J Korean Soc Med Inform.  2004 Mar;10(1):35-42.

3-D Lossless Volumetric Medical Image Compression Using 3-D Integer Wavelet Transform and Lifting Steps

• Kim Y

Abstract

This paper focuses on lossless medical image compression methods for medical images that operate on three-dimensional(3-D) irreversible integer wavelet transform. We offer an application of the Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees(SPIHT) algorithm to medical images, using a 3-D wavelet decomposition and a 3-D spatial dependence tree. The wavelet decomposition is accomplished with integer wavelet filters implemented with the lifting method, where careful scaling(square root 2) and truncations keep the integer precision and the transform unitary. We have tested our encoder on volumetric medical images using different integer filters and different coding unit sizes. The coding unit sizes of 16 slices save considerable dynamic memory(RAM) and coding delay from full sequence coding units used in previous works. Results show that, even with these small coding units, our algorithm with certain filters performs as well and better in lossless coding than previous coding systems using 3-D integer wavelet transforms on volumetric medical images.

Keyword

Lossless Image Compression; Volumetric Medical Image Compression; 3-D Wavelet Transform; Embedded Wavelet Coding

MeSH Terms

Clinical Coding
Data Compression*
Lifting*
Wavelet Analysis*