Image processing techniques to evaluate mammography screening quality

Abstract

Mammography imaging has proved to be the best noninvasive method for breast cancer diagnosis, but it requires that irradiation parameters are set within Protocols recommendations (minimal dose delivering). This work presents an investigation on 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 and to infer the corresponding advantages or disadvantages, obtaining an image quality evaluation as a function of several parameters configurations.