A multiscale contrast enhancement algorithm for breast cancer detection using Laplacian Pyramid

Abstract

Mammography is currently regarded as one of the best ways to detect breast cancer in the early stage. However, due to the limitation in imaging condition and the subtleness of the difference between normal and abnormal features, it is generally difficult to interpret the mammograms. Thus, image enhancement techniques have been widely used in screening mammograms. In this paper, a multiscale contrast enhancement algorithm based on Laplacian Pyramid is developed to enhance the contrast of the mammograms and improve the discernibility of the abnormal features. In the proposed algorithm, an image is first decomposed into a multi-level Laplacian Pyramid and then the enhancement is performed in the reconstruction stage. A multiscale contrast measure is used to modify the coefficients iteratively level by level and the enhanced image is obtained at the lowest level. Experiments proved the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.