A medical feature enhancing new denoising technique for ultrasound images.

To 50% of the neonates with a very low birth weight (VLBW:<1500g) is suffering fromleukom ala- cia (White Matter Damage) at birth. Leukomalacia, especially in the early stage of its development, is vis- ible in ultrasound images as "white clouds" (so-called "flares"). The gravity of the damage can be determined fromthe shape, the area, and the internal texture of those flares. In this paper we introduce a new speckle suppression technique that takes into account tissue classifying pa- rameters. The individual speckles are located, and ex- ploiting our knowledge on the tissue classifiation de- termines whether the speckle is noise or a medically relevant detail. If it is noise, then it is removed. We conclude with showing that applying an active contour after the proposed technique yields a segmen- tation much closer to that of an expert.