Improvement Thyroid Cancer Early Diagnosis by Using Fractal Dimension Analysis of IR Signature

摘要

Thyroid cancer is unique among cancers, in fact, thyroid cells are unique among all cells of the human body. Screening tools designed to identify individuals at risk for thyroid nodule cancer are of extreme necessity. In this study, we investigated the predictive values of morphometric parameters of thyroidal papillary neoplasm based on concepts of fractal geometry for quantification of dimension evolution in time. The application of the new concepts will probably bring much more information than the traditional methods used to measure or evaluate irregular biologic structures which cannot be correctly quantified by Euclidean-based metric methodologies. The malign tissue contour is very high irregularly and is difficult to appreciate the temporal evolution. And more, it is difficult to measure it. In our study we used the data concerning to morphological aspect, an IR image, instead of anatomical one. The interval between the two scanning was about 8 months. The fractal distances, FD, for 2D and 3D temperature pattern were evaluated. The differences between them were less than 0.1%. The all thyroidal neoplasms have own IR signature and by evaluation of their FD it is possible to follow the drug efficiency, and to find the primary tumor. Another conclusion is the malign cells have the memory of the pattern, because the FD is about constant in time. By knowing the value of malign thyroid FD is it possible to do an early thyroid cancer diagnosis using a noninvasive investigation or and possibly be useful in predicting aggressiveness.