KEYWORDS: Ultrasonography, Scattering, Signal to noise ratio, Breast cancer, Tissues, Breast, Data acquisition, Image processing, Statistical analysis, Signal processing
In this study we present a preliminary evaluation of the inter-operator (InterOp) and intra-operator (IntraOp) variability of Quantitative Ultrasound features based on first-order speckle statistics used in breast cancer characterization. Ultrasound echo signals from ten patients with biopsy-confirmed invasive ductal carcinomas were acquired in vivo in the radial and antiradial planes with a commercial ultrasound system using a linear array transducer. Each patient was scanned by three radiologists, each of which performed three acquisitions allowing the patient to reposition in between acquisitions. Parametric images of six QUS features obtained from the first order statistics of the speckle pattern of ultrasound images were computed, and the mean feature value within the lesion boundary was compared between pairs of images from different radiologists or acquisitions from the same radiologist. In general, the InterOp variability was 1.2 times larger than the IntraOp variability. These differences were not significant in the radial plane. In addition, features with similar InterOp and IntraOp variability were the ones with the largest overall variability.
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