This work uses a simple low-cost wearable device embedded with discrete thermal sensors to map the breast skin surface temperature. A methodology has been developed to estimate diameter, blood perfusion, metabolic heat generation and location in X, Y, Z coordinate of tumor from this discrete set of data. An interactive 3D thermal tomography was developed which provides a detailed 3D thermal view of the breast anatomy. Using this system, the user can interactively rotate and slice the 3D thermal image of the breast for a detailed study of the tumor. Finite element method (FEM) and an evolution-based inverse method were used for the parameter estimation. The method was first validated using phantom experiments and the results obtained were within an error of 10% (0.005 W cm⁻³) for heat generation and 15% (0.3 cm) for heater location. Further validation was carried out through clinical trials on 60 human subjects. Estimated blood perfusion rate and metabolic heat generation rate exhibit distinguishable difference between cancerous and non-cancerous breast. Estimated diameter and location of tumor in cancerous breast shows good agreement with the actual clinical reports. We have obtained a sensitivity of 82.78% and specificity of 87.09%. Proposed breast tumor parameter estimation methodology with interactive 3D thermal tomography is a good screening tool for breast cancer detection and also useful for clinicians to find out location including depth.

这项工作使用一个简单的低成本可穿戴设备嵌入了离散热传感器来绘制乳房皮肤表面温度。已经开发出一种方法来从这组离散数据估计肿瘤的直径、血液灌注、代谢热产生和位置在 X、Y、Z 坐标中。开发了交互式 3D 热断层扫描，可提供乳房解剖结构的详细 3D 热视图。使用该系统，用户可以交互地旋转和切片乳房的 3D 热图像，以对肿瘤进行详细研究。有限元方法（FEM）和基于演化的逆方法用于参数估计。该方法首先使用体模实验进行验证，所得结果误差在 10% (0.005 W cm ^-3) 用于发热，15% (0.3 cm) 用于加热器位置。通过对 60 名人类受试者的临床试验进行了进一步验证。估计的血液灌注率和代谢热生成率在癌性和非癌性乳房之间表现出可区分的差异。癌性乳腺肿瘤的估计直径和位置与实际临床报告非常吻合。我们获得了 82.78% 的敏感性和 87.09% 的特异性。提出的具有交互式 3D 热断层扫描的乳腺肿瘤参数估计方法是一种很好的乳腺癌检测筛查工具，也有助于临床医生找出包括深度在内的位置。