Computer-Aided Diagnosis in Medical Imaging: Achievements and Challenges

Abstract

Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) has become one of the major research subjects in medical imaging and diagnostic radiology. Many different types of CAD schemes are being developed for detection and/or characterization of various lesions in medical imaging, including conventional projection radiography, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound imaging. Organs that are currently being subjected to research for CAD include the breast, chest, colon, brain, liver, kidney, and the vascular and skeletal systems. Commercial systems for detection of breast lesions on mammograms have been developed and have received FDA approval for clinical use. It has been reported that more than 8,000 commercial CAD systems have been used at many hospitals, clinics, and screening centers in the United States and in Europe for assisting radiologists in their task of detecting breast cancers. It has been reported also from prospective studies that CAD has provided a gain of approximately 10-20% in the early detection of breast cancers on mammograms.