The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of lossy compression o
n grayscale ultrasound images to determine how much compression can be appl
ied while still maintaining images that are acceptable for diagnostic purpo
ses. The study considered how the acquisition technique (video frame-grabbe
r versus directly acquired in digital form) influences how much compression
can be applied. For directly acquired digital images, the study considered
how text (that is burned into the image) affects the compressibility of th
e image. The lossy compression techniques that were Considered include JPEG
and a Wavelet algorithm using set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIH
T). Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.