Speckle Noise Reduction in Ultrasound Images
using SRAD and Guided Filter
Hyunho Choi
Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering
Hanyang University
Seoul, Korea
hyunho0619@gmail.com
Abstract— Ultrasound imaging devices are more secure and
real-time than other medical diagnosis devices such as X-ray, CT,
and MRI. However, due to speckle noise, it exhibits lower
resolution and image quality than other than medical diagnostic
devices. Therefore, it is difficult to diagnose lesions using
ultrasound images due to this noise. In this paper, we propose an
algorithm using speckle reducing anisotropic diffusion (SRAD)
and a guided filter for speckle noise reduction and edge
preservation. First, speckle, which is multiplicative noise, is
removed by using SRAD. The remaining noise in the filtered image
is converted to additive noise using logarithmic transformation.
The additional noise remaining in the filtered image is further
removed using a guided filter. Finally, the noise-free image
obtained using exponential transform. Experimental results show
that the proposed algorithm exhibits an excellent speckle noise
reduction and edge preservation performance than the
conventional filtering techniques.
Keywords—Ultrasound image; Speckle noise; Speckle reducing
anisotropic diffusion; Guided filter
I. INTRODUCTION
Ultrasound imaging devices are more secure and portable
than other medical diagnostic devices such as X-ray, Computed
Tomography (CT), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
With the development of digital signal processing technology,
the resolution of ultrasonic diagnostic devices has been steadily
improving; however, the image quality of this is lower than
other medical diagnostic devices. The main cause of this
problem is the noise of the granular pattern in the acquiring
process of the ultrasound image, which is called speckle noise
[1]. The speckle noise represents a characteristic of
multiplicative noise that differs from the general image
obtained through optical sensors, thus it is difficult to remove
the noise [2]. The noise has many difficulties in diagnosing
lesions using ultrasound images, so speckle noise reduction in
ultrasound images play an important role in medical image
processing.
Over the last decades, many studies have been conducted to
eliminate speckle noise. There are three main methods: linear
filtering, Nonlinear filtering, and hybrid filtering methods.
Linear filtering techniques, such as Gaussian filter and Mean
filter, can effectively remove noise from the image, but have the
problem of blurring edges. To overcome the problem, nonlinear
978-1-5386-2615-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Jechang Jeong
Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering
Hanyang University
Seoul, Korea
jjeong@hanyang.ac.kr
filtering methods have been proposed. These techniques such
as non-local means (NLM) filter [3], anisotropic diffusion (AD)
filter [4], and bilateral filter [5] have been proposed, and have
been developed to eliminate speckle noise while minimizing
degradation of the edge region. In spite of minimizing
deterioration in the edge region, these methods are not suitable
for removing speckle noise because they do not take into
account the noise characteristics of the ultrasound image. In
order to overcome the limitation of the single filtering method,
a hybrid filtering method combining various techniques has
been proposed. Yang et al. [6] removed noise from the
ultrasound image using a hybrid de-noising method considering
the local statistics of speckle and NLM filter. Zhang et al. [7]
applied the de-speckling method based on the improved
wavelet filter and the guided filter to remove the speckle noise
in the ultrasound image. Coupe et al. [8] removed noise using a
Bayesian framework to derive NLM filter modified for speckle
noise. Despite these efforts, existing research techniques show
low edge preservation and noise reduction performance in the
image, so ultrasound imaging showed low clinical utility.
Therefore, in the ultrasonic image, a technique for removing
noise and preserving edge information is required.
In this paper, we propose a new algorithm using speckle
reducing anisotropic diffusion (SRAD) [9] and a guided filter
[10] to effectively remove the speckle noise and preserve the
edge region.
The composition of this paper is as follows. In section 2, we
describe a noise reduction method using SRAD and guided filter.
Section 3 compares the proposed algorithm with existing
filtering techniques qualitatively and quantitatively. Section 4
concludes the paper.
II. PROPOSED ALGORITHM
Figure 1 shows the flowchart of the proposed algorithm in
this paper. The proposed algorithm first removes the speckle
noise by applying SRAD to the noise image. Next, the SRAD
filtering result image is applied to logarithmic transformation
for transforming remaining multiplicative noise in the image
into additive noise. The additive noise in the image is further
removed using a guided filter. Then, the noise-free image is
obtained through the exponential transformation.
