Breast Thermography Evaluation Program Instructions — The Venous Patterns
This page solicits the venous structure and vascular hyperthermia, if any, for each breast.
Select the venous category most closely resembling the venous pattern seen for each of the two breasts. When prompted, choose one or more quadrants of the breast in which the selected venous pattern is observed. Then, when prompted, enter the highest temperature of the identified venous pattern and the temperature at the same area on the opposite breast.
Illustrative examples of the individual venous categories and their characteristics are:
Uniform Thermal Pattern: Uniform temperature distribution, possibly with discrete vascular hyperthermia at the upper-inner or upper-outer edge of the breast.
Regular Thermovascular Pattern: Vascular hyperthermia distributed over a limited region of the breast, often with an arborescent pattern and with a general orientation corresponding to one or several of the physiological plexuses.
Thermovascular Network: Multiple curvilinear hyperthermia of vascular origin forming a regular network over the entire breast, or in some instances, over the upper-half of the breast only.
Irregular Thermovascular Pattern: Appears as vascular hyperthermia distributed over a particular area of the breast, generally with a common orientation which does not correspond to any of the physiological venous plexuses.
Distorted Thermovascular Pattern: Vascular hyperthermia distributed over a limited region of the breast, with a distorted, sometimes hazy pattern, generally characterized by convolutions and ramifications.
Anarchic Thermovascular Pattern: Seen as vascular hyperthermia distributed over a limited region of the breast, with an extremely, anarchic pattern, presenting clear discontinuities in the course and caliber of the curvilinear thermovascular images.
Analyst Hints:
- Begin using a process of elimination, i.e., rule out pattern categories which clearly do not resemble the venous pattern observed on the subject breast.
- Each category's venous pattern is unique with regard to the other patterns, especially in regards to geometry.
- The more complex venous patterns are more likely to be associated with the presence of significant pathology, so typically the breast will more likely be seen with other significant thermal markers.