Determining optimal medical image compression: psychometric and image distortion analysis

BMC Medical Imaging

Research Article

Alexander C Flint¹ 

[1] Interconnect Medical, LLC, 94025, Menlo Park, CA, USA;

关键词: Medical image compression;    JPEG;    Lossy;    Psychometrics;    Image analysis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2342-12-24

 received in 2012-03-29, accepted in 2012-07-17,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundStorage issues and bandwidth over networks have led to a need to optimally compress medical imaging files while leaving clinical image quality uncompromised.MethodsTo determine the range of clinically acceptable medical image compression across multiple modalities (CT, MR, and XR), we performed psychometric analysis of image distortion thresholds using physician readers and also performed subtraction analysis of medical image distortion by varying degrees of compression.ResultsWhen physician readers were asked to determine the threshold of compression beyond which images were clinically compromised, the mean image distortion threshold was a JPEG Q value of 23.1 ± 7.0. In Receiver-Operator Characteristics (ROC) plot analysis, compressed images could not be reliably distinguished from original images at any compression level between Q = 50 and Q = 95. Below this range, some readers were able to discriminate the compressed and original images, but high sensitivity and specificity for this discrimination was only encountered at the lowest JPEG Q value tested (Q = 5). Analysis of directly measured magnitude of image distortion from subtracted image pairs showed that the relationship between JPEG Q value and degree of image distortion underwent an upward inflection in the region of the two thresholds determined psychometrically (approximately Q = 25 to Q = 50), with 75 % of the image distortion occurring between Q = 50 and Q = 1.ConclusionIt is possible to apply lossy JPEG compression to medical images without compromise of clinical image quality. Modest degrees of compression, with a JPEG Q value of 50 or higher (corresponding approximately to a compression ratio of 15:1 or less), can be applied to medical images while leaving the images indistinguishable from the original.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Flint; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012