Artificial intelligence together with mechanical imaging in mammography

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications are increasingly seeing use in breast imaging, particularly to assist in or automate the reading of mammograms. Another novel technique is mechanical imaging (MI) which estimates the relative stiffness of suspicious breast abnormalities by measuring the distribution of pressure on the compressed breast. This study investigates the feasibility of combining AI and MI information in breast imaging to provide further diagnostic information. Forty-six women recalled from screening were included in the analysis. Mammograms with findings scored on a suspiciousness scale by an AI tool, and corresponding pressure distributions were collected for each woman. The cases were divided into three groups by diagnosis; biopsy-proven cancer, biopsy-proven benign and non-biopsied, very likely benign. For all three groups, the relative increase of pressure at the location of the finding marked most suspicious by the AI software was recorded. A significant correlation between the relative pressure increase at the AI finding and the AI score was established in the group with cancer (p=0.043), but neither group of healthy women showed such a correlation. This study suggests that AI and MI indicate independent markers for breast cancer. The combination of these two methods has the potential to increase the accuracy of mammography screening, but further research is needed.