0000000000490594
AUTHOR
Bruno Golosio
A test to evaluate the impact of the CAD tools in mammographic diagnosis
In this work we present the results of a study about the impact of CAD tools on Sensitivity and Specificity in mammographic diagnosis. The approach is aimed to evaluate the statistical significance through the comparison of these figures of merit obtained in different situations. For this purpose two different CAD tools, the CALMA station (INFN project) and the SecondLook™ station (by CADx) have been used as a support for radiologists.
Detection and classification of microcalcifications clusters in digitized mammograms
In the present paper we discuss a new approach for the detection of microcalcification clusters, based on neural networks and developed as part of the MAGIC-5 project, an INFN-funded program which aims at the development and implementation of CAD algorithms in a GRID-based distributed environment. The proposed approach has as its roots the desire to maximize the rejection of background during the analytical pre-processing stage, in order to train and test the neural network with as clean as possible a sample and therefore maximize its performance. The algorithm is composed of three modules: the image pre-processing, the feature extraction component and the Backpropagation Neural Network mod…
FLUXEN portable equipment for direct X-ray spectra measurements
Abstract The proper use of imaging equipment in radiological units is based on an appropriate knowledge of the physical characteristics of the X-ray beam used. The FLUXEN PROJECT is working on a portable apparatus which, together with dedicated software, is able to perform an exact spectral reconstruction of the radiation produced in diagnostic X-ray tubes. The apparatus characterizes the energy spectrum of radiological tubes and also provides a measurement of the emitted flux. The acquisition system is based on a commercial CZT detector (3×3×2 mm 3 ), produced by AMPTEK, cooled by a Peltier cell, with a high efficiency in the diagnostic X-ray energy range and modified in the shaping electr…
GPCALMA, a mammographic CAD in a GRID connection
Purpose of this work is the development of an automatic system which could be useful for radiologists in the investigation of breast cancer. A breast neoplasia is often marked by the presence of microcalcifications and massive lesions in the mammogram: hence the need for tools able to recognize such lesions at an early stage. GPCALMA (Grid Platform Computer Assisted Library for MAmmography), a collaboration among italian physicists and radiologists, has built a large distributed database of digitized mammographic images (at this moment about 5500 images corresponding to 1650 patients). This collaboration has developed a CAD (Computer Aided Detection) system which, installed in an integrated…
The FIRST experiment at GSI
The FIRST (Fragmentation of Ions Relevant for Space and Therapy) experiment at the SIS accelerator of GSI laboratory in Darmstadt has been designed for the measurement of ion fragmentation cross-sections at different angles and energies between 100 and 1000 MeV/nucleon. Nuclear fragmentation processes are relevant in several fields of basic research and applied physics and are of particular interest for tumor therapy and for space radiation protection applications. The start of the scientific program of the FIRST experiment was on summer 2011 and was focused on the measurement of 400 MeV/nucleon 12C beam fragmentation on thin (8 mm) graphite target. The detector is partly based on an alread…
The CALMA system: an artificial neural network method for detecting masses and microcalcifications in digitized mammograms
The CALMA (Computer Assisted Library for MAmmography) project is a five years plan developed in a physics research frame in collaboration between INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) and many Italian hospitals. At present a large database of digitized mammographic images (more than 6000) was collected and a software based on neural network algorithms for the search of suspicious breast lesions was developed. Two tools are available: a microcalcification clusters hunter, based on supervised and unsupervised feedforward neural network, and a massive lesions searcher, based on a hibrid approach. Both the algorithms analyzed preprocessed digitized images by high frequency filters. Clini…
Comparison of two portable solid state detectors with an improved collimation and alignment device for mammographic x-ray spectroscopy
We describe a portable system for mammographic x-ray spectroscopy, based on a 2 X 2 X 1 mm3 cadmium telluride (CdTe) solid state detector, that is greatly improved over a similar system based on a 3 X 3 X 2 mm3 cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) solid state detector evaluated in an earlier work. The CdTe system utilized new pinhole collimators and an alignment device that facilitated measurement of mammographic x-ray spectra. Mammographic x-ray spectra acquired by each system were comparable. Half value layer measurements obtained using an ion chamber agreed closely with those derived from the x-ray spectra measured by either detector. The faster electronics and other features of the CdTe detecto…
A CAD system for nodule detection in low-dose lung CTs based on region growing and a new active contour model
A computer-aided detection (CAD) system for the selection of lung nodules in computer tomography (CT) images is presented. The system is based on region growing (RG) algorithms and a new active contour model (ACM), implementing a local convex hull, able to draw the correct contour of the lung parenchyma and to include the pleural nodules. The CAD consists of three steps: (1) the lung parenchymal volume is segmented by means of a RG algorithm; the pleural nodules are included through the new ACM technique; (2) a RG algorithm is iteratively applied to the previously segmented volume in order to detect the candidate nodules; (3) a double-threshold cut and a neural network are applied to reduce…
FIRST experiment: Fragmentation of Ions Relevant for Space and Therapy
International audience; Nuclear fragmentation processes are relevant in different fields of basic research and applied physics and are of particular interest for tumor therapy and for space radiation protection applications. The FIRST (Fragmentation of Ions Relevant for Space and Therapy) experiment at SIS accelerator of GSI laboratory in Darmstadt, has been designed for the measurement of different ions fragmentation cross sections at different energies between 100 and 1000 MeV/nucleon. The experiment is performed by an international collaboration made of institutions from Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The experimental apparatus is partly based on an already existing setup made of the …