Speckle noise reduction in breast ultrasound images: SMU (SRAD median unsharp) approch

In medical image processing, image denoising has become a very essential for better information extraction from the image and mainly from so noised ones, such as ultrasound (US)images. On the other hand, processed image must preserve the pertinent details of the primary image. So, arbitration between the perpetuation of useful diagnostic information and noise suppression must be teasured in medical images. In general we rely on the intervention of a proficient to control the quality of processed images. In certain cases, for instance in ultrasound images, the noise can restrain information which is valuable for the general practitioner. Consequently medical images are very inconsistent, and it is crucial to operate case to case. This paper presents a novel algorithm SMU (Srad Median Unsharp) for noise suppression in ultrasound breat images inorder to realize a computer aided diagnosis (CAD) for breast cancer. A comparitive study of the results obtained by the proposed method with the results achieved from the other speckle noise reduction techniques demonstrates its higher performance for speckle reduction.