DTCWT Based Multimodal Medical Image Fusion

Getting clinical information from fusion of multimodal medical images is a challenging and emerging area of research from last decade. Wide range of applications of medical image fusion proves its importance in diagnosing diseases and surgical planning. This paper presents a method for multimodal medical image fusion based on Dual Tree Complex Wavelet Transform (DTCWT). Shift invariance, better directionality and availability of phase information in complex wavelet coefficients provide improved fusion results than the fusion methods based on Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). Quantitative analysis of fusion results also proved that DTCWT based fusion results is better than DWT based methods. KeywordsMedical imaging, Wavelet transform, Dual Tree Complex Wavelet Transform, Multimodal medical image fusion.

[1]  N. Kingsbury Complex Wavelets for Shift Invariant Analysis and Filtering of Signals , 2001 .

[2]  G. Qu,et al.  Information measure for performance of image fusion , 2002 .

[3]  Edward H. Adelson,et al.  The Laplacian Pyramid as a Compact Image Code , 1983, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[4]  Cedric Nishan Canagarajah,et al.  Image Fusion Using Complex Wavelets , 2002, BMVC.

[5]  Alexander Toet,et al.  Image fusion by a ration of low-pass pyramid , 1989, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[6]  Alexander Toet,et al.  Merging thermal and visual images by a contrast pyramid , 1989 .

[7]  Stavri G. Nikolov,et al.  Image fusion: Advances in the state of the art , 2007, Inf. Fusion.

[8]  B. S. Manjunath,et al.  Multisensor Image Fusion Using the Wavelet Transform , 1995, CVGIP Graph. Model. Image Process..

[9]  Mithat Gonen,et al.  Head and neck cancer: clinical usefulness and accuracy of PET/CT image fusion. , 2004, Radiology.

[10]  Gonzalo Pajares,et al.  A wavelet-based image fusion tutorial , 2004, Pattern Recognit..

[11]  Tatsuya Higashi,et al.  Clinical Value of Image Fusion from MR and PET in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer , 2008, Molecular Imaging and Biology.

[12]  Vladimir Petrovic,et al.  Objective image fusion performance measure , 2000 .

[13]  Thomas S. Huang,et al.  The importance of phase in image processing filters , 1975 .

[14]  Yun Zhang,et al.  Wavelet based image fusion techniques — An introduction, review and comparison , 2007 .

[15]  Richard Baraniuk,et al.  The Dual-tree Complex Wavelet Transform , 2007 .