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Improvement of Ultrasound Image Quality Using Non-Local Means Noise-Reduction Approach for Precise Quality Control and Accurate Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules

This study aimed to improve the quality of ultrasound images by modeling an algorithm using a non-local means (NLM) noise-reduction approach to achieve precise quality control and accurate diagnosis of thyroid nodules. An ATS-539 multipurpose phantom was used to scan the dynamic range and gray-scale...

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Autores principales: Kim, Kyuseok, Chon, Nuri, Jeong, Hyun-Woo, Lee, Youngjin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9654012/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36360621
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192113743
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author Kim, Kyuseok
Chon, Nuri
Jeong, Hyun-Woo
Lee, Youngjin
author_facet Kim, Kyuseok
Chon, Nuri
Jeong, Hyun-Woo
Lee, Youngjin
author_sort Kim, Kyuseok
collection PubMed
description This study aimed to improve the quality of ultrasound images by modeling an algorithm using a non-local means (NLM) noise-reduction approach to achieve precise quality control and accurate diagnosis of thyroid nodules. An ATS-539 multipurpose phantom was used to scan the dynamic range and gray-scale measurement regions, which are most closely related to the noise level. A convex-type 3.5-MHz frequency probe is used for scanning according to ATS regulations. In addition, ultrasound images of human thyroid nodules were obtained using a linear probe. An algorithm based on the NLM noise-reduction approach was modeled based on the intensity and relative distance of adjacent pixels in the image, and conventional filtering methods for image quality improvement were designed as a comparison group. When the NLM algorithm was applied to the image, the contrast-to-noise ratio and coefficient of variation values improved by 28.62% and 19.54 times, respectively, compared with those of the noisy images. In addition, the image improvement efficiency of the NLM algorithm was superior to that of conventional filtering methods. Finally, the applicability of the NLM algorithm to human thyroid images using a high-frequency linear probe was validated. We demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in ultrasound images and the possibility of capturing improved images in the dynamic range and gray-scale region for quality control parameters.
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spelling pubmed-96540122022-11-15 Improvement of Ultrasound Image Quality Using Non-Local Means Noise-Reduction Approach for Precise Quality Control and Accurate Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules Kim, Kyuseok Chon, Nuri Jeong, Hyun-Woo Lee, Youngjin Int J Environ Res Public Health Article This study aimed to improve the quality of ultrasound images by modeling an algorithm using a non-local means (NLM) noise-reduction approach to achieve precise quality control and accurate diagnosis of thyroid nodules. An ATS-539 multipurpose phantom was used to scan the dynamic range and gray-scale measurement regions, which are most closely related to the noise level. A convex-type 3.5-MHz frequency probe is used for scanning according to ATS regulations. In addition, ultrasound images of human thyroid nodules were obtained using a linear probe. An algorithm based on the NLM noise-reduction approach was modeled based on the intensity and relative distance of adjacent pixels in the image, and conventional filtering methods for image quality improvement were designed as a comparison group. When the NLM algorithm was applied to the image, the contrast-to-noise ratio and coefficient of variation values improved by 28.62% and 19.54 times, respectively, compared with those of the noisy images. In addition, the image improvement efficiency of the NLM algorithm was superior to that of conventional filtering methods. Finally, the applicability of the NLM algorithm to human thyroid images using a high-frequency linear probe was validated. We demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in ultrasound images and the possibility of capturing improved images in the dynamic range and gray-scale region for quality control parameters. MDPI 2022-10-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9654012/ /pubmed/36360621 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192113743 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kim, Kyuseok
Chon, Nuri
Jeong, Hyun-Woo
Lee, Youngjin
Improvement of Ultrasound Image Quality Using Non-Local Means Noise-Reduction Approach for Precise Quality Control and Accurate Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules
title Improvement of Ultrasound Image Quality Using Non-Local Means Noise-Reduction Approach for Precise Quality Control and Accurate Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules
title_full Improvement of Ultrasound Image Quality Using Non-Local Means Noise-Reduction Approach for Precise Quality Control and Accurate Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules
title_fullStr Improvement of Ultrasound Image Quality Using Non-Local Means Noise-Reduction Approach for Precise Quality Control and Accurate Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules
title_full_unstemmed Improvement of Ultrasound Image Quality Using Non-Local Means Noise-Reduction Approach for Precise Quality Control and Accurate Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules
title_short Improvement of Ultrasound Image Quality Using Non-Local Means Noise-Reduction Approach for Precise Quality Control and Accurate Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules
title_sort improvement of ultrasound image quality using non-local means noise-reduction approach for precise quality control and accurate diagnosis of thyroid nodules
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9654012/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36360621
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192113743
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