Segmentation of the breast region in mammograms using active contours

The largest single feature on a mammogram is the skin-air interface, or breast contour. Extraction of the breast contour is useful for a number of reasons. Foremost it allows the search for abnormalities to be limited to the region of the breast without undue influence from the background of the mammogram. Segmentation of the breast-region from the background is made difficult by the tapering nature of the breast, such that the breast contour lies in between the soft-tissue and the non-breast region. This paper explores the application of active contours to the problem of extracting the breast region in mammograms.