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System and Method for Detection of Breast Masses and Calcifications Using the Tomosynthesis Projection and Reconstructed Images

  • US 20080025592A1
  • Filed: 06/25/2007
  • Published: 01/31/2008
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of detecting breast masses and calcifications in digitized images, comprising the steps of:

  • providing a plurality of 2-dimensional (2D) digital X-ray projectional breast images acquired from different viewing angles, each said X-ray projectional image comprising a set of intensities on a 2D grid of pixels;

    extracting candidate lesions and 2D features from said 2D projectional images;

    computing spicularity characteristics of said candidate lesions, said characteristics including, but not limited to, location, periodicity, and amplitude;

    applying machine learning algorithms to said candidate lesions to predict a probability of malignancy of said lesion, wherein said learning algorithms have been trained on a training set containing known examples of the features for lesions identified by a physician;

    receiving from said learning algorithm a probability map of detections for each breast image, said detections comprising associating pixels with a probability of being associated with a malignancy;

    creating a synthetic 2D slice for each X-ray image wherein malignant regions are indicated by ellipses on a non-malignant background; and

    constructing a synthetic 3-dimensional (3D) image volume from said 2D synthetic slices.

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