Directional dual-tree complex wavelet packet transforms for processing quadrature signals

Quadrature signals containing in-phase and quadrature-phase components are used in many signal processing applications in every field of science and engineering. Specifically, Doppler ultrasound systems used to evaluate cardiovascular disorders noninvasively also result in quadrature format signals. In order to obtain directional blood flow information, the quadrature outputs have to be preprocessed using methods such as asymmetrical and symmetrical phasing filter techniques. These resultant directional signals can be employed in order to detect asymptomatic embolic signals caused by small emboli, which are indicators of a possible future stroke, in the cerebral circulation. Various transform-based methods such as Fourier and wavelet were frequently used in processing embolic signals. However, most of the times, the Fourier and discrete wavelet transforms are not appropriate for the analysis of embolic signals due to their non-stationary time–frequency behavior. Alternatively, discrete wavelet packet transform can perform an adaptive decomposition of the time–frequency axis. In this study, directional discrete wavelet packet transforms, which have the ability to map directional information while processing quadrature signals and have less computational complexity than the existing wavelet packet-based methods, are introduced. The performances of proposed methods are examined in detail by using single-frequency, synthetic narrow-band, and embolic quadrature signals.     

Combined coding and wavelet transform for ECG compression

This paper presents a combined wavelet and a modified runlength encoding scheme for the compression of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. First, a discrete wavelet transform is applied to the ECG signal. The resulting coefficients are classified into significant and insignificant ones based on the required PRD (percent root mean square difference). Second, both coefficients are encoded using a modified run-length coding method. The scheme has been tested using ECG signals obtained from the MIT-BIH Compression Database. A compression of 20:1 (which is equivalent to 150 bit per second) is achieved with PRD less than 10.     

Combined coding and wavelet transform for ECG compression.

This paper presents a combined wavelet and a modified run-length encoding schemefor the compression of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. First, a discrete wavelet transform is applied to the ECG signal. The resulting coefficients are classified into significant and insignificant ones based on the required PRD (percent root mean square difference). Second, both coefficients are encoded using a modified run-length coding method. The scheme has been tested using ECG signals obtained from the MIT-BIH Compression Database. A compression of 20:1 (which is equivalent to 150 bit per second) is achieved with PRD less than 10.     

Ultrasound and angio image compression by cosine and wavelet transforms.

The investigation results for improving lossy compression techniques for ultrasound and angio images are presented. The goal was to determine where the compression process could be improved for the medical application, and to make efforts to improve it. It is proved that the wavelet transform outperforms the discrete cosine transform applied to ultrasound and angio images. A lot of wavelet classes were tried for choosing the best one suited for corresponding image classes, which were characterised by a content complexity criterion. The analysis of international image compression standards was carried out. Special attention was paid to an algorithmical and high level service structure of a new still image compression standard JPEG2000. Its open architecture enables including some wavelet classes which we would like to suggest for medical images. A set of recommendations for acceptable compression ratio for different medical image modalities was developed. It was carried out on the base of compression study performed by the group of angiologists and cardiologists.     

Heart sound reproduction based on neural network classification of cardiac valve disorders using wavelet transforms of PCG signals

Cardiac auscultatory proficiency of physicians is crucial for accurate diagnosis of many heart diseases. Plenty of diverse abnormal heart sounds with identical main specifications and different details representing the ambient noise are indispensably needed to train, assess and improve the skills of medical students in recognizing and distinguishing the primary symptoms of the cardiac diseases. This paper proposes a versatile multiresolution wavelet-based algorithm to first extract the main statistical characteristics of three well-known heart valve disorders, namely the aortic insufficiency, the aortic stenosis, and the pulmonary stenosis sounds as well as the normal ones. An artificial neural network (ANN) and statistical classifier are then applied alternatively to choose proper exclusive features. Both classification approaches suggest using Daubechies wavelet filter with four vanishing moments within five decomposition levels for the most prominent distinction of the diseases. The proffered ANN is a multilayer perceptron structure with one hidden layer trained by a back-propagation algorithm (MLP-BP) and it elevates the percentage classification accuracy to 94.42. Ultimately, the corresponding main features are manipulated in wavelet domain so as to sequentially regenerate the individual counterparts of the underlying signals.     

