Despeckle Filtering Algorithms and Software for Ultrasound Imaging

Abstract It is well-known that speckle is a multiplicative noise that degrades image quality and the visual evaluation in ultrasound imaging. This necessitates the need for robust despeckling techniques for both routine clinical practice and teleconsultation. The goal for this book is to introduce the theoretical background (equations), the algorithmic steps, and the MATLAB™ code for the following group of despeckle filters: linear filtering, nonlinear filtering, anisotropic diffusion filtering and wavelet filtering. The book proposes a comparative evaluation framework of these despeckle filters based on texture analysis, image quality evaluation metrics, and visual evaluation by medical experts, in the assessment of cardiovascular ultrasound images recorded from the carotid artery. The results of our work presented in this book, suggest that the linear local statistics filter DsFlsmv, gave the best performance, followed by the nonlinear geometric filter DsFgf4d, and the linear homogeneous mask area filte...