5. DATA COMPRESSION OF DIGITAL X-RAY IMAGES FROM A CLINICAL VIEWPOINT

Abstract

For the PACS (picture archiving and communication system), large strage capacity recording media and a fast data transfer network are necessary. When the PACS are working, these technology requirements become an large problem. So we need image data compression having a higher recording efficiency media and an improved transmission ratio. There are two kinds of data compression methods, one is reversible compression and other is the irreversible one. By these reversible compression methods, a compressed-expanded image is exactly equal to the original image. The ratio of data compression is about between 1/2 and 1/3. On the other hand, for irreversible data compression, the compressed-expanded image is a distorted image, and we can achieve a high compression ratio by using this method. In the medical field, the discrete cosine transform (DCT) method is popular because of the low distortion and fast performance. The ratio of data compression is actually from 1/10 to 1/20. It is important for us to decide the compression ratio according to the purposes and modality of the image. We must carefully select the ratio of the data compression because the suitable compression ratio alters in the usage of images for education, clinical diagnosis and reference.