Combining texture features from the MLO and CC views for mammographic CAD_x

摘要

The purpose of this study was to investigate approaches for combining information from the MLO and CC mammographic views for Computer-aided Diagnosis (CAD_x) algorithms. Feature level and classifier output level combinations were explored. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) with step-wise feature selection from a set of Haralick's texture features was used to develop classifiers for distinguishing between benign and malignant mammographic lesions. The effect of correlation between features from the two views on the performance of classifiers was investigated. The single view models included: (a) an LDA model with stepwise selection based on the MLO view only (MLO-Only) and similarly (b) a CC-Only LDA model. The feature-level combination models included: (a) LDA based on concatenation of feature sets selected independently from the two views (FEAT_CON), (b) LDA based on the concatenated feature sets along with the corresponding value of each feature from the opposite view (FEAT COR_CON) if the correlation was below a threshold, (c) LDA based on the average of the MLO and CC feature values (FEAT_AVG). The classifier output level combination models investigated included: (a) average of the outputs of the MLO-Only and CC-Only classifiers (OUTPUT_AVG), (b) maximum of the outputs of the MLO-Only and CC-Only classifiers (OUTPUT_MAX), (c) minimum of the outputs of the MLO-Only and CC-Only classifiers (OUTPUT_MIN), (d) a second level LDA classifier on the outputs of the MLO-Only and CC-Only classifiers (OUTPUT_LDA), (e) product of the output values of the two classifiers (OUTPUT_PROD). The performance of the models was assessed and compared using the ROC methodology to determine if combination models performed better than the single-view models.