Noise reduction of echocardiographic images using wavelet filtering

In this paper we proposed a new wavelet filtering technique to reduce the speckle noise in ultrasound images. The advantages of this approach are demonstrated in echocardiographic image enhancement and in comparison with other techniques. Wavelet signal processing provides a multiresolution decomposition. The fact that wavelet approaches tend to concentrate energy near edge features makes the result rather different than that found in standard Fourier based approaches. For speckle noise, the time and frequency localization capabilities of wavelets provide better noise reduction and less signal distortion than direct filtering of data. A technical method of noise filtering for reducing speckle noise in ultrasound images is presented. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the application of these techniques to echocardiographic images. Application of the proposed method to echocardiographic images has demonstrated that the results produced have high potential for use as inputs for a further automated interpretation stage.