Detectability of fibrils by dilation technique in digital mammography

Abstract

The detectability of fibrils in mammographic phantom images by morphological enhancement was analysed in the present study. Materials that mimic fibrils were imaged by a digital mammography machine at 28 and 29 kVP. The images were processed by a dilation technique to produce second set of images. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to compare the detection performance from the two sets of images. As compared to original images, the 28 kVP's fibrils images from dilation technique become more prominence to be detected by observers. While at 29 kVP only a few observers can found the fibrils images from dilation technique. This study suggests morphological enhancement of mammography image did not increase the detection of low frequency signals of the images.