Microcalcification detection using fuzzy logic and scale space approaches

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of women mortality in the world. Since the causes are unknown, breast cancer cannot be prevented. It is difficult for radiologists to provide both accurate and uniform evaluation over the enormous number of mammograms generated in widespread screening. Computer-aided mammography diagnosis is an important and challenging task. Microcalcifications and masses are the early signs of breast carcinomas and their detection is one of the key issues for breast cancer control. In this study, a novel approach to microcalcification detection based on fuzzy logic and scale space techniques is presented. First, we employ fuzzy entropy principal and fuzzy set theory to fuzzify the images. Then, we enhance the fuzzified image. Finally, scale-space and Laplacian-of-Gaussian filter techniques are used to detect the sizes and locations of microcalcifications. A free-response operating characteristic curve is used to evaluate the performance. The major advantage of the proposed method is its ability to detect microcalcifications even in the mammograms of very dense breasts. A data set of 40 mammograms (Nijmegen database) containing 105 clusters of microcalcifications is studied. Experimental results demonstrate that the microcalcifications can be accurately and efficiently detected using the proposed approach. It can produce lower false positives and false negatives than the existing methods. (C) 2003 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.