Computer-aided tumor detection based on multi-scale blob detection algorithm in automated breast ultrasound images

Automated whole breast ultrasound (ABUS) is an emerging screening tool for detecting breast abnormalities. In this study, a computer-aided detection (CADe) system based on multi-scale blob detection was developed for analyzing ABUS images. The performance of the proposed CADe system was tested using a database composed of 136 breast lesions (58 benign lesions and 78 malignant lesions) and 37 normal cases. After speckle noise reduction, Hessian analysis with multi-scale blob detection was applied for the detection of tumors. This method detected every tumor, but some nontumors were also detected. The tumor like lihoods for the remaining candidates were estimated using a logistic regression model based on blobness, internal echo, and morphology features. The tumor candidates with tumor likelihoods higher than a specific threshold (0.4) were considered tumors. By using the combination of blobness, internal echo, and morphology features with 10-fold cross-validation, the proposed CAD system showed sensitivities of 100%, 90%, and 70% with false positives per pass of 17.4, 8.8, and 2.7, respectively. Our results suggest that CADe systems based on multi-scale blob detection can be used to detect breast tumors in ABUS images.