Performance analysis of reversible image compression techniques for high-resolution digital teleradiology.

The performances of a number of block-based, reversible, compression algorithms suitable for compression of very-large-format images (4096x4096 pixels or more) are compared to that of a novel two-dimensional linear predictive coder developed by extending the multichannel version of the Burg algorithm to two dimensions. The compression schemes implemented are: Huffman coding, Lempel-Ziv coding, arithmetic coding, two-dimensional linear predictive coding (in addition to the aforementioned one), transform coding using discrete Fourier-, discrete cosine-, and discrete Walsh transforms, linear interpolative coding, and combinations thereof. The performances of these coding techniques for a few mammograms and chest radiographs digitized to sizes up to 4096x4096 10 b pixels are discussed. Compression from 10 b to 2.5-3.0 b/pixel on these images has been achieved without any loss of information. The modified multichannel linear predictor outperforms the other methods while offering certain advantages in implementation.