Nonlinear anisotropic filtering as a tool for SNR enhancement in cardiovascular MRI

This article deals with an anisotropic filtering technique for the enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) without loss of resolution in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). This technique overcomes the major drawbacks of conventional filters, namely the blurring of organ boundary and the suppression of fine details in MR images. We demonstrated that the application of such filter in the post-processing phase is equivalent to time domain averaging during MR image acquisition. It preserves acquisition speed and image quality, making this technique particularly adapted to cardiovascular applications. This new technique has been tested on simple test objects and on human images of the heart.