Rib suppression in frontal chest radiographs: A blind source separation approach

Chest radiographs play an important role in the diagnosis of lung cancer. Detection of pulmonary nodules in chest radiographs forms the basis of early detection. Due to its sparse bone structure and overlapping of the nodule with ribs and clavicles the nodule is difficult to detect in conventional chest radiographs. We present a technique based on Independent Component Analysis (ICA) for the suppression of posterior ribs and clavicles which will en-hance the visibility of the nodules and aid the radiologist in diagnosis. 1