Texture analysis of lesions in breast ultrasound images

We investigate the use of Haralick's texture features and posterior acoustic attenuation descriptors (PAAD) for the characterization of ultrasound (US) breast lesions. 71 lesions (24 cyst, 21 benign solid mass and 26 malignant solid masses) were manually segmented on two-dimensional breast US images. 28 Haralick's descriptors and two PAAD were evaluated on these segmented lesions. Mean of Sum Average, Range of Sum Entropy and the second PAAD best discriminated cysts from noncysts. Range of Correlation and the second PAAD best discriminated solid malignant from benign lesions, Computerized analysis of breast US images can increase the specificity of breast sonography by providing a better characterization of solid lesions. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.