Automated mammographic density estimation and display method using prior probability information, system for the same, and media storing computer program for the same

摘要

Disclosed is an automated mammographic density estimation method using statistical image information, the method including a preprocessing step of reading the mammogram, segmenting a breast area and shifting pixel values; a step of constructing a tissue probability map in which population-based probability information is extracted, and a probability map for glandular and adipose tissues is constructed; and a density estimation step in which a breast area is segmented based on the constructed tissue probability map and a mammographic density is calculated.

主权项

1. An automated mammographic density estimation method using prior probability information, the method comprising steps of:
constructing a population-based tissue probability map (PTPM) by extracting tissue probability information from a plurality of image area previously segmented by at least one expert according to the dense and fatty regions in a preprocessed mammogram of a population; and estimating the density by applying the population-based tissue probability map (PTPM) to a preprocessed interest mammogram to obtain pixel-wise tissue probability followed by calculating the percent mammographic density, wherein extracting the tissue probability information in the constructing the population-based tissue probability map (PTPM) comprises calculating local statistical feature set from the plurality of region of interest sampled within the image area previously segmented by the expert according to the dense and fatty tissue types, and obtaining tissue probability density functions for the dense and fatty tissue types in a local statistical feature space, wherein constructing the tissue probability map from a tissue probability density function in the constructing the population-based tissue probability map (PTPM) is derived by a proportion of each tissue probability density function to the sum of the dense and fatty tissue probability density functions.