Effect of display resolution on the detection of mammographie lesions
For diagnosis of breast cancer by mammography, the mammograms must be viewed by a radiologist. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of display resolution on the specific clinical task of detection of breast lesions by a human observer. Using simulation techniques, this study proceeded through four stages. First, we inserted simulated masses and calcifications into raw digital mammograms. The resulting images were processed according to standard image processing techniques and appropriately windowed and leveled. The processed images were blurred according to MTFs measured from a clinical Cathode Ray Tube display. JNDMetrix, a Visual Discrimination Model, examined the images to estimate human detection. The model results suggested that detection of masses and calcifications decreased under standard CRT resolution. Future work will confirm these results with human observer studies. (This work was supported by grants NIH R21-CA95308 and USAMRMC W81XWH-04-1-0323.).
