An application of topological median filters on detection and clustering of microcalcifications in digital mammograms


Cihan I. K., ŞENEL H. G.

2006 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, ICASSP 2006, Toulouse, France, 14 - 19 May 2006, vol.2 identifier

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
  • Volume: 2
  • City: Toulouse
  • Country: France
  • Keywords: Microcalcification, Subtractive clustering, Top-hat transform, Topological median filters
  • Anadolu University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Existence of microcalcification clusters on mammograms is one of the earliest signs of breast cancers. In this study, a method that is based on topological median filters is proposed for the automated detection of microcalcifications. The proposed algorithm consists of two steps. First, probable microcalcification pixels in the mammograms are segmented out by using topological top-hat transform. Then, individual microcalcifications are clustered by using a subtractive clustering algorithm. The method has been applied to Nijmegen database of 34 mammograms with a total of 72 microcalcification clusters. The results show that the proposed algorithm has a success rate of 93%. © 2006 IEEE.