title: Automatic breast region extraction from digital mammograms for PACS and telemammography applications.
abstract: High spatial resolution results in very large digital mammogram file sizes. For telemammography, and picture archiving and communication systems, the large file issue introduces technical difficulties in image transmission, storage, and display. We propose extracting the breast region from the mammogram to reduce the image file size. The challenge is on how to faithfully extract breast regions from digital mammograms generated from different types of acquisition systems that contain various imaged compositions. We report an algorithm to automatically identify the orientation of breast region and extract the breast region from mammograms. Breast regions extracted from full-field digital mammograms reduce file sizes by three to five folds.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Radiological Informatics, Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, 530 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143-0628, USA. andrew.lou@radiology.icsf.edu
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.forename: H D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hoogstrate
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000379:methods*; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D011873:Radiology Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration; D019112:Teleradiology