Classification of ultrasonic B-mode images of breast masses using Nakagami distribution.

The Nakagami distribution was proposed recently for modeling the echo from tissue. In vivo breast data collected from patients with lesions were studied using this Nakagami model. Chi-square tests showed that the Nakagami distribution is a better fit to the envelope than the Rayleigh distribution. Two parameters, m (effective number) and alpha (effective cross section), associated with the Nakagami distribution were used for the classification of breast masses. Data from 52 patients with breast masses/lesions were used in the studies. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) were calculated for the classification methods based on these two parameters. The results indicate that these parameters of the Nakagami distribution may be useful in classification of the breast abnormalities. The Nakagami distribution may be a reasonable means to characterize the backscattered echo from breast tissues toward a goal of an automated scheme for separating benign and malignant breast masses.