Interslice coding for medical three-dimensional images using an adaptive mode selection technique in wavelet transform domain

In this article the authors propose a novel interslice coding algorithm especially appropriate for medical 3-dimensional (3D) images. The proposed algorithm is based on a video coding algorithm using motion estimation/compensation and transform coding. In the algorithm, warping is adopted for motion compensation. Then, by using adaptive mode selection, an MC residual image and original image are mixed up in the wavelet transform domain for improvement in coding performance. The mixed image is then compressed by the zerotree coding method. It is proven that the adaptive mode selection technique in the wavelet transform domain is very useful for medical 3D image coding. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme provides good performance, regardless of interslice distance, and is prospective for medical 3D image compression.     

Analysis of phonocardiogram signals using wavelet transform

Phonocardiograms (PCG) are recordings of the acoustic waves produced by the mechanical action of the heart. They generally consist of two kinds of acoustic vibrations: heart sounds and heart murmurs. Heart murmurs are often the first signs of pathological changes of the heart valves, and are usually found during auscultation in primary health care. Heart auscultation has been recognized for a long time as an important tool for the diagnosis of heart disease, although its accuracy is still insufficient to diagnose some heart diseases. It does not enable the analyst to obtain both qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the PCG signals. The efficiency of diagnosis can be improved considerably by using modern digital signal processing techniques. Therefore, these last can provide useful and valuable information on these signals. The aim of this study is to analyse PCG signals using wavelet transform. This analysis is based on an algorithm for the detection of heart sounds (the first and second sounds, S1 and S2) and heart murmurs using the PCG signal as the only source. The segmentation algorithm, which separates the components of the heart signal, is based on denoising by wavelet transform (DWT). This algorithm makes it possible to isolate individual sounds (S1 or S2) and murmurs. Thus, the analysis of various PCGs signals using wavelet transform can provide a wide range of statistical parameters related to the phonocardiogram signal.     

Analysis of phonocardiogram signals using wavelet transform

Phonocardiograms (PCG) are recordings of the acoustic waves produced by the mechanical action of the heart. They generally consist of two kinds of acoustic vibrations: heart sounds and heart murmurs. Heart murmurs are often the first signs of pathological changes of the heart valves, and are usually found during auscultation in primary health care. Heart auscultation has been recognized for a long time as an important tool for the diagnosis of heart disease, although its accuracy is still insufficient to diagnose some heart diseases. It does not enable the analyst to obtain both qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the PCG signals. The efficiency of diagnosis can be improved considerably by using modern digital signal processing techniques. Therefore, these last can provide useful and valuable information on these signals. The aim of this study is to analyse PCG signals using wavelet transform. This analysis is based on an algorithm for the detection of heart sounds (the first and second sounds, S1 and S2) and heart murmurs using the PCG signal as the only source. The segmentation algorithm, which separates the components of the heart signal, is based on denoising by wavelet transform (DWT). This algorithm makes it possible to isolate individual sounds (S1 or S2) and murmurs. Thus, the analysis of various PCGs signals using wavelet transform can provide a wide range of statistical parameters related to the phonocardiogram signal.     

Myoelectric signal compression using zero-trees of wavelet coefficients

Recent progress in the diagnostic use of the myoelectric signal for neuromuscular diseases, coupled with increasing interests in telemedicine applications, mandate the need for an effective compression technique. The efficacy of the embedded zero-tree wavelet compression algorithm is examined with respect to some important analysis parameters (the length of the analysis segment and wavelet type) and measurement conditions (muscle type and contraction type). It is shown that compression performance improves with segment length, and that good choices of wavelet type include the Meyer wavelet and the fifth order biorthogonal wavelet. The effects of different muscle sites and contraction types on compression performance are less conclusive.A comparison of a number of lossy compression techniques has revealed that the EZW algorithm exhibits superior performance to a hard thresholding wavelet approach, but falls short of adaptive differential pulse code modulation. The bit prioritization capability of the EZW algorithm allows one to specify the compression factor online, making it an appealing technique for streaming data applications, as often encountered in telemedicine.     

