Analysis of mammogram using self-organizing neural networks based on spatial isomorphism

The correct segmentation and measurement of mammography images is of fundamental importance for the development of automatic or computer-aided cancer detection systems. In this paper we propose a method to segment mammogram image using a self-organizing neural network based on spatial isomorphism. The method used is a modified version of the algorithm proposed by Venkatesh and Rishikesh [1] to extract object boundaries in an image. This model explores the principle of spatial isomorphism and self-organization in order to create flexible contours that characterize shapes in images. We modified the original algorithm to overcame problems of local minimum, poor performance for image object with large concavity and imprecise results when simple or far from object border contour are chosen. A comparison of both algorithm and original segmentation used by the AHAS database [9] is presented.