Model-based detection of spiculated lesions in mammograms

R. Zwiggelaar, T.C. Parr, J.E. Schumm. I.W. Hutt, S.M. Astley, C.J. Taylor and C.R.M. Boggis, 'Model-based detection of spiculated lesions in mammograms', Medical Image Analysis 3 (1), 39-62 (1999)

Computer-aided mammographic prompting systems require the reliable detection of a variety of signs of cancer. In this paper we concentrate on the detection of spiculated lesions in mammograms. A spiculated lesion is typically characterized by an abnormal pattern of linear structures and a central mass. Statistical models have been developed to describe and detect both these aspects of spiculated lesions. We describe a generic method of representing patterns of linear structures, which relies on the use of factor analysis to separate the systematic and random aspects of a class of patterns. We model the appearance of central masses using local scale-orientation signatures based on recursive median filtering, approximated using principal-component analysis. For lesions of 16 mm and larger the pattern detection technique results in a sensitivity of 80% at 0.014 false positives per image, whilst the mass detection approach results in a sensitivity 80% at 0.23 false positives per image. Simple combination techniques result in an improved sensitivity and specificity close to that required to improve the performance of a radiologist in a prompting environment.

Peer reviewed