Image processing techniques to evaluate mammography screening quality

C. QUINTANA; G. TIRAO; M. VALENTE

Brazilian Journal of Medical Physics

Associação Brasileira de Física Médica (ABFM)

Año: 2011 vol. 5 p. 47 - 52

2176-8978

Mammography imaging proved to be the best non invasive method for breast cancer diagnosis but it requires that irradiation parameters to be set within Protocols recommendations (minimal dose delivering). This work presents a whole investigation about mammography image formation by means of validated Monte Carlo simulations along with further image analysis and mathematical processing. Several image processing methods have been suitably introduced and investigated according to their capability for micro-calcification detection and quality evaluation. The obtained results suggest the feasibility of all the proposed methods. Furthermore, it was possible to characterize the reliability of each one and to infer the corresponding advantages/disadvantages even obtaining an image quality evaluation as a function of several parameters configurations.