Statistical study of the wavelet-based lossy medical image compression technique]

Medical digital images have informational redundancy. Both the amount of memory for image storage and their transmission time could be reduced if image compression techniques are applied. The techniques are divided into two groups: lossless (compression ratio does not exceed 3 times) and lossy ones. Compression ratio of lossy techniques depends on visibility of distortions. It is a variable parameter and it can exceed 20 times. A compression study was performed to evaluate the compression schemes, which were based on the wavelet transform. The goal was to develop a set of recommendations for an acceptable compression ratio for different medical image modalities: ultrasound cardiac images and X-ray angiographic images. The acceptable image quality after compression was evaluated by physicians. Statistical analysis of the evaluation results was used to form a set of recommendations.