Utility of adaptive control processing for the interpretation of digital mammograms.

BackgroundAdaptive control processing for mammography (ACM) is a novel program that automatically sets up appropriate image-processing parameters for individual mammograms (MMGs) by analyzing the focal and whole breast histogram.PurposeTo investigate whether ACM improves the image contrast of digital MMGs and whether it improves radiologists’ diagnostic performance in reading of MMGs.Material and MethodsOne hundred normal cases for image quality assessment and another 100 cases (50 normal and 50 cancers) for observer performance assessment were enrolled. All mammograms were examined with and without ACM. Five radiologists assessed the intra- and extra-mammary contrast of 100 normal MMGs, and the mean scores of the intra- and extra-mammary contrast were compared between MMGs with and without ACM in both the dense and non-dense group. They classified 100 MMGs into BI-RADS categories 1–5, and were asked to rate the images on a scale of 0 to 100 for the likelihood of the presence of category 3–5 lesions in ea...