Analysis of Breast Thermography Using Fractal Dimension to Establish Possible Difference between Malignant and Benign Patterns
- 1 January 2010
- journal article
- Published by Hindawi Limited in Journal of Healthcare Engineering
- Vol. 1 (1), 27-44
- https://doi.org/10.1260/2040-2295.1.1.27
Abstract
Early detection of breast cancer by means of thermal imaging has a long and extremely controversial history. Recently, the availability of highly sensitive infrared (IR) cameras which can produce high-resolution diagnostic images of the temperature and vascular changes of breasts, as well as a better knowledge of advanced image processing techniques, has generated a renewed interest. The objective of this study is to investigate fractal analysis of breast thermal images and to develop an algorithm for detecting benignity and malignancy of breast diseases. The study is based on IR images captured by thermal camera, in which the resolution of the results is within the state of the art of IR camera. A total of 7 malignant cases and 8 benign cases have been considered. The breast images were first segmented by fuzzy c-means clustering. Then the first hottest regions for each image were identified and the fractal dimension of those regions was computed. It is shown that the fractal dimension results significantly differ between malignant and benign patterns, suggesting that fractal analysis may potentially improve the reliability of thermography in breast tumor detectionKeywords
This publication has 31 references indexed in Scilit:
- A review of thermography as promising non-invasive detection modality for breast tumorInternational Journal of Thermal Sciences, 2009
- Advanced integrated technique in breast cancer thermographyJournal of Medical Engineering & Technology, 2008
- Analysis of IR thermal imager for mass blind fever screeningMicrovascular Research, 2004
- Early detection of breast cancer using thermal texture mapsPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2003
- Infrared Imaging of the Breast: Initial Reappraisal Using High-Resolution Digital Technology in 100 Successive Cases of Stage I and II Breast CancerThe Breast Journal, 1998
- Thermographic detection of breast cancerIEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine, 1998
- A reappraisal of the use of infrared thermal image analysis in medicineIEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 1998
- Fractal Characteristics of Tumor Vascular Architecture During Tumor Growth and RegressionMicrocirculation, 1997
- Angiogenesis in Preinvasive Lesions of the BreastThe Breast Journal, 1996
- Fractals and chaos in cancer modelsInternational Journal of Theoretical Physics, 1993