Software tools for medical diagnosis support automatic interpretation of digital X-ray films

The use of digital image processing as a medical diagnosis aid is now well established, being slowly but successfully integrated directly within the medical imaging devices. The traditional use of digital image processing as a post-imaging technique is still interesting, especially for new approaches to classical applications or for pioneering new ones. Our studies in the field of near automatic interpretation of particular X-ray types showed the possibility of performing various diagnostic-relevant tasks, such as grading the bone mass density based on the texture of the calcaneal bone, the analysis of the fit of un-cemented total hip prostheses and the investigation of the mammographic masses. The particular nature of the physics underlying the image acquisition in X-ray films suggested the use of new software tools based on a modified version of the classical Logarithmic Image Processing (LIP) model. We will show that the modified logarithmic operations allow, among other, fast and precise image enhancement and contour extraction in various situations.