Feature Enhancement in Medical Ultrasound Videos Using Multifractal and Contrast Adaptive Histogram Equalization Techniques

Speckle noise reduction algorithms are extensively used in the field of ultrasound image analysis with the aim of improving image quality and diagnostic accuracy. However, significant speckle filtering induces blurring, and this would require enhancement of features and fine details. In this paper, we consider the applications of multifractal features and contrast limit adaptive histogram equalization method for improving texture features, contrast, resolvable details, and image structures to which the human visual system is sensitive in ultrasound video frames. The experimental analysis considered various types of ultrasound video scans of the human anatomy e.g. breast cancer, uterine fibroids, transvaginal ovary, ovarian cyst, heart, and chest pleural effusion scan. Subjective assessments by four radiologists and experimental validation using three quality metrics clearly indicate that the proposed algorithm is able to reduce speckle effectively while preserving essential information and enhancing the overall visual quality.