Review on Speckle Noise Reduction Techniques for Medical Ultrasound Image Processing

In medical image processing, for Ultrasound images, the noise can restrain information which is valuable for the Medical practitioner . Ultrasonic devices are frequently used by healthcare professionals. The use of ultrasound imaging in medical diagnosis is well established because of its noninvasive nature, low cost, capability of forming real time imaging and continuing improvement in image quality . The main problem during diagnosis is the distortion of visual signals .These distortions are termed as ‘Speckle Noise’, this makes the image unclear. In the medical literature, speckle noise is referred as “texture”. The success of ultrasonic examination depends on the image quality which is usually retarded due to speckle noise .Therefore, noise reduction is very important. In medical image processing, image denoising has become a very essential exercise all through the diagnose. In this review paper several techniques for effective suppression of speckle noise present in ultrasound images has been studied.