Speckle reduction in ultrasound images using an improved conductance function based on Anisotropic Diffusion

Pre-processing of breast ultrasound images is a necessary pre-requisite for development of computer-aided detection (CADe) techniques for breast cancer. This requires effective suppression of speckle content prior to the application of any enhancement algorithm. This paper presents an approach to modify the diffusion coefficient of existing Anisotropic Diffusion (AD) filter. The proposed approach requires incorporation of hyperbolic tangent as a conductance function in the diffusion coefficient. This aids in effective filtering of speckle along with preservation of textural content. Promising values of performance parameters advocate the efficiency of the proposed speckle reduction approach.