Work to improve the accuracy of diagnostic breast
ultrasound has led to the development by American
College of Radiologists of a well-defined system for
breast lesion Assessment (also known as scoring the Level of Suspicion (LOS)) based on
parameters describing the ultrasound appearance of
breast lesions (known as
BI-RADS®).
BI-RADS®
outlines six different possible mammogram results,
ranging from a Category 0 to a Category 6.
Overall Assessment or in other words
LOS score is assigned based on the number of
benign and
malignant criteria found.
Almen Laboratories has developed a computer-aided
tool for breast ultrasound image analysis that operates with the physician in
the loop. The system compares a breast mass in question to a database of patient
images with verified known findings, displays those most similar to it and
computes an estimate of Level of Suspicion (LOS) for cancer following the
American College of
Radiologists and FDA approved method.
Here is how our Companion
Suite
protocol works:
-
The system reads
digital image(s) of the ultrasound test (full
case cohort).
-
The user manually
or automatically with the help of our system processes,
identifies and quantifies borders of the lesion.
-
The radiologist is
in the loop to confirm the identified lesion
borders or he/she can use manual methods to
outline / edit the lesion overwriting computer
borders detection.
-
Radiologist
completes BI-RADS®
Report based on the lexicon. Radiologist records
his/her overall BI-RADS®
assessment (score).
-
Then optionally automated scoring is
invoked by the radiologist. The numeric parameters extracted from the
lesion in question are automatically (using
statistical analysis) calculated.
-
Based on now formed
parameter string the system searches our digital
database and retrieves similar images of
previously quantified lesions with biopsy proven
findings.
-
Relative Similarity
index between lesion in question and retrieved
similar lesions is calculated.
-
Now the system
calculates computerized BI-RADS®
Assessment (score) based on
Relative Similarity index and pathology indicators of
biopsy proven findings of the similar lesions.
-
Then the resultant score
may optionally be appended to the BI-RADS®
report which is now exported or printed.
