An evaluation of edge detection algorithms for mammographic calcifications

Abstract

Edge detection is an important module in medical imaging for diagnostic detection and extraction of features. The main limitation of the existing evaluation measures for edge detection algorithms is the requirement of a reference image for comparison. Thus, it becomes difficult to assess the performance of edge detection algorithms in case of mammographic features. This paper presents a new version of reconstruction estimation function for objective evaluation of edge enhanced mammograms containing microcalcifications. It is a non-reference approach helpful in selection of most appropriate algorithm for edge enhancement of microcalcifications and also plays a key role in selecting parameters for performance optimization of these algorithms. Simulations are performed on mammograms from MIAS database with different category of background tissues; the obtained results validate the efficiency of the proposed measure in precise assessment of mammograms (edge-maps) in accordance with the subjectivity of human evaluation. © 2013 Springer.