Presented at the 2006 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro, Arlington, VA, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISBI.2006.1625064A stochastic decomposition algorithm of the RF Echo into its
coherent and diffuse components is used towards estimating the
structural parameters of the hyperplastic stages of the breast tissue
leading to early breast cancer detection. The discrimination power
of the various parameters is studied under a host of conditions
such as varying resolution and SNR values using a point scatterer
model simulator that mimics epithelium hyperplastic growth in the
breast ducts. It is shown that three parameters, in particular, the
number of coherent scatterers, the Rayleigh scattering degree and
the energy of the diffuse scatterers, prove to show very high ability
to discriminate between various stages of hyperplasia even in
cases of low resolution and SNR values. Values of Az>0.942 were
obtained for resolution less than or equal to 0.4mm even in low
SNR values, then it drops below the 0.9 range as the resolution
exceeds the 0.4mm range
