Multiresolution texture based adaptive clustering algorithm for breast lesion segmentation

A specific algorithm is presented for the automatic extraction of breast tumors in ultrasonic imaging.

The algorithm involves two-dimensional adaptive K-means clustering of the gray scale and textural feature images. The segmentation problem is formulated as a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation problem. The MAP estimation is achieved using Besag's iterated conditional modes algorithm for the minimization of an energy function. This function has three components: the first constrains the region to be close to the data; the second imposes spatial continuity; and the third takes into consideration the texture of the various regions. A multiresolution implementation of the algorithm is performed using a waveless basis.

Experiments were carried out on synthetic images and on in vivo breast ultrasound images. Various parameters involved in the algorithm are discussed to evaluate the robustness and accuracy of the segmentation method.

Including textural features in the segmentation of ultrasonic data improves the robustness of the algorithm and makes the segmentation result less parameter dependent.