Ultrasound imaging technology has experienced a dramatic change in the last 30 years. Because of its non-invasive nature and continuing improvements in image quality, ultrasound imaging is progressively achieving an important role in the assessment and characterization of cardiovascular imaging. Speckle is inherent in ultrasound imaging giving rise to a granular appearance instead of homogeneous, flat shades of gray, as is visible and as such, speckle can severely compromise interpretation of ultrasound images, particularly in discrimination of small structures. On the other hand, speckle can be used in the detection of time varying phenomena, or tracking tissue motion. The objective of this book is to provide a reference edited volume covering the whole spectrum of speckle phenomena, theoretical background and modelling, algorithms and selected applications in cardiovascular ultrasound imaging and video processing and analysis. The book is organized under the following four parts, Part I: Introduction to Speckle Noise; Part II: Speckle Filtering; Part III: Speckle Tracking; Part IV: Selected Applications in Cardiovascular Imaging.

M-health can be defined as the a ~emerging mobile communications and network technologies for healthcare systems.' This book paves the path toward understanding the future of m-health technologies and services and also introducing the impact of mobility on existing e-health and commercial telemedical systems. M-Health: Emerging Mobile Health Systems presents a new and forward-looking source of information that explores the present and future trends in the applications of current and emerging wireless communication and network technologies for different healthcare scenaria. It also provides a discovery path on the synergies between the 2.5G and 3G systems and other relevant computing and information technologies and how they prescribe the way for the next generation of m-health services. The book contains 47 chapters, arranged in five thematic sections: Introduction to Mobile M-health Systems, Smart Mobile Applications for Health Professionals, Signal, Image, and Video Compression for M-health Applications, Emergency Health Care Systems and Services, Echography Systems and Services, and Remote and Home Monitoring. This book is intended for all those working in the field of information technologies in biomedicine, as well as for people working in future applications of wireless communications and wireless telemedical systems. It provides different levels of material to researchers, computing engineers, and medical practitioners interested in emerging e-health systems. This book will be a useful reference for all the readers in this important and growing field of research, and will contribute to the roadmap of future m-health systems and improve the development of effective healthcaredelivery systems.

In ultrasound imaging and video visual perception is hindered by speckle multiplicative noise that degrades the quality. Noise reduction is therefore essential for improving the visual observation quality or as a pre-processing step for further automated analysis, such as image/video segmentation, texture analysis and encoding in ultrasound imaging and video. The goal of the first book (book 1 of 2 books) was to introduce the problem of speckle in ultrasound image and video as well as the theoretical background, algorithmic steps, and the MatlabTM for the following group of despeckle filters: linear despeckle filtering, non-linear despeckle filtering, diffusion despeckle filtering, and wavelet despeckle filtering. The goal of this book (book 2 of 2 books) is to demonstrate the use of a comparative evaluation framework based on these despeckle filters (introduced on book 1) on cardiovascular ultrasound image and video processing and analysis. More specifically, the despeckle filtering evaluation framework is based on texture analysis, image quality evaluation metrics, and visual evaluation by experts. This framework is applied in cardiovascular ultrasound image/video processing on the tasks of segmentation and structural measurements, texture analysis for differentiating between two classes (i.e. normal vs disease) and for efficient encoding for mobile applications. It is shown that despeckle noise reduction improved segmentation and measurement (of tissue structure investigated), increased the texture feature distance between normal and abnormal tissue, improved image/video quality evaluation and perception and produced significantly lower bitrates in video encoding. Furthermore, in order to facilitate further applications we have developed in MATLABTM two different toolboxes that integrate image (IDF) and video (VDF) despeckle filtering, texture analysis, and image and video quality evaluation metrics. The code for these toolsets is open source and these are available to download complementary to the two monographs.

It is well known that speckle is a multiplicative noise that degrades image and video quality and the visual expert's evaluation in ultrasound imaging and video. This necessitates the need for robust despeckling image and video techniques for both routine clinical practice and tele-consultation. The goal for this book (book 1 of 2 books) is to introduce the problem of speckle occurring in ultrasound image and video as well as the theoretical background (equations), the algorithmic steps, and the MATLABTM code for the following group of despeckle filters: linear filtering, nonlinear filtering, anisotropic diffusion filtering, and wavelet filtering. This book proposes a comparative evaluation framework of these despeckle filters based on texture analysis, image quality evaluation metrics, and visual evaluation by medical experts. Despeckle noise reduction through the application of these filters will improve the visual observation quality or it may be used as a pre-processing step for further automated analysis, such as image and video segmentation, and texture characterization in ultrasound cardiovascular imaging, as well as in bandwidth reduction in ultrasound video transmission for telemedicine applications. The aforementioned topics will be covered in detail in the companion book to this one. Furthermore, in order to facilitate further applications we have developed in MATLABTM two different toolboxes that integrate image (IDF) and video (VDF) despeckle filtering, texture analysis, and image and video quality evaluation metrics. The code for these toolsets is open source and these are available to download complementary to the two books. Table of Contents: Preface / Acknowledgments / List of Symbols / List of Abbreviations / Introduction to Speckle Noise in Ultrasound Imaging and Video / Basics of Evaluation Methodology / Linear Despeckle Filtering / Nonlinear Despeckle Filtering / Diffusion Despeckle Filtering / Wavelet Despeckle Filtering / Evaluation of Despeckle Filtering / Summary and Future Directions / References / Authors' Biographies

M-health can be defined as the emerging mobile communications and network technologies for healthcare systems.' This book paves the path toward understanding the future of m-health technologies and services and also introducing the impact of mobility on existing e-health and commercial telemedical systems. M-Health: Emerging Mobile Health Systems presents a new and forward-looking source of information that explores the present and future trends in the applications of current and emerging wireless communication and network technologies for different healthcare scenaria. It also provides a discovery path on the synergies between the 2.5G and 3G systems and other relevant computing and information technologies and how they prescribe the way for the next generation of m-health services. The book contains 47 chapters, arranged in five thematic sections: Introduction to Mobile M-health Systems, Smart Mobile Applications for Health Professionals, Signal, Image, and Video Compression for M-health Applications, Emergency Health Care Systems and Services, Echography Systems and Services, and Remote and Home Monitoring. This book is intended for all those working in the field of information technologies in biomedicine, as well as for people working in future applications of wireless communications and wireless telemedical systems. It provides different levels of material to researchers, computing engineers, and medical practitioners interested in emerging e-health systems. This book will be a useful reference for all the readers in this important and growing field of research, and will contribute to the roadmap of future m-health systems and improve the development of effective healthcare delivery systems."