Segmentation of microcalcifications in mammogram images using intensity-directed region growing

An intutive segmentation technique to separate the microcalcification regions from the mammogram is given in this article. This mechanism, first enhances the input image using an image-dependent threshold value and binarizes it to obtain an enhanced image. Then the pixels constituting the edges of microcalcification regions are grown in the enhanced image, with respect to the neighbourhood pixels. Lastly, the edge intensities of the enhanced image are remapped into the original image, using which the regions of interest are segmented. The results of the present work are compared with the ground realities of the sample images obtained from MIAS database.