Two Birds Thermography                                                 
 

Infrared Imaging as a Breast Health Screening Tool
 Kathryn Ater, DOM is an AAT certified physician.  AAT is the only certifying body for medical thermography in the United States currently certifying physicians only. 



I am proud to offer infrared thermal imaging technology here in New Mexico.  Breast thermography is a safe and non-invasive screening tool.  There is no compression and no radiation.  Thermography is safe for women of any age, with any size breast and for women who have had breast surgery.

Thermography can provide early cancer detection because of its extreme sensitivity to temperature variations and vascular changes in the breast tissue.  Thermography reveals whether the breast tissue is starting to become an environment that could easily foster cancer growth, often before that growth even begins to happen.

Conventional breast screening techniques (mammogram, ultrasound, MRI) are structural.  They check for abnormal structure or densities in the breast tissue.  Thermography is a physiological test.  It checks for abnormal activity, chiefly blood flow, heat and vascular patterns, in the breast.

Thermography measures the infrared radiation (heat) which is constantly radiating from the surface of the human body.  The levels of heat emanating from a healthy body are symmetrical.  Abnormal heat patterns suggest abnormal physiological processes happening in the body.  Unusual vascular or temperature patterns alert an experienced thermographer that there may be a physiological abnormality in the breast.  This could indicate infection, inflammation, trauma or cancer.

Taking a thermal photo of the breasts for interpretation is based on the idea that blood vessel activity in pre-cancerous tissue, and in the area surrounding a developing breast cancer, is almost always higher than in normal breast tissue.  Pre-cancerous and cancerous masses need more nutrients than normal healthy tissue in order to maintain their rapid growth.  They increase the circulation to their cells by sending out chemicals to keep existing blood vessels open, to waken dormant vessels and even to create new vessels (neo-angiogenesis).  All of this activity and increased blood flow cause the surface temperature of the skin to increase which is often detectable with thermography.

Breast thermography is not a replacement for mammography.  It is adjunctive.  Using thermography, we, as patients, can begin to take control of our own health using all tools available to us.  Combining breast self-exams, physician exams, thermography and ultrasound or mammography provides us with early detection.  When treated in the earliest stages, most breast cancer has a cure rate of over 95%.



Questions and Scheduling
505 247 2127
Dr. Kathryn Ater
(Se habla espanol)

TwoBirdsThermography@gmail.com

Two Birds Thermography is Dr. Kathryn Ater, DOM. I consistently serve Santa Fe and have the ability to travel within New Mexico and Colorado.
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