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A Perceptually Tempered Display for Digital Mammograms¹

¹ From the Pendergrass Diagnostic Research Laboratory, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, 308 Stemmler Hall, 3600 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Recipient of a Certificate of Merit award for an infoRAD exhibit at the 1998 RSNA scientific assembly. Received April 9, 1999; revision requested May 12 and received June 10; accepted June 21. Supported by grants DAMD17-96-1-6153 and DAMD17-97-1-7130 from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. Address reprint requests to H.L.K.

The cathode ray tube of a workstation for use with digital mammograms was calibrated with a photometer to produce an input-output characteristic curve similar to the perceptually linear curve defined by a current display standard. Then, a test pattern consisting of bars of increasing intensity containing disks of decreasing contrast was used by an observer to estimate the minimal detectable contrast (MDC) at different levels of display luminance. The MDC was modeled by a parabola. The shape of the parabola was determined by the observer's perceptual responses, and the range was determined by the maximum and minimum pixel values of the breast parenchyma. As each mammogram was displayed, the contour of the breast was automatically found and pixels within the breast image were sampled to determine the pixel values that were used to compute the maximum and minimum pixel values. The parabola was integrated to determine the look-up table for the initial MDC-tempered display of the mammogram. Preliminary observer performance tests showed no significant differences in the accuracy and speed of three radiologists who read a set of mammograms when the MDC-tempered display was compared with the perceptually linear display.

Index Terms: Breast, 00.99 • Images, display • Radiography, digital

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