Clutter Rejection Using 3D Morphological Filtering in Ultrasound Color Flow Images

We propose an efficient algorithm using 3D morphological filtering for rejecting clutters in ultrasound color flow images. It consists of mask generation, preprocessing, and 3D morphological filtering. In the filtering, 2D binary opening is performed in spatial domain, which is followed by 2D binary opening in lateral-temporal domain. The shape and size of a structuring element for 2D opening are determined according to the statistical characteristics of the clutters and vessels. Simulation results have shown that the proposed algorithm is efficient to remove clutters from color flow images.