Vacuum contoured, liquid crystal, dynamic breast thermoangiography as an aid to mammography in the detection of breast cancer.

New thermographic equipment is introduced in the form of liquid crystals embedded in flexible, transparent, elastomeric sheaths which may be vacuum contoured to any breast. Dynamic thermoangiography, a new physiological method of performing thermography with these liquid crystal sheaths, is presented. Thermographic changes are recorded during active skin cooling and rewarming with liquid crystals in situ. The new system eliminates skin preparation previously required. Preliminary results appear to show good correlation with conventional telethermography. Vascular, as well as thermal pathology, is accentuated with rich, high contrast, thermographically calibrated colour patterns. The new system is relatively inexpensive, simple to operate, and may be suited to a programme for the detection of breast cancer.