Microcalcification detection in 3-D breast ultrasound

R. F. Chang, S. F. Huang, L. P. Wang, D. R. Chen, W. K. Moon

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The appearance of cluster of microcalcifications in mammography or sonography is an important indicator for malignancy. Microcalcifications are calcium deposits, which can be identified as tiny areas that are slightly brighter than surrounding tissue. Detection of mammographic microcalcification has been proposed in many studies. Since a microcalcification cluster is a three-dimensional (3-D) entity, its projection onto a two-dimensional (2-D) image results in a loss of spatial information and may also cause superimposition of individual calcifications within the cluster. This paper aims to use the 3-D ultrasound to determine microcalcifications. In each slice, the proposed method adopts the top-hat filter to find bright spots, and employs four 2-D criteria to select the spots as candidate microcalcifications. Finally, spots appearing in sequent slices at the same position are considered as a microcalcification. We suggest using a computer automatically to detect the microcalcification being feasible and microcalcifications being a very important criterion of malignancy on future developing the computer-aided diagnosis for ultrasound. In the future, this technique can be adopted in a computer-aided diagnosis system combined with other diagnosis features for improving the diagnosis performance.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2005 27th Annual International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE-EMBS 2005
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages6297-6300
Number of pages4
ISBN (Print)0780387406, 9780780387409
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005
Event2005 27th Annual International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE-EMBS 2005 - Shanghai, China
Duration: 2005 Sept 12005 Sept 4

Publication series

NameAnnual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology - Proceedings
Volume7 VOLS
ISSN (Print)0589-1019

Other

Other2005 27th Annual International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE-EMBS 2005
Country/TerritoryChina
CityShanghai
Period05-09-0105-09-04

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Signal Processing
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Health Informatics

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