Title :
Speckle reduction in echocardiographic images
Author_Institution :
Image Process. Lab., U.S.T.H.B., Algiers, Algeria
Abstract :
Speckle noise is the major difficulty that arises in echocardiographic image processing. Adaptive smoothing techniques for speckle reduction in Two-dimensional echocardiographic images are presented in this paper. Tn the first stage, we have applied the Lee, Kuan, and Frost filters, based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) design approach. Additionally, anisotropic diffusion method has been used to denoise echocardiographic images. It´s a new method derived from convolution with a Gaussian, which allows reducing the noise in the image without blurring the frontiers between different regions. Criteria for quantifying the performance of the studied filters have been defmed and calculated. We cite the ratio of mean grey level, the ratio of speckle index, and the parameter of transition. Quantitative measurements demonstrate the effectiveness of the anisotropic diffusion filter, for both speckle reduction and edge preservation.
Keywords :
Gaussian processes; biodiffusion; echocardiography; filtering theory; image denoising; least mean squares methods; medical image processing; Gaussian method; Lee Kuan-and-Frost filters; MMSE design approach; adaptive smoothing techniques; anisotropic diffusion; anisotropic diffusion filter; echocardiographic image denoising; edge preservation; mean grey level; minimum mean square error design approach; quantitative measurements; speckle index; speckle noise; speckle reduction; two-dimensional echocardiographic image processing; Abstracts; Filtering; Image edge detection; Image segmentation; Smoothing methods; The Lee, Kuan, and Frost filters; anisotropic diffusion; echocardiographic images; performance criteria; speckle reduction;
Conference_Titel :
Signal Processing Conference, 2006 14th European
Conference_Location :
Florence
