Automatic calibration of computer aided diagnosis based on retrospective examination

摘要

A method for automatic detection of lesions within a medical image include acquiring medical image data. Regions of suspicion are automatically identified within the medical image data. It is automatically determined whether each identified region of suspicion is of a benign state, is of a suspicious state that requires a biopsy, or is of an indeterminate state that requires subsequent imaging after a particular length of time. When an identified region of suspicion is determined to be of an indeterminate state, the determination is automatically reconsidered in light of a calibration factor that biases the automatic determination towards either a benign state or a suspicious state. The calibration factor may be based on data collected from follow-up examinations that reveal whether a lesion previously characterized as indeterminate was actually a benign or malignant lesion or on additional diagnostic information including prior image data or non-image data.