(*) Summary: The present talk has been divided in two parts. In the first part we present the results of a Project related to Magnetic Resonance (MR) image compression.  In this project, we present and evaluate a generic methodology for the determination of the minimal bit rate that still ensures an accurate detection in MR images of specific lesions and we demonstrate our methodology for two particular pathologies i.e. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Virchow- Robin space (VRS) enlargements.
In the second part we describe an algorithm for reduction of random noise using filters based on the Wavelet Transform for planar Nuclear Medicine (NM) images. The quality of the resulting processed images is evaluated by means of quantitative metrics. An assessment of the subjective image quality employing experts using a Free-Response methodology is also included.



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(**) Biodata: Dr. Marlen Perez Diaz obtained her BSc degree in Nuclear Physics Engineering in 1993. In 1998 she obtained her Master degree in Nuclear and Radioactive Installations; and in 2003 she went on to her PhD in Physics with a thesis on Medical Physics. Currently, she is Full Professor at the Center for Studies on Electronic and Information Technologies at the Central University of Las Villas in Cuba.

Dr. Perez Diaz is head of three Research Projects. Firstly, two national ones  in the topics of Dose optimization for Nuclear Medicine and also in Physics for Bio-medical Engineers. Secondly, she is devoting her time to an International Project for Medical Physics Applications. She has been invited to collaborate with some important Institutions including the Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Spain, Salsgrenka University in Sweden; in addition she worked in research projects at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil and at the University of Brussels.

She is one of our Junior Associates and in Trieste she is also  a member of the Third World Organization for Women in Science. She is a member of the Cuban Physics Society and the Cuban Bio-Engineering Society. She has obtained some Scientific Awards in her country and she has been nominated for the Award of the Cuban Science Academy.

Her academic achievements include 23 papers published in International Journals and 30 papers in Proceedings of International Conferences.  She is also a reviewer of the Cuban Bio-Engineering and Medical Physics Journal and a member of the Scientific Commite of the Latin American Medical Physics Association.  She is currently working in several research topics, but will concentrate in this seminar on: "Analyzing and Improving Digital Medical Image Quality".