An automated skin segmentation of Breasts in Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) is used to diagnose breast disease. Obtaining anatomical information from DCE-MRI requires the skin be manually removed so that blood vessels and tumors can be clearly observed by physicians and radiologists; this requires considerable manpower and time. We develop an automated skin segmentation algorithm where the surface skin is removed rapidly and correctly. The rough skin area is segmented by the active contour model, and analyzed in segments according to the continuity of the skin thickness for accuracy. Blood vessels and mammary glands are retained, which remedies the defect of removing some blood vessels in active contours. After three-dimensional imaging, the DCE-MRIs without the skin can be used to see internal anatomical information for clinical applications. The research showed the Dice's coefficients of the 3D reconstructed images using the proposed algorithm and the active contour model for removing skins are 93.2% and 61.4%, respectively. The time performance of segmenting skins automatically is about 165 times faster than manually. The texture information of the tumors position with/without the skin is compared by the paired t-test yielded all p < 0.05, which suggested the proposed algorithm may enhance observability of tumors at the significance level of 0.05.