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Statistical Characterization of Portal Images and Noise from Portal Imaging Systems

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Abstract

In this paper, we consider the statistical characteristics of the so-called portal images, which are acquired prior to the radiotherapy treatment, as well as the noise that present the portal imaging systems, in order to analyze whether the well-known noise and image features in other image modalities, such as natural image, can be found in the portal imaging modality. The study is carried out in the spatial image domain, in the Fourier domain, and finally in the wavelet domain. The probability density of the noise in the spatial image domain, the power spectral densities of the image and noise, and the marginal, joint, and conditional statistical distributions of the wavelet coefficients are estimated. Moreover, the statistical dependencies between noise and signal are investigated. The obtained results are compared with practical and useful references, like the characteristics of the natural image and the white noise. Finally, we discuss the implication of the results obtained in several noise reduction methods that operate in the wavelet domain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Servicio de Radiofísica y Protección Radiológica, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, Ctra. Madrid-Cartagena, 30120, El Palmar (Murcia), Spain

    Antonio González-López

  2. Departamento de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain

    Juan Morales-Sánchez, Rafael Verdú-Monedero & Jorge Larrey-Ruiz

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  1. Antonio González-López
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  2. Juan Morales-Sánchez
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  3. Rafael Verdú-Monedero
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  4. Jorge Larrey-Ruiz
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Correspondence to Antonio González-López.

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González-López, A., Morales-Sánchez, J., Verdú-Monedero, R. et al. Statistical Characterization of Portal Images and Noise from Portal Imaging Systems. J Digit Imaging 26, 457–465 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-012-9516-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-012-9516-0

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