Use of symmetry in prediction-error field for lossless compression of 3D MRI images

Three dimensional MRI images which are powerful tools for diagnosis of many diseases require large storage space. A number of lossless compression schemes exist for this purpose. In this paper we propose a new approach for lossless compression of these images which exploits the inherent symmetry that exists in 3D MRI images. First, an efficient pixel prediction scheme is used to remove correlation between pixel values in an MRI image. Then a block matching routine is employed to take advantage of the symmetry within the prediction error image. Inter-slice correlations are eliminated using another block matching. Results of the proposed approach are compared with the existing standard compression techniques.