Every now and then the subject of “cold stressing” comes up.
Cold stressing is a test of sympathetic function which has good utility in many areas of medicine and is the definitive diagnostic test for Complex Regional Pain Syndrom / Reflex Sympathetic Distrophy (CRPS / RSD). When performing a cold stress for CRPS/RSD it does require a referral from your Medical Provider. Note: this is the only circumstance where a referral is necessary for thermal imaging as it is considered a diagnostic procedure rather than a screening.
Cold stressing with regard to breast thermography; cold stressing is no longer performed and has been outdated as part of the breast thermal imaging procedure since the early 1990’s.
Please view the following linked documents for more detailed information on why it is no longer considered part of proper protocol for breast screening:
Nondestructive Testing of the Human Breast The validity of Dynamic Stress Testing in Medical Infrared Breast Imaging by William C. Amalu, DC, DABCT
Proceedings of the 26th Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS
San Francisco, CA USA * September 1-5, 2004
Cold Stressing breasts and why don’t we do it anymore. by Dr. Peter Leando, Ph.D, D.Ac, FACCT
A Position paper and Discussion