CAD in Breast MRI based on Biological Neural Network

描述(申请人提供)：用于乳腺MRI的计算机辅助设计的标准技术基于有监督的人工神经网络，并且显示出不令人满意的判别结果和有限的应用能力。与这些技术相关的主要缺点是：(1)需要固定的MR成像方案，(2)难以诊断直径仅为几mm的小乳腺肿块，(3)无法捕获病变结构，以及(4)由于不均匀的病变数据池而造成的训练限制。为了克服上述问题，本研究计划的主题是使用生物神经网络，严格关注观察到的完整的MRI信号时间序列，并实现对动态对比增强的乳腺MRI时间序列的自组织数据驱动分割。信号幅度和动力学的细粒度差异，例如不确定乳腺病变患者的局灶性增强。本项目的目标是在跨学科的框架下提高乳腺MRI的诊断质量。具体地说，该项目的目标是：(1)开发、评估和测试新的神经网络技术，用于动态对比增强的乳腺MRI数据的功能和结构分割、可视化和分类，因此，(2)通过改进对传统X射线乳房X光检查发现的可疑病变的进一步评估，大大有助于乳腺癌的诊断。PI是一名具有模式识别背景的电气和计算机工程师，他一直在开发新的分类方法，这些方法源于最新的生物发现，旨在模拟生物系统中的决策和感觉处理。这项有指导的定量研究职业发展奖将允许PI获得癌症研究技术和计算机辅助放射学方面的培训，并使用这些技能来扩展和有效地将这些新的理论工具应用于生物医学应用。因此，PI的长期职业目标是成为模式识别生物医学应用的有效研究人员，特别是在计算机辅助诊断方面。这项拟议的研究结果预计将对医疗保健政策产生重大影响，有助于通过非侵入性成像诊断不确定的乳房病变。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Standard techniques used in CAD for breast MRI are based on supervised artificial neural networks and have shown unsatisfactory discriminative results and limited application capabilities. The major disadvantages associated with these techniques are: (1) requirement of a fixed MR imaging protocol, (2) difficulties in diagnosing small breast masses with a diameter of only a few mm, (3) incapacity of capturing the lesion structure, and (4) training limitations due to an inhomogeneous lesions data pool. To overcome the above mentioned problems, the theme of this research plan becomes to employ biological neural networks which focus strictly on the observed complete MRI signal time-series, and enable a self-organized data-driven segmentation of dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MRI time-series w.r.t. fine-grained differences of signal amplitude, and dynamics, such as focal enhancement in patients with indeterminate breast lesions. The goal of the present project is to improve in an interdisciplinary framework the diagnostic quality in breast MRI. Specifically, the objectives of this proposed project are to: (1) develop, evaluate and test novel neural network techniques for functional and structural segmentation, visualization, and classification of dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MRI data, and thus, (2) substantially contribute to breast cancer diagnosis by improved further evaluation of suspicious lesions detected by conventional X-ray mammography. The PI is an electrical and computer engineer with a background in pattern recognition who has been developing new classification methods derived from the newest biological discoveries aiming to imitate decision-making, and sensory processing in biological systems. This Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award will permit the PI to acquire training in cancer research techniques and in computer assisted radiology, and to use these skills to extend and productively apply these new theoretical tools to biomedical applications. Accordingly, the long-term career goal of the PI is to become an effective researcher in the biomedical applications of pattern recognition, with specific emphasis in computer-aided diagnosis. The outcome of the proposed research is expected to have substantial implications in healthcare politics by contributing to the diagnosis of indeterminate breast lesions by non-invasive imaging.