Removal of background noise from image

A computer-implemented method to process a medical image, the computer comprising one or more processors and memory accessible by the one or more processors, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the computer to perform the method, the method comprising:

• generating a mask based on the medical image, wherein the mask comprises a foreground portion designating foreground voxels, a background portion designating background voxels, and a perimeter separating the foreground portion from the background portion;
• designating a perimeter portion of the mask, the perimeter portion enclosing the perimeter, a subset of the foreground portion, and a subset of the background portion;
• designating a threshold for the perimeter portion to separate voxels based on voxel intensity;
• filtering the medical image with the mask and the threshold to obtain a filtered image;
• receiving user input to adjust filtering parameters to obtain adjusted filtering parameters, wherein the adjusted filtering parameters comprise at least one of an adjusted size of the perimeter portion or an adjusted threshold for the perimeter portion;
• filtering the medical image with the adjusted filtering parameters to obtain a revised filtered image;
• and
• displaying the revised filtered image on the display.

An apparatus for removing background noise from a medical image, comprising one or more processors;

• and memory storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
• generate a mask based on the medical image, wherein the mask comprises a foreground portion designating foreground voxels, a background portion designating background voxels, and a perimeter separating the foreground portion from the background portion;
• designate a perimeter portion of the mask, the perimeter portion enclosing the perimeter, a subset of the foreground portion, and a subset of the background portion, wherein the perimeter portion of the mask is user-defined;
• designate a threshold for the perimeter portion to separate voxels based on voxel intensity, wherein the threshold for the perimeter portion is user-defined;
• filter the medical image with the mask and the threshold to obtain a filtered image;
• and
• display the filtered image on a display.