Despeckling and Classification of Liver Ultrasound Images

Abstract

The present research work has been carried out to enhance the diagnostic quality of conventional B-Mode ultrasound (US) imaging modality for diagnosis of liver diseases. The study was conducted by collecting a comprehensive image database of 151 B-Mode liver US images with representative cases from each image class, acquired from the patients who underwent US examination at the Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India during a period from March 2010 to March 2012. The research objectives for the present work were formulated keeping in view the needs of the radiologists, based on the practical difficulties faced by them in routine clinical practice. The image database comprises of 23 Normal (NOR), 14 Cirrhotic, 14 Cyst, 19 Hemangioma (HEM), 36 Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) and 45 Metastatic Carcinoma (MET) liver images. Further bifurcation of Cyst, HEM and MET images into typical and atypical cases, and HCC cases into small HCC (SHCC) and large HCC (LHCC) cases is shown in Fig. 1.