Gray-scale and geometric registration of full-field digital and film-screen mammograms

During the transition from traditional film-screen (FS) mammography to full-field digital (FFD) mammography, images from both modalities are used in hospitals and in mammography screening centers, as comparison of mammograms from subsequent examinations of a client is an important part of the diagnostic procedure. A parametric method is presented to register a FS mammogram and a FFD mammogram of the same woman with respect to geometry and gray-scales. The main motivation for the study is to lessen irrelevant differences between mammograms due to acquisition. First, a technique like this might increase the radiologist's ability to detect relevant differences like abnormal growth in breast tissue that signal breast cancer. Second, applications may be found in subtraction radiology or in computer-aided detection of abnormalities in temporal mammograms. The proposed method is based on a parametric model of the most important aspects of acquisition, which relates the pixel values of two images. This encompasses (1) breast positioning; (2) breast compression; (3) exposure time; (4) incident radiation intensity; and (5a) film properties and digitization for FS mammograms, or (5b) detector response for FFD mammograms. The method does not require a priori knowledge about specific settings of acquisition; the parameters are estimated from the two mammograms themselves.