An objective method to identify optimum clip-limit and histogram specification of contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization for MR images

In contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE), the selection of tile size, clip-limit and the distribution which specify desired shape of the histogram of image tiles is paramount, as it critically influences the quality of the enhanced image. The optimal value of these parameters devolves on the generic of the image to be enhanced and usually they are selected empirically. In this paper, the degradation of intensity, textural and geometric features of the medical image with respect to the variation in clip-limit and specified histogram shape is analyzed. The statistical indices used to quantify the feature degradation are Absolute Mean Brightness Error (AMBE), Absolute Deviation in Entropy (ADE), Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Variance Ratio (VR), Structural Similarity Index Matrix (SSIM) and Saturation Evaluation Index (SEI). The images used for the analysis are axial plane MR images of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), under gradient recalled echo (GRE), diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) 1000b Array Spatial Sensitivity Encoding Technique (ASSET), T2 Fluid Attenuation Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) and T1 Fast Spin-Echo Contrast Enhanced (FS-ECE) series of pre-operative Glioblastoma-edema complex. The experimental analysis was performed using Matlab®. Results show that for MR images the exponential histogram specification with a clip-limit of 0.01 is found to be optimum. At optimum clip-limit, the mean of SSIM exhibited by the Rayleigh, uniform and exponential histogram specification were found to be 0.7477, 0.7946 and 0.8457, for ten sets of MR images and mean of variance ratio are 1.242, 2.0316 and 1.7711, respectively.