A new denoising method for dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2008:2008:847-50. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2008.4649286.

Abstract

This paper presents a new algorithm for denoising dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MR images. The algorithm is called Dynamic Non-Local Means and is a novel variation on the Non-Local Means (NL-Means) algorithm. It exploits the redundancy of information in the DCE-MRI sequence of images. An evaluation of the performance of the algorithm relative to six other denoising algorithms-Gaussian filtering, the original NL-Means algorithm, bilateral filtering, anisotropic diffusion filtering, the wavelets adaptive multiscale products threshold method, and the traditional wavelet thresholding method-is also presented. The evaluation was performed by two groups of expert observers-18 signal/image processing experts, and 9 clinicians (8 radiographers and 1 radiologist)-using real DCE-MRI data. The results of the evaluation provide evidence, at the alpha=0.05 level of significance, that both groups of observers deem the DNLM algorithm to perform visually better than all of the other algorithms.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Artifacts*
  • Contrast Media*
  • Image Enhancement / methods*
  • Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity

Substances

  • Contrast Media