Microcalcification detection based on localized texture comparison
Xin Yuan, Pengcheng Shi · 2005
While microcalcifications (MCs) are important early signs of breast cancers, their reliable detection from mammograms has been largely elusive for both radiologists and computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) strategies. Two of the essential components in a CAD system are the detection of the suspicious MC pixels/regions using image processing and analysis techniques, and the training, classification, and recognition of these areas based on pattern recognition methods. In this paper, we present a novel scheme to identify and classify microcalcifications based on localized texture comparison. Relying on a texture removal and repairing (R&R) process of the preselected suspicious areas from their surrounding background tissues, pre- and post- R&R local characteristic features of these areas are extracted and compared. A modified AdaBoost algorithm is then adopted to train the classifier using expert-labelled microcalcifications, followed by a clustering process. Experiments with the mammographic images from the MIAS and DDSM databases have shown very promising results.