基于小波分析的医学图像压缩技术进展

作为图像存诸和传输系统(picture archiving & communication system,PACS)的关键技术之一,医学图像压缩算法的优劣对PACS的性能有着重要的影响,小波分析由于其多分辨率分析特性而在医学图像压缩中得到了广泛应用.从小波变换医学图像压缩、小波包变换医学图像压缩和多小波变换医学图像压缩三个方面综述了小波医学图像压缩方法及其进展,总结对比了这些方法的优点和缺陷,并针对其不足之处提出了改进方向.     

Biorthogonal wavelet transforms for ECG parameters estimation.

The parameters of various morphologies of ECG waveform are basic in characterizing them as normal or otherwise. The use of multiscale analysis, through biorthogonal wavelets presented in this paper, appears very promising for such a characterization. This is on account of the fact that various morphologies are excited better at different scales. From these different scales, amplitudes, durations and various segments, widths can be determined more accurately. Simulation studies, with real ECG data, have shown that even when the signal-to-noise ratios are poor, the proposed technique can be used to accurately estimate the said parameters.     

Electrocardiogram signals de-noising using lifting-based discrete wavelet transform

This paper introduces an effective technique for the denoising of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals corrupted by nonstationary noises. The technique is based on a second generation wavelet transform and level-dependent threshold estimator. Here, wavelet coefficients of ECG signals were obtained with lifting-based wavelet filters. A lifting scheme is used to construct second-generation wavelets and is an alternative and faster algorithm for a classical wavelet transform. The overall denoising performance of our proposed method is considered in relation to several measuring parameters, including types of wavelet filters (Haar, Daubechies 4 (DB4), Daubechies 6 (DB6), Filter(9-7), and Cubic B-splines), thresholding method, and decomposition depth. Three different kinds of noise were considered in this work: muscle artifact noise, electrode motion artifact noise, and white noise. Global performance is evaluated by means of the signal-to-noise ratio and visual inspection. Numerical results comparing the performance of the proposed method with that of nonlinear filtering techniques (median filter) are given. The results demonstrate consistently superior denoising performance of the proposed method over median filtering.     

ECG data compression using optimal non-orthogonal wavelet transform

This paper introduces an effective technique for the compression of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. The technique is based on a new class of non-orthogonal discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The performance of ECG compression algorithm is measured by its ability to minimize distortion while retaining all clinically significant features of the signal. The percent root-mean square difference (PRD) is used as an accepted standard for measuring the signal distortion. However, there is no standard for measuring the clinically significant features retained after signal reconstruction. The coefficients of the DWT are calculated such that the square of the difference between the original signal and the reconstructed one is minimum in least mean square sense. The resulting transforms deal with signals of arbitrary lengths; that means the signal length is not restricted to be a multiple of power of 2. Numerical results comparing the performance of the constructed non-orthogonal transform with that of W-transform and Daubechies D(4) orthogonal transform are given. These results show that, independent of signal length, the decomposition of the signal up to the fourth level is sufficient for getting minimum PRD. In addition, the proposed technique yields the lowest PRD compared to the other two algorithms and for a compression ratio less than 10 the optimal transform can be obtained for only one ECG period. However, for a higher compression ratio the PRD is smaller for long signals.     

Filtering and classification of phonocardiogram signals using wavelet transform

Auscultation is a technique in which a stethoscope is used to listen to the sounds of the heart. Structural defects of the heart are often reflected in the sounds the heart produces, and auscultation provides clinicians with valuable diagnostic and prognostic information. Although heart sound analysis by auscultation is convenient as clinical tool, it is difficult to analyse heart sound signals in the time or frequency domain. Thus phonocardiogram (PCG), recording of heart sounds has many advantages over traditional auscultation, in that they may be replayed and analysed for time and frequency information. Using discrete wavelet transform, the signal is decomposed and reconstructed without significant loss of information in the signal content. The error of rebuilding can be considered as an important parameter in the classification of the pathological severity of the phonocardiogram signals. Variation of this parameter is very sensitive to the murmur importance in PCG signals.     

