Contrast Enhancement of Medical Radiography Images Using Edge Preserving Filters

Radiographic medical imaging is a key diagnostic tool for many diseases and has an important role in monitoring treatment and predicting outcome. As in the case with any other medical imaging modality, insufficient image contrast associated with the X-ray images could negatively affect the treatment process. Methods to improve the contrast in X-ray images by intensifying the X-ray dose delivered to the patient is also not advisable due to the harmful effects of the increased intensity radiation on the body. Therefore, the image quality improvement through post processing techniques is an essential part of medical imaging. This paper aims to present an iterative algorithm based on Guided Image Filtering for contrast enhancement of X-ray images.