Patent Document ID: 20090297002
Application ID: 12541216
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of obtaining a microcalcification cluster listing for a digital mammography image, comprising the steps of: a) enhancing intensities for at least a portion of pixels in the image; b) calculating a threshold intensity value for pixel intensities and setting a target number of clusters according to overall image contrast; c) identifying pixels having intensities above the threshold intensity value and generating a candidate microcalcification listing from the identified pixels; d) generating a candidate microcalcification cluster listing by forming groupings of microcalcifications from the candidate microcalcification listing; e) comparing the number of candidate clusters in the candidate microcalcification cluster listing to the target number of clusters; f) recalculating the threshold value according to the difference between the number of candidate clusters and the target number of clusters to obtain a recalculated threshold value; and g) testing the recalculated threshold value by obtaining a count of the number of pixels having intensities above the recalculated threshold value and: (i) if the count differs from the number of pixels having intensities above the threshold intensity value identified in step c), replacing the threshold value with the recalculated threshold value and repeating the sequence of steps b) through g); or (ii) if the count does not differ from the number of pixels having intensities above the threshold intensity value identified in step c), saving the candidate microcalcification cluster listing generated in step d) as the microcalcification cluster listing.