth, size and location which are useful for diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. In our previous work (ITBIC) we proposed a framework for estimation of tumor size using clever algorithms and the radiative heat transfer model. In this paper, we expand it to incorporate the more realistic Pennes bio-heat transfer model and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, and analyze it's performance in terms of computational speed, accuracy, robustness against noisy inputs, ability to make use of prior information and ability to estimate multiple parameters simultaneously. We discuss the influence of various parameters used in its implementation. We apply this method on clinical data and extract reliable results for the first time using breast thermography.

Framework for estimating tumour parameters using thermal imaging

“…In the initial ITBIC framework 21 22 , case of radiative heat transfer model was considered tissue (breast) as cube and tumour as a 2D model i.e ., a disc. Subsequently, breast tissue was considered as a 3D hemisphere model and tumour as a sphere model to improve the accuracy of ITBIC framework.…”

Nondestructive Evaluation Of A Polymer Composite Hip Implant Using Lock-In Thermography

“…Infrared imaging is better than the standard method of mammography for early detection of breast cancer [56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63]. The temperature of cancer cells are elevated due to their high metabolic activity making it easier to capture by thermography [97].…”

“…Thermography has been a part of diagnosis in various medical fields. Its use in angiography [51][52][53], heart surgery [54,55], and for prevention and early detection of breast cancer [56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63] is well established. IR thermography has been used to observe and measure the temperature gradient of bone [64][65][66][67] and dental implants [68,69] when subjected to drilling.…”