Patent ID: 7734076

Claim:
A diagnostic imaging system, comprising: a high frequency electromagnetic energy source that emits a beam of high frequency electromagnetic energy toward an object to be imaged; a detector that receives high frequency electromagnetic energy emitted by the high frequency electromagnetic energy source; a data acquisition system (DAS) operably connected to the detector; and a computer operably connected to the DAS and programmed to: employ a threshold to trigger a filter operation on a pixel, in a basis material decomposition (BMD) image of a plurality of BMD images, through comparison of an actual noise ratio between a pair of BMD images, of the plurality of BMD images, to a theoretical BMD noise ratio value; employ a correlation in noise distribution of the plurality of BMD images to reduce image noise in the plurality of BMD images; realize an adaptive algorithm through employment of an exponential correction function of a difference between the actual noise ratio and the theoretical BMD noise ratio value; and employ the adaptive algorithm to reduce the image noise in the plurality of BMD images.