Filtering and classification of phonocardiogram signals using wavelet transform

Auscultation is a technique in which a stethoscope is used to listen to the sounds of the heart. Structural defects of the heart are often reflected in the sounds the heart produces, and auscultation provides clinicians with valuable diagnostic and prognostic information. Although heart sound analysis by auscultation is convenient as clinical tool, it is difficult to analyse heart sound signals in the time or frequency domain. Thus phonocardiogram (PCG), recording of heart sounds has many advantages over traditional auscultation, in that they may be replayed and analysed for time and frequency information. Using discrete wavelet transform, the signal is decomposed and reconstructed without significant loss of information in the signal content. The error of rebuilding can be considered as an important parameter in the classification of the pathological severity of the phonocardiogram signals. Variation of this parameter is very sensitive to the murmur importance in PCG signals.     

Multiresolution restoration of medical signals using the renormalization group and the super-coupling transforms.

This paper presents a multiresolution approach to the restoration of Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals corrupted by colored Gaussian noise. We compare two methods, namely the renormalization group transform (RGT) and the super-coupling transform (ST). We conclude that although the RGT approach requires fewer site updates than the ST approach in order to converge, the ST approach is overall much faster. The multiresolution algorithm was tested with real and simulated data. In the case of simulated data, where the original signal's peak-to-peak value is known, the algorithm worked well with noise levels up to 80% of this value.     

ECG compression using wavelet transform and particle swarm optimization

A new adaptive thresholding mechanism to determine the significant wavelet coefficients of an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is proposed. It is based on estimating thresholds for different sub-bands using the concept of energy packing efficiency (EPE). Then thresholds are optimized using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to achieve a target compression ratio with minimum distortion. Simulation results on several records taken from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database show that the PSO converges exactly to the target compression after four iterations while the cost function achieved its minimum value after six iterations. Compared to previously published schemes, lower distortions are achieved for the same compression ratios.     

Retained energy-based coding for EEG signals

The recent use of long-term records in electroencephalography is becoming more frequent due to its diagnostic potential and the growth of novel signal processing methods that deal with these types of recordings. In these cases, the considerable volume of data to be managed makes compression necessary to reduce the bit rate for transmission and storage applications. In this paper, a new compression algorithm specifically designed to encode electroencephalographic (EEG) signals is proposed. Cosine modulated filter banks are used to decompose the EEG signal into a set of subbands well adapted to the frequency bands characteristic of the EEG. Given that no regular pattern may be easily extracted from the signal in time domain, a thresholding-based method is applied for quantizing samples. The method of retained energy is designed for efficiently computing the threshold in the decomposition domain which, at the same time, allows the quality of the reconstructed EEG to be controlled. The experiments are conducted over a large set of signals taken from two public databases available at Physionet and the results show that the compression scheme yields better compression than other reported methods.     

ECG compression using wavelet transform and particle swarm optimization

A new adaptive thresholding mechanism to determine the significant wavelet coefficients of an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is proposed. It is based on estimating thresholds for different sub-bands using the concept of energy packing efficiency (EPE). Then thresholds are optimized using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to achieve a target compression ratio with minimum distortion. Simulation results on several records taken from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database show that the PSO converges exactly to the target compression after four iterations while the cost function achieved its minimum value after six iterations. Compared to previously published schemes, lower distortions are achieved for the same compression ratios.     

Selection of biorthogonal filters for image compression of MR images using wavelet packets

We present an analysis of different filter banks for the compression of magnetic resonance (MR) images of the human brain using wavelet packets based on biorthogonal filters. Initially, peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and normalized root mean square (RMS) error criteria are calculated for a series of images compressed with a 33:1 ratio, using filter banks based on biorthogonal wavelet packets. The results lead us to choose a few of these filter banks as optimal for image compression. One of these filters is employed to compress several images at four different compression ratios: 12.5:1, 25:1, 37.5:1 and 50:1. The quality of these images was evaluated by visual analysis by a group of seven experts who graded image quality on a 0-7 scale. Results show that using these filters, we can compress images to a rate of around 30:1 without introducing noticeable differences. Other applications for these filters are currently under study and include the compression/fusion of MR image stacks in order to obtain even better reductions in the amount of data needed to reconstruct complete MRI studies.