Investigation of Three-Group Classifiers to Fully Automate Detection and Classification of Breast Lesions in an Intelligent CAD Mammography Workstation

Abstract

Our goal is to develop a fully automated classification scheme for computer-aided diagnosis in mammography. Our proposed scheme would classify computer detections into three groups: malignant lesions, benign lesions, and false-positive computer detections. This method presents considerable difficulties in terms of both signal detection theory and performance evaluation methods. During the past year we have focused our efforts on theoretical understanding of the behavior and properties of the three-group classifier. We have proven that an obvious generalization of the well-known two-group performance metric is not in fact a useful performance metric for classification tasks with three or more groups. We have developed an evaluation technique, independent of those we have previously developed, for assessing the accuracy of estimates of ideal observer decision variables. We have analyzed several recently proposed three-group classification methods in terms of the three-group ideal observer. Finally. we have shown that the three decision boundary lines used by the three-group ideal observer are not arbitrary, but are intricately related to one another. A three-group classifier could potentially allow radiologists to detect more malignant breast lesions without increasing their false-positive biopsy rates.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA437311

Entities

People

  • Charles E. Metz
  • Darrin C. Edwards
  • Maryellen Lissak Giger

Organizations

  • University of Chicago

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Biomedical Research
  • Boundaries
  • Classification
  • Computer-Aided Diagnosis
  • Computers
  • Detection
  • Diagnostic Imaging
  • Electronic Mail
  • Image Processing
  • Machine Learning
  • Medical Personnel
  • Neural Networks
  • Observers
  • Physicians
  • Signal Detection

Readers

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