Dynamic Infrared Imaging of Newly Diagnosed Malignant Lymphoma Compared with Gallium-67 and Fluorine-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) Positron Emission Tomography

Abstract

Staging and therapy monitoring of malignant lymphomas relies heavily on imaging using arbitrary size criteria from computed tomography (CT) and sometimes non-specific radionuclide studies to assess the activity of the disease. Treatment decisions are based on early assessment of the response to therapy and the residual volume of the disease. Our initial experience is reported using a new noninvasive, inexpensive, and reproducible passive imaging modality, Dynamic Infrared Imaging (DIRI), which may add a new dimension to functional imaging. This system relies on its ability to filter the raw infrared signal using biological oscillatory behavior. It detects and analyzes minute oscillations of temperature and heat distribution in tumors. IntroductionThe treatment of malignant lymphomas depends heavily on imaging at the time of staging. With the progress in therapy there is an increasing demand for more frequent and accurate monitoring of the early response to treatment, as well as the detection of toxicity of chemotherapy. Early assessment of response and toxicity will allow more timely changes in the treatment of patients who are not responding, and may enhance the chances of decreasing toxic side effects and ultimately increase the prospect for a cure. Functional imaging techniques are becoming more widely accepted for this purpose, and imaging modalities using Ga-67 or FDG-PET show very promising results in this regard (1-5). Some studies suggest that very early restaging -as early as after one cycle of therapy -may be predictive of the treatment success or failure (1, 6). PET likewise, has been employed in the early monitoring of lymphoma patients on radio-immunotherapy (7). PET assessment of tumor glucose or amino acid metabolism with F-18 FDG, C-11 Thyrosin PET, C-11 cystein PET have shown very encouraging results in a variety of tumors, although larger studies are needed to confirm this concept (3, 7-9). Our report on this new imaging modality, Dynamic Infrared Imaging (DIRI) is based on our working hypothesis that tumors can be detectable as areas of long-wave (8-10µm) infrared photon flux that exhibit significantly different temporal behavior when compared to non-diseased tissue.In this study, we compare the ability of Dynamic Infrared Imaging (DIRI) to depict tumor masses in lymphoma patients for staging and therapy monitoring against CT, Ga-67 and FDG-PET.Staging CT, Ga-67 and FDG-PET were compared with DIRI images on ten patients (five males, five females) in age range from 25-50 years with newly

NADINE: new approaches to detecting breast cancer by sequential μm-wavelength imaging with the aid of novel frequency analysis techniques

“…It is a patient-friendly approach posing no health risks. It does not require radiation, compression, contact, or intravenous injection [2,3].…”

“…Tissue temperature varies depending on the tissue composition and surface circulation. Neurogenic and local systems regulate the capillary flow in subcutaneous tissues and the blood flow directed to the tissues transports a sufficient amount of the thermal energy to be removed under the skin [2,3,8,9]. The properties of [im imaging help to detect early signs of a breast cancer, when the cancer is most curable.…”

“…As a result, complementary methods such as breast self-examination, clinical breast examination, ultrasound, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and PET (positron emission tomography) scans are used. These methods are either expensive or do not detect the breast cancer at an early stage, when it is most treatable [1][2][3][4][5][6][7].…”

Cross-correlation based movement correction method for biomedical dynamic infrared imaging

“…There are many approaches to use dynamic thermovision imaging in medical application [1,2,3]. The most important and difficult task for sequence of images analysis is an extraction of appropriate data.…”

Evaluation of different marker sets for motion artifact reduction in breast dynamic infrared imaging

“…D ynamic infrared imaging has been proposed as a new diagnostic modality for breast cancer detection [1][2][3][4]. It requires the acquisition of a sequence of consecutive thermal images with a rate ranging from 50 to 200 frames/s for 10 -20 seconds.…”