What is Blood Perfusion Rate

Breast thermography is an emerging adjunct tool to mammography in early breast cancer detection due to its non-invasiveness and safety. Steady-state infrared imaging proves promising in this field as it is not affected by tissue density. The main aim of the present study is to develop a computational thermal model of breast cancer using real breast surface geometry and internal tumor specification. The model depicting the thermal profile of the subject's aggressive ductal carcinoma is calibrated by variation of blood perfusion and metabolic heat generation rate. The subject's IR image is used for validation of the simulated temperature profile. The thermal breast model presented here may prove useful in monitoring the response of tumor post-chemotherapy for female subjects with similar breast cancer characteristics.