Patents Granted for CAD Technology That Provides Greater Accuracy in Evaluating Mammograms

New computer-aided detection (CAD) software can enhance radiologists’ effectiveness in detecting cancerous tumors on mammograms.

Parascript, LLC (Longmont, CO, USA), an image analysis and pattern recognition technology provider, reported that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted two patents for its technology that provides improvements in detecting suspicious lesions on mammograms when utilizing CAD software, AccuDetect.

AccuDetect integrates with existing full-field digital mammography (FFDM) or computed radiography (CR) digital CAD systems. The technology automatically studies digital mammography images to identify suspicious areas for possible soft tissue densities and/or calcifications and enables a more effective mammogram interpretation. It is used to identify and target hard-to-find tumors and anomalies on medical images that may be indicative of cancer and bring them to the attention of radiologists.

Parascript’s patent safeguards the company’s novel approach to achieving high performance in AccuDetect. Complementary algorithms are employed to detect the presence of suspicious lesions on mammography images. Parascript then applies proprietary technology to reach the final detection results, based on the analysis of the detection findings from each algorithm. The voting technology has served as a vital component in creating a CAD product with high sensitivity and low false-positive rates.

Parascript’s patent protects the technology provider’s unique ability to apply a sophisticated mathematical model called conditional random field to considerably improve the effectiveness of cancer detection.

“Our long-term goal is to create a CAD product which will match the performance of the most experienced radiologists. To achieve this goal we need to create significantly more sophisticated technology compared to that traditionally utilized in CAD products. These two patents represent an important step in this direction. The technology protected by these patents has enabled AccuDetect to achieve both high sensitivity and low false-positive rates,” said Alexander Filatov, president at Parascript.

Parascript’s AccuDetect technology has been successfully deployed in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Sweden. It is on display at the Radiological Society of North America’s (RSNA) annual conference in Chicago (IL, USA), November 25-30, 2012.

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