Ultrasound Image Enhancement Using Structure-Based Filtering
Ultrasound images are prone to speckle noises. Speckles blur features which are essential for diagnosis and assessment. Thus despeckling is a necessity in ultrasound image processing. Linear filters can suppress speckles, but they smooth out features. Median filter based despeckling algorithms produ...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Hindawi Limited
2014-01-01
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| Series: | Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/758439 |
| Summary: | Ultrasound images are prone to speckle noises. Speckles blur features which are essential for diagnosis and assessment. Thus despeckling is a necessity in ultrasound image processing. Linear filters can suppress speckles, but they smooth out features. Median filter based despeckling algorithms produce
better results. However, they may produce artifact patterns in the resulted images and oversmooth nonuniform regions. This paper presents an innovative despeckle procedure for ultrasound images. In the proposed method,
the diffusion tensor of intensity is computed at each pixel at first. Then the eigensystem of the diffusion tensor is calculated and employed to detect and classify the underlying structure. Based on the classification result, a feasible filter is selected to suppress speckles and enhance features. Test results show that the proposed despeckle method reduces speckles in uniform areas and enhances tissue boundaries and spots. |
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| ISSN: | 1748-670X 1748-6718 |