Identification of Thyroid Papillary Carcinoma and Adenoma through Thermal Imaging: Preliminary Results

Infrared thermography (IRT) is a non-invasive technique used to discriminate thyroid carcinoma (TC) patients from healthy controls (HC) employing cold-stress protocols. This study investigated the capability of IRT to identify TC, thyroid adenoma (TA), and HC without cold-stress protocols. Eleven participants were enrolled, and the maximum temperature showed the best performance in discriminating the three groups, with a difference between the pathological and healthy sides (left vs. right for HC) of 1.15°C (±0.34°C) for TC, 0.51°C (±0.12°C) for TA, and 0.11°C (±0.09°C) for HC. These results could foster the employment of IRT for a non-invasive thyroid tumor diagnosis.