 G
Fig 1. Flowchart of the proposed algorithmG

A. Speckle Reducing Anisotropic Diffusion

AD filter uses the gradient magnitude to distinguish edge regions (a) (b)
in the image [4]. In the edge region of the image, this method preserves Fig 2. Two test images in this study: (a) Cameraman; (b) Airplane.
the edge region using an all-pass filter and removes the noise using a
Gaussian filter in the homogeneous region [9]; however, AD filter where ܽ௞ and ܾ௞ are linear coefficients and this value is a
exhibits an excellent noise reduction performance only in images
constant in the domain ‫ݓ‬௞ . The cost function is used to obtain
degraded by additive noise [9]. SRAD had been modified by Yu and
Action from AD filter to fit the speckle noise generated by the
the coefficients ܽ௞ and ܾ௞ in Eq. (4) [11]. To obtain the linear
ultrasound image [9]. coefficients ܽ௞ and ܾ௞ defined in equation (4), the output image
SRAD uses the instantaneous coefficient of variation (ICOV) to ݃௜ is expressed as follows.
distinguish the edge regions in the image. ICOV is expressed by the
following equation. ݃௜ ൌ ‫݌‬௜ െ  ݊௜ (5)
G
ଶ where ‫݌‬௜ and ݊௜ indicate the input image and the noise of the
ͳ ߘ‫ ܫ‬ଶ ͳ ߘଶ‫ܫ‬
ቀ ቁ ቀ ቁ െ ቀ ଶ ቁ ൬ ൰ image, respectively. The linear coefficients are obtained by Eq.
ʹ ‫ܫ‬ Ͷ ‫ܫ‬
‫ݍ‬ሺ‫ݔ‬ǡ ‫ݕ‬Ǣ ‫ݐ‬ሻ ൌ  ඪ ଶ G (1) (6) which minimizes the cost function of the input image and
ͳ ߘଶ‫ܫ‬ the output image.
൤ͳ ൅  ቀ ቁ ൬ ൰൨
Ͷ ‫ܫ‬
G G
where ‫ ׏‬and ‫׏‬ଶ denote the gradient and the Laplacian, respectively. ሺܽ௞ ǡ ܾ௞ ሻ ൌ ෍ ሺሺ ܽ௞ ‫ܫ‬௞ ൅  ܾ௞ െ ‫݌‬௜ ሻଶ ൅ ߝܽ௞ଶ (6)
ICOV represents the high value in the edge region and low value in the ௜‫א‬௪ೖ
homogeneous region.G
G G where ߝ is a regularization parameter that prevents penalizing
ͳ large ܽ௞ . Thus ߝ preserves the edge region of the image and
ܿሺ‫ݍ‬ሻ ൌ  G
ͳ ൅ ሾ‫ݍ‬ଶ ሺ‫ݔ‬ǡ ‫ݕ‬Ǣ ‫ݐ‬ሻ െ  ‫ݍ‬଴ଶ ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻሿ (2)
ሾ‫ݍ‬଴ଶ ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ൫ͳ ൅ ‫ݍ‬଴ଶ ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ൯ሿ
G G
where ‫ݍ‬଴ ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ is the speckle scale function. The speckle scale function
‫ݍ‬଴ ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ used in the diffusion coefficient ܿሺ‫ݍ‬ሻ of equation (2) controls the
amount of smoothing in the homogeneous region (Eq. (3)). Therefore,
the speckle scale function removes the noise from the homogeneous
region.
G G
‫ݍ‬଴ ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ  ൎ  ‫ݍ‬଴ ‡š’ሾെ‫ݐ‬ሿG (3)
G G
തതതതത denote the intensity variance and mean over
where ˜ƒ”ሾœሺ–ሻሿ and œሺ–ሻ (a) (b)
a homogeneous region at G‫ݐ‬S respectively. SRAD processes directly to
maintain useful information without log-compressed data [9], so this
technique is used as a preprocessing filter before applying a
logarithmic transformation.G
G
B. Guided Filter
The guided filter has a filter structure that removes the
speckle noise generated in the ultrasound image using the
guidance image and preserves the edge region. It is assumed that
the guidance image of Eq. (4) can model the output image based
on a linear transform [10]. (c) (d)
Fig 3. Results (Cameraman) of different filtering techniques: (a) Noisy image;
(b) Gaussian filter; (c) Bitonic filter; (d) Proposed algorithm.
݃௜ ൌ  ܽ௞ ‫ܫ‬௞ ൅  ܾ௞ ǡ ‫ݓ  א  ݅׊‬௞ (4)
 Table 1 PSNR and SSIM results for Cameraman image
PSNR [dB] SSIM
Noisy 18.62 0.42
BM3D 18.77 0.28
Guided 21.54 0.48
Frost 22.36 0.47
Gaussian 22.50 0.62
Lee 23.14 0.56
Bitonic 25.18 0.74
Proposed 25.98 0.76
(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Fig 4. Results (Airplane) of different filtering techniques: (a) Noisy image; (b)
Gaussian filter; (c) Bitonic filter; (d) Proposed algorithm.
removes the noise. To minimize the equation (6), the linear
function is obtained by using the cost function.
