Development of breast lesions models database.

Purpose: We present the development and the current state of the MaXIMA Breast Lesions Models Database, which is intended to provide researchers with both segmented and mathematical computer-based breast lesion models with realistic shape.

Methods: The database contains various 3D images of breast lesions of irregular shapes, collected from routine patient examinations or dedicated scientific experiments. It also contains images of simulated tumour models.

Models of breast lesions based on three-dimensional X-ray breast images.

This paper presents a method for creation of computational models of breast lesions with irregular shapes from patient Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) images or breast cadavers and whole-body Computed Tomography (CT) images. The approach includes six basic steps: (a) normalization of the intensity of the tomographic images; (b) image noise reduction; (c) binarization of the lesion area, (d) application of morphological operations to further decrease the level of artefacts; (e) application of a region growing technique to segment the lesion; and (f) creation of a final 3D lesion model. The algorithm is semi-automatic as the initial selection of the region of the lesion and the seeds for the region growing are done interactively.