Despeckling medical ultrasound image based on spatially adaptive maximum-likelihood estimation

In view of the inherent speckle noise in medical ultrasound image, a novel method based on spatially adaptive maximum-likelihood (ML) technique is proposed. A binary edge mask is firstly estimated to indicate the possible edges in the speckled image. An ML estimation approach is then utilized, whose shape parameter and window size are adaptively controlled by the edge mask. Finally, the noise-free tissue echogenicity map is obtained. The quantitative assessment from both simulation and in vivo experiment indicate that the proposed method strikes an optimal balance between noise suppression and edge preservation.