ͳ SSIM = 0.28 (Table 1). In the Airplane image of Table 2, the
σ ‫ ܲ ܫ‬െ  ߤ௞ ‫݌‬ҧ௞
ȁ‫ݓ‬ȁ ௜‫א‬௪ೖ ௜ ௜
ܽ௞ ൌ 
ߪ௞ଶ ൅ ߝ
ܾ௞ ൌ  ‫݌‬ҧ௞ െ ܽ௞ ߤ௞
where ߤ௞ and ߪ௞ଶ denote the mean and variance of the window
‫ݓ‬௞ in the guidance image. ȁ‫ݓ‬ȁ indicates the numbers of pixels
in the region ‫ݓ‬௞ , and ‫݌‬ҧ௞ denotes the average of the input image
ܲ௜ in the window ‫ݓ‬௞ . In order to remove the noise in the
ultrasound image, the average of the linear coefficients in
Equations (7) and (8) is calculated for windows ‫ݓ‬௞ in the
guidance image. And the average of the linear coefficients is
used in the linear transformation of Eq. (1). This filtering
technique removes noise in the image using averaging
techniques [12]. The output image ݃௜ can be expressed as
follows.
݃௜ ൌ  ܽത௜ ‫ܫ‬௜ ൅ ܾത௜
here, ܽത௜ and ܾത௜ mean the average of ܽ௞ and ܾ௞ in the window
‫ݓ‬௞ .
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT
In this study, 8-bit gray level Cameraman (256 x 256 pixels)
and Airplane (512 x 512 pixels) standard images were selected
to evaluate the noise reduction performance (Fig. 2). We added
speckle noise to each image. All image processing was
performed with MATLAB® (R2017a MathWorks®, Natick, MA,
USA).
To evaluate speckle noise reduction and edge preservation
performance of the proposed algorithm, we compared this
method with the conventional filtering techniques such as
Gaussian, Lee [13], Frost [14], block-matching 3D (BM3D) [15],
Guided [16], and Bitonic [17] filters. Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio
(PSNR) and Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM) were
used to quantitatively evaluate speckle noise reduction and edge
preservation performance of the proposed algorithm and
existing filtering techniques.
Tables 1 and 2 show quantitatively experimental results for
each image. Table1 exhibited the quantitatively experimental
results for the Cameraman image. In the Cameraman image, the
proposed algorithm had an excellent noise reduction and edge
preservation performance (PSNR = 25.98 dB, SSIM = 0.76),
while BM3D filtering technique had the lowest noise reduction
and edge preservation performance with PSNR = 18.77 dB,
(7) proposed algorithm had the best noise reduction and edge
preservation performance with PSNR = 26.55 dB, SSIM = 0.78,
and the guided filtering method had the lowest performance
(8) (PSNR = 19.16 dB, SSIM = 0.28).
Figures 3 and 4 show the results of applying filtering
techniques on Cameraman and Airplane images. Among these
images, the Cameraman image represents the feature including
many homogeneous regions (Fig. 3). This image such
characteristic applied to the Gaussian filter had a low noise
reduction while an excellent edge preservation performance, but
the resulting image of the Bitonic filter had a blurring
phenomenon as a whole. The proposed algorithm compared to
the existing filtering techniques had an excellent speckle noise
reduction and edge preservation performance. Airplane image
shows characters that include many edge regions compared to
the existing filtering techniques had an excellent speckle noise
reduction and edge preservation performance. Airplane image
shows characters that include many edge regions compared to
(9)
Cameraman image (Fig. 4). This image applied the Gaussian
Table 2 PSNR and SSIM results for Airplane image
PSNR [dB] SSIM
Noisy 16.54 0.21
Guided 19.16 0.28
BM3D 20.62 0.45
Frost 22.05 0.36
Bitonic 22.74 0.69
Lee 23.95 0.50
Gaussian 25.21 0.66
Proposed 26.55 0.78

filtering method showed a low noise reduction and edge
preservation performance. The resulting image of the Bitonic
filter exhibited an excellent noise reduction performance but
showed a low edge preservation performance. The proposed
algorithm had an excellent noise reduction and edge
preservation performance.
IV. CONCLUSION
The speckle noise generated in the ultrasound image
represents a different character from the conventional noise, so
this feature is difficult to remove speckle noise with existing
filtering techniques. Since speckle noise in ultrasound images
interferes with the diagnosis of lesions through the image, this
noise reduction technique in the ultrasound image is an
important technology in medical image processing.
