System and method for diagnosis of living tissue diseases using digital image processing

A method for diagnosis of living tissue diseases, comprising the steps of:

• providing a digital image of said living tissue to a computer;
• displaying said digital image on a viewing screen;
• selecting a portion of said digital image displayed on said viewing screen;
• enhancing the image contained within the selected portion according to one or more options from a plurality of image enhancement features including grey scale stretching using an S-shaped grey scale conversion curve, contrast enhancement based on logarithmic histogram equalization, and spot enhancement.

A system for diagnosis of living tissue diseases, comprising:

• a microcomputer for controlling the operation of said system;
• a memory coupled to said microcomputer for storing information as directed by said microcomputer;
• a scanning device coupled to said microcomputer for scanning a mammogram to provide a digital image of said mammogram for storing, viewing and further processing;
• a viewing screen coupled to said microcomputer wherein said digital image of said mammogram is displayed on said viewing screen;
• said microcomputer including circuit means enabling on-line display of selected portions of said scanned mammogram;
• and
• means for generating a plurality of grey scale conversion curves having a desired center and a desired slope at said center, said conversion curves converting the grey scale of said digital image into a new grey scale of a converted digital image, said desired center being a grey level value corresponding to said digital image such that for all said plurality of grey scale conversion curves said value of desired center is converted into a fixed grey level value on the new converted scale.

A system for diagnosis of living tissue diseases, comprising:

• a microcomputer for controlling the operation of said system;
• a memory coupled to said microcomputer for storing information as directed by said microcomputer;
• a scanning device coupled to said microcomputer for scanning a mammogram to provide a digital image of said mammogram for storing, viewing and further processing;
• a viewing screen coupled to said microcomputer wherein said digital image of said mammogram is displayed on said viewing screen;
• said microcomputer including circuit means enabling on-line display of selected portions of said scanned mammogram;
• and
• means for generating a plurality of grey scale conversion curves for converting the grey scale of said digital image into a new grey scale said grey scale conversion curves including an exponential curve from grey level value "0" to a desired grey level and a logarithmic curve from said desired grey level to grey level value "255."

A system for diagnosis of living tissue diseases comprising:

• a microcomputer for controlling the operation of said system;
• a scanning device couple to said microcomputer for scanning a mammogram and providing a digital image of said scanned mammogram;
• means for generating a cumulative logarithmic histogram of said digital image;
• and
• means for generating a look-up table for converting said digital image with a grey level scale into a new digital image with a new grey level scale such that the cumulative logarithmic histogram of said new digital image is equal to said generated cumulative logarithmic histogram.

A system for diagnosis of living tissue diseases comprising:

• a microcomputer for controlling the operation of said system;
• a scanning device coupled to said microcomputer for scanning a mammogram and providing a digital image of said scanned mammogram;
• means for comparing grey level values between pixels of the image and their surroundings;
• and
• means for generating a new digital image wherein differences above a certain threshold of grey levels are diminished and differences below a certain threshold of grey levels are accentuated.

A system for diagnosis of living tissue diseases, comprising:

• a microcomputer for controlling the operation of said system;
• a memory coupled to said microcomputer for storing information as directed by said microcomputer;
• a scanning device coupled to said microcomputer for scanning a mammogram to provide a digital image of said mammogram for storing, viewing and further processing;
• a viewing screen coupled to said microcomputer wherein said digital image of said mammogram is displayed on said viewing screen;
• said microcomputer including circuit means enabling on-line display of selected portions of said scanned mammogram;
• means for user definition of micro-calcifications by interactively trimming a grey level threshold such that all pixels above said grey level threshold are highlighted as micro-calcifications;
• and
• a region growing means for estimating the contour of said micro-calcifications, said region growing means comprising means for selecting and defining a current set of calcium pixels for each said micro-calcification.

A system for diagnosis of living tissue diseases, comprising:

• a microcomputer for controlling the operation of said system;
• a memory coupled to said microcomputer for storing information as directed by said microcomputer;
• a scanning device coupled to said microcomputer for scanning a mammogram to provide a digital image of said mammogram for storing, viewing and further processing;
• a viewing screen coupled to said microcomputer wherein said digital image of said mammogram is displayed on said viewing screen;
• said microcomputer including circuit means enabling on-line display of selected portions of said scanned mammogram;
• and
• means for measuring the degree of spiculation of a mass including,
• means for generating a binary gradient image of said digital image said binary gradient image having identified spiculation pixels, and
• means for measuring spiculation ratio based on said binary gradient image.

In a computer based system, a method for diagnosis of living tissue diseases, comprising the steps of:

• scanning a mammogram to provide a digital image of said mammogram for storing, viewing and further processing;
• displaying said digital image of said mammogram on a viewing screen;
• selecting a desired portion of said digital image;
• and
• generating a plurality of grey scale conversion curves having a desired center and a desired slope at said center, each one of said conversion curves converting the grey scale of said digital image into a new grey scale of a converted digital image, said desired center being a grey level value corresponding to said digital image such that for all said plurality of grey scale conversion curves said value of desired center is converted into a fixed grey level value on the new converted scale.

In a computer based system, a method for diagnosis of living tissue diseases comprising the steps of:

• scanning a mammogram and providing a digital image of said scanned mammogram to said computer;
• generating a cumulative logarithmic histogram of said digital image;
• and
• generating a look-up table for converting said digital image with a grey level scale into a new digital image with a new grey level scale such that the cumulative logarithmic histogram of said new digital image closely approximates said generated cumulative logarithmic histogram.

In a computer based system, a method for diagnosis of living tissue diseases comprising the steps of:

• scanning a mammogram and providing a digital image of said scanned mammogram;
• comparing grey level values between pixels of the image and their surroundings;
• and
• generating a new digital image wherein differences above a certain threshold of grey levels are diminished and differences below a certain threshold are accentuated.

In a computer based system a method for diagnosis of living tissue diseases, comprising the steps of:

• scanning a mammogram to provide a digital image of said mammogram for storing, viewing and further processing;
• displaying said digital image on a viewing screen;
• selecting a desired portion of said scanned mammogram;
• displaying micro-calcifications which are user-defined by interactively trimming a grey level threshold such that all pixels above said grey level threshold are highlighted as micro-calcifications;
• estimating the contour of said micro-calcifications using a region growing process, said region growing process comprising selecting and defining a current set of calcium pixels for each said micro-calcification;
• and
• producing an image with micro-calcifications which closely approximates the actual contour of said micro-calcifications.

In a computer based system, a method for diagnosis of living tissue diseases, comprising the steps of:

• scanning a mammogram to provide a digital image of said mammogram for storing, viewing and further processing;
• displaying said digital image on a viewing screen;
• selecting a desired portion of said digital image;
• and
• measuring the degree of spiculation of a mass by, generating a binary gradient image of said digital image said binary gradient image having identified spiculation pixels.