US TISSUE CHARACTERIZATION WORKSTATION - APPLICATIONS AND DESIGN

This article discusses the purpose, design, and uses of an ultrasonographic tissue characterization workstation. The distinguishing characteristic of a tissue characterization workstation is its ability to analyze and classify image textures. Texture is defined as regularly or randomly repeating patterns. Small texture differences in an image are difficult to observe in the presence of noise. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the image quantitatively. Quantitative measurements include run-length statistics, fractal dimension, and correlation statistics. The workstation is designed so that a radiologist can analyze the patient's images through an easy-to-use graphical user interface. The workstation software is based on standards, so that it can be run on a variety of different hardware platforms. The workstation can be used in a research environment to distinguish between images of malignant and benign breast lesions, which are difficult to diagnose visually. Further work is being done to make the workstation software into a useful clinical tool.