In this paper, we proposed a new algorithm that used SRAD
and guided filter considering noise characteristics to reconstruct
images degraded by speckle noise in the ultrasound image.
Speckle noise in the ultrasound image transformed
multiplicative noise into additive noise using logarithmic
transformation. First, this noise was eliminated by ‫ێې‬ing a filter
(SRAD) that could be directly applied to multiplicative noise.
The remaining noise in the SRAD result image converted
characteristics (additive noise) of the speckle noise using
logarithmic transformation. Next, the guided filter was applied
to the SRAD result image to additionally remove the remaining
additive noise in the image. Experimental results exhibited that
the proposed algorithm had represented an excellent noise
reduction and edge preservation performance than the existing
filtering techniques. In future research, we will study the guided
filter which can be directly applied multiplicative noise.
[6] J. Yang, J. Fan, D. Ai, X. Wang, Y. Zheng, S. Tang, and Y. Wang, “Local
statistics and non-local mean filter for speckle noise reduction in medical
ultrasound image,” Neurocomputing, vol. 195, pp. 88-95, June 2016.
[7] J. Zhang, G. Lin, L. Wu, and Y. Cheng, “Speckle filtering of medical
ultrasonic images using wavelet and guided filter,” Ultrasonics, vol. 65,
pp. 177-193, Feb. 2016.
[8] P. Coupe, P. Hellier, C. Kervrann, and C. Barillot, “Nonlocal means-based
speckle filtering for ultrasound images,” IEEE Trans. Image Process., vol.
18, no. 10, pp. 2221-2229, Oct. 2009.
[9] Y. Yu and S. T. Acton, “Speckle reducing anisotropic diffusion,” IEEE
Trans. Image Process., vol. 11, no. 11, pp. 1260-1270, Dec. 2002.
[10] K. He, J. Sun, and X. Tang, “Guided image filtering,” IEEE Trans.
Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell., vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 1397-1409, June 2013.
[11] T. Hastie, R. Tibshirani, and J. H. Friedman, The Elements of Statistical
Learning, Springer, 2003.
[12] V. Katkovnik, A. Foi, K. Egiazarian, and J. Astola, “From Local Kernel
to Nonlocal Multiplie-Model Image Denoising,” Int’l . Computer Vision,
vol. 86, no. 1, pp. 1-32, 2010.
[13] J. S. Lee, “Digital image enhancement and noise filtering by use of local
statistics,” IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell., vol. PAMI-2, no. 2,
pp. 165-168, Mar. 1980.
[14] V. S. Frost, J. A. Stiles, K. S. Shanmugan, and J. C. Holtzman, “A model
for radar images and its application to adaptive digital filtering of
multiplicative noise,” IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Machine Intell., vol.
PAMI-4, pp. 157-165, 1982.
[15] K. Dabov, R. Foi, V. Katkovnik, and K. Egiazarian, “Image Denoising by
Sparse 3D Transform-Domain Collaborative Filtering,” IEEE Trans.
Image Process., vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 2080-2095, Aug. 2007.
[16] K. He, J. Sun, and X. Tang, “Guided image filtering,” IEEE Trans. Pattern
Anal. Mach. Intell., vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 1397-1409, June 2013.
[17] G. Treece, "The Bitonic Filter: Linear Filtering in an Edge-Preserving
Morphological Framework," IEEE Trans. Image Process., vol. 25, no. 11,
pp. 5199-211, Nov 2016.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by Basic Science Research
Program through the National Research Foundation of
Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and future
Planning(NRF-2015R1A2A2A01006004)

REFERENCES

[1] J. G. Abbott and F. L. Thurstone, “Acoustic speckle: Theory and

experimental analysis,” Ultrasonic Imaging, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 303-324,
1979.
[2] H. Kato and J. W. Goodman, "Nonlinear filtering of coherent optical
system through half-tone screen processes,” Appl. Opt., vol. 14, No. 8, pp.
1813-1824, 1975.
[3] A. Buades, B. Coill, and J. -M. Morel, “A non-local algorithm for image
denoising,” in Proc. Comput. Soc. Conf. Comput. Vis. Pattern Recognit.,
vol. 2. pp. 60-65, 2005.
[4] P. Perona and J. Malik, “Scale-space and edge detection using anisotropic
diffusion,” IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell., vol. 12, no. 7, pp.
629-639, 1990.
[5] C. Tomasi and R. Manduchi, “Bilateral filtering for gray and color images,”
in Proc. Int. Conf. Comput. Vis., pp. 839-846, 1998.