ABSTRACT

Breast skin changes are considered by physicians as an additional sign of breast pathology. They can be divided into two major categories, namely skin retraction

and localized or generalized skin thickening, which can be either benign or malignant. The skin can attain a thickness of 10 to 20 times normal before it can be perceived as abnormal by palpation [1, 2]. Both retraction and thickening may be evident mammographically before they can be clinically detected. The existing techniques for the measurement of breast skin thickness are based on manual estimations on the mammograms, using simple measuring devices [3, 4]. Considering the continuous evolution of computer-aided diagnostic systems, the aforementioned manual methods appear quite obsolete. As far as time and accuracy are concerned, the quantitative analysis of breast skin changes can be substantially improved with a computer-assisted measurement technique.