Three-band MRI image fusion utilizing the wavelet-based method optimized with two quantitative fusion metrics

In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), there are three bands of images (“MRI triplet”) availa ble, which are T1-, T2- and PD-weighted images. The three images of a MRI triplet provide complementary st ructure information and therefore it is useful for diagnosis and subsequent analysis to combine three-band images into one. We propose an advanced discrete wavelet transform ( aDWT) for three-band MR I image fusion and the aDWT algorithm is further optimized utilizing two quantitative fusion metrics – the image quality index (IQI) and ratio spatial frequency error (rSFe). In the aDWT method, principle component analysis (PCA) and morphological processing are incorporated into a regular DWT fusion algorithm. Furthermore, the aDWT has two adjustable parameters – the level of DWT decomposition (L