Reduction of anatomical noise in medical X-ray images

Abstract

The X-ray pattern of a mass of very fine non-distinguishable anatomical structures alters completely from radiograph to radiograph due to the unavoidable movements of the patient during the exposure. The corresponding image component shows noise-like behaviour and is therefore referred to as the anatomical noise. Reducing this component would enhance the quality of the clinical X-ray image and increase the detectability of radiological signal. We have found that by comparing two X-ray images of the same anatomy acquired under slightly different imaging geometry, it is possible to reduce the anatomical noise in one of the image pair. The proposed method, which allows this, is based on the appropriate attenuation in the wavelet domain. The values of attenuating factors for the wavelet coefficients are proportional to the correlation between the corresponding features of both images. This method was tested for different changes in the imaging geometry. In the case of no geometrical changes, only the quantum and the electronic noise are reduced. An effect of de-noising for the investigated images is obvious.