Volumetric medical image compression using 3D listless embedded block partitioning

This paper presents a listless variant of a modified three-dimensional (3D)-block coding algorithm suitable for medical image compression. A higher degree of correlation is achieved by using a 3D hybrid transform. The 3D hybrid transform is performed by a wavelet transform in the spatial dimension and a Karhunen-Loueve transform in the spectral dimension. The 3D transformed coefficients are arranged in a one-dimensional (1D) fashion, as in the hierarchical nature of the wavelet-coefficient distribution strategy. A novel listless block coding algorithm is applied to the mapped 1D coefficients which encode in an ordered-bit-plane fashion. The algorithm originates from the most significant bit plane and terminates at the least significant bit plane to generate an embedded bit stream, as in 3D-SPIHT. The proposed algorithm is called 3D hierarchical listless block (3D-HLCK), which exhibits better compression performance than that exhibited by 3D-SPIHT. Further, it is highly competitive with some of the state-of-the-art 3D wavelet coders for a wide range of bit rates for magnetic resonance, digital imaging and communication in medicine and angiogram images. 3D-HLCK provides rate and resolution scalability similar to those provided by 3D-SPIHT and 3D-SPECK. In addition, a significant memory reduction is achieved owing to the listless nature of 3D-HLCK.