Modeling of errors in Nakagami imaging: illustration on breast mass characterization

Nakagami imaging is an attractive tissue characterization method, as the parameter estimated at each location is related to properties of the tissues. The application to clinical ultrasound images is problematic, as the estimation of the parameters is disturbed by the presence of complex structures. We propose to consider separately the different aspects potentially affecting the value of the Nakagami parameters and quantify their effects on the estimation. This framework is applied to the classification of breast masses. Quantitative parameters are computed on two groups of ultrasound images of benign and malignant tumors. A statistical analysis of the result indicated that the previously observed difference between average values of the Nakagami parameters is explained mostly by estimation errors. In the future, new methods for reliable computation of Nakagami parameters need to be developed, and factors of error should be considered in studies using Nakagami parameters.