Effect of despeckle filtering on classification of breast tumors using ultrasound images

摘要

Ultrasound is the most widely used imaging modality for screening of breast tumors. However, due to the presence of speckle noise in an ultrasound image, the diagnostic information gets masked and the interpretation of the breast abnormalities becomes difficult for the radiologist. The texture of the tumor region and the shape/margin characteristics are considered to be important parameters for the analysis of the breast tumors. In the present work, exhaustive experimentation has been carried out for the design of CAD systems for classification of breast tumors by considering (a) original images only, (b) despeckled images only and (c) both original and despeckled images together (hybrid approach).