ANALYSIS OF ULTRASONOGRAPHIC PROSTATE IMAGES FOR THE DETECTION OF PROSTATIC-CARCINOMA - THE AUTOMATED UROLOGIC DIAGNOSTIC EXPERT-SYSTEM

This paper describes a study on the automated analysis of ultrasonogra phic prostate images. With image processing, tissue characterization i n the prostate was performed to assess the probability of malignancy. During prostate examinations, images were recorded at the positions wh ere biopsies were taken. The used samples were divided into three grou ps. Two of them were used for the construction of a classification tre e, and the third was used for the evaluation of this classification. A sensitivity of 80.6% and specificity of 77.1% were reached retrospect ively. In a prospective way, these results were 80.0% and 88.2%, respe ctively. The prospective predictive value for cancer detection was 85. 7%. The presented prospective value for image analysis was almost twic e as high as the values normally found for prostate examination.