Assesment of Thermography Technique for Detection of Thyroid Gland: A Numerical Approach Accompanied by an Experimnetal Study

The aim of this study is to investigate the use of thermography technique for detection of thyroid gland embedded in the neck through a numerical and an experimental approach. To this end, a real 3D model of the human neck and its primary organs including trachea, thyroid gland, common carotid artery and internal jugular vein is constructed based on the computerized tomography (CT) scan images of a healthy case and a case of thyroid cancer. The model is used for analyzing bio-heat transfer in the neck. In the thermal analysis the thyroid gland is considered as a heat source via specific function that generates heat based on the thyroid temporal temperature. Moreover, external convection through the neck skin surface and the ambient air, an internal convection through the inner layer of trachea and breathed air and heat transfer through the artery and the vein are considered. The result is the temperature distribution (thermogram) on the skin surface of the neck which reveals an approximate 0.5 -1.4 ˚C temperature increase on the area above thyroid gland for the healthy case. Studying effects of the thyroid cancer on the thermogram shows an approximate 0.7 -1.6 ˚C temperature increase due to the increased metabolic rate of the cancerous tumor compared to the healthy tissue. In order to practically investigate the applicability of thermography technique, a healthy case is examined by a high precision thermographic camera in similar conditions to the numerical simulation. Similar temperature increase due to the existence of the thyroid gland by the simulation and experiment affirmed the capability of the thermography method in the thyroid gland detection on the skin surface of the neck.