• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2007

X-ray digital tomosynthesis is widely used in the nondestructive testing and evaluation, especially for the printed circuit boards (PCBs). In this study, we propose a simple method to reduce the blur artefact, frequently claimed in the conventional digital tomosynthesis based on SAA (shift-and-add) algorithm, and thus restore the image sharpness. The proposed method is basically based on the SAA, but has a correction procedure by finding blur artefacts from the forward-and back-projection for the firstly obtained, manipulated backprojection data. The manipulation is the replacement of the original data at the POI (plane-of-interest) by zeros. This method has been compared with the conventional SAA algorithm using the experimental measurements and Monte Carlo simulation for the designed PCB phantom. The comparison showed a much enhancement of sharpness in the images obtained from the proposed method.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2016

In this work, we considered a compressed-sensing (CS)-based image deblurring scheme with a total-variation (TV) regularization penalty for improving image characteristics in digital tomosynthesis (DTS). We implemented the proposed image deblurring algorithm and performed a systematic simulation to demonstrate its viability. We also performed an experiment by using a table-top setup which consists of an x-ray tube operated at $90kV_p$, 6 mAs and a CMOS-type flat-panel detector having a $198-{\mu}m$ pixel resolution. In the both simulation and experiment, 51 projection images were taken with a tomographic angle range of ${\theta}=60^{\circ}$ and an angle step of ${\Delta}{\theta}=1.2^{\circ}$ and then deblurred by using the proposed deblurring algorithm before performing the common filtered-backprojection (FBP)-based DTS reconstruction. According to our results, the image sharpness of the recovered x-ray images and the reconstructed DTS images were significantly improved and the cross-plane spatial resolution in DTS was also improved by a factor of about 1.4. Thus the proposed deblurring scheme appears to be effective for the blurring problems in both conventional radiography and DTS and is applicable to improve the present image characteristics.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.281-290
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• 2010

Cone-beam digital tomosynthesis (CBDT) has greatly been paid attention in the image-guided radiation therapy because of its attractive advantages such as low patient dose and less motion artifact. Image quality of tomograms is, however, dependent on the imaging conditions such as the scan angle (${\beta}_{scan}$) and the number of projection views. In this paper, we describe the principle of CBDT based on filtered-backprojection technique and investigate the optimization of imaging conditions. As a system performance, we have defined the figure-of-merit with a combination of signal difference-to-noise ratio, artifact spread function and floating-point operations which determine the computational load of image reconstruction procedures. From the measurements of disc phantom, which mimics an impulse signal and thus their analyses, it is concluded that the image quality of tomograms obtained from CBDT is improved as the scan angle is wider than 60 degrees with a larger step scan angle (${\Delta}{\beta}$). As a rule of thumb, the system performance is dependent on $\sqrt{{\Delta}{\beta}}{\times}{\beta}^{2.5}_{scan}$. If the exact weighting factors could be assigned to each image-quality metric, we would find the better quantitative imaging conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.7-15
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• 2003

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.111-118
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• 2019

Chest digital tomosynthesis has become a practical imaging modality because it can solve the problem of anatomy overlapping in conventional chest radiography. However, because of both limited scan angle and finite-size detector, a portion of chest cannot be represented in some or all of the projection. These bring a discontinuity in intensity across the field of view boundaries in the reconstructed slices, which we refer to as the truncation artifacts. The purpose of this study was to reduce truncation artifacts using a weighted normalization approach and to investigate the performance of this approach for our prototype chest digital tomosynthesis system. The system source-to-image distance was 1100 mm, and the center of rotation of X-ray source was located on 100 mm above the detector surface. After obtaining 41 projection views with ${\pm}20^{\circ}$ degrees, tomosynthesis slices were reconstructed with the filtered back projection algorithm. For quantitative evaluation, peak signal to noise ratio and structure similarity index values were evaluated after reconstructing reference image using simulation, and mean value of specific direction values was evaluated using real data. Simulation results showed that the peak signal to noise ratio and structure similarity index was improved respectively. In the case of the experimental results showed that the effect of artifact in the mean value of specific direction of the reconstructed image was reduced. In conclusion, the weighted normalization method improves the quality of image by reducing truncation artifacts. These results suggested that weighted normalization method could improve the image quality of chest digital tomosynthesis.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.271-280
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• 2014

Recently, digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has been investigated to overcome the limitation of conventional mammography for overlapping anatomical structures and high patient dose with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). However incomplete sampling due to limited angle leads to interference on the neighboring slices. Many studies have investigated to reduce artifacts such as interference. Moreover, appropriate filters for tomosynthesis have been researched to solve artifacts resulted from incomplete sampling. The primary purpose of this study is finding appropriate filter scheme with FBP reconstruction for DBT system to reduce artifacts. In this study, we investigated characteristics of various filter schemes with simulation and prototype digital breast tomosynthesis under same acquisition parameters and conditions. We evaluated artifacts and noise with profiles and COV (coefficinet of variation) to study characteristic of filter. As a result, the noise with parameter 0.25 of Spectral filter reduced by 10% in comparison to that with only Ramp-lak filter. Because unbalance of information reduced with decreasing B of Slice thickness filter, artifacts caused by incomplete sampling reduced. In conclusion, we confirmed basic characteristics of filter operations and improvement of image quality by appropriate filter scheme. The results of this study can be utilized as base in research and development of DBT system by providing information that is about noise and artifacts depend on various filter schemes.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.360-366
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• 2010

To generate on-board digital tomosynthesis (DTS) for three-dimensionalimage-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) as an alternative to conventional portal imaging or on-board cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), two clinical cases (liver and bladder) were selected to illustrate the capabilities of on-board DTS for IGRT. DTS images were generated from subsets of CBCT projection data (45, 162 projections) using half-fan mode scanning with a Feldkamp-type reconstruction algorithm. Digital tomosynthesis slices appeared similar to coincident CBCT planes and yielded substantially more anatomic information. Improved bony and soft-tissue visibility in DTS images is likely to improve target localization compared with radiographic verification techniques and might allow for daily localization of a soft-tissue target. Digital tomosynthesis might allow targeting of the treatment volume on the basis of daily localization.

• 한국가시화정보학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.34-35
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• 2004

Three dimensional density distributions of impinging and eccentric flames have been investigated by digital speckle tomography. The flames have been ignited by a mixture of butane and air from a circular nozzle and impinged against a plate located at the upper side of the burner exit. For comparison with experimental data, computer synthesized phantoms of impinging and eccentric flames have been reconstructed by a developed three-dimensional multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique (MART). The advanced reconstruction in the stagnation flow region involved the sharp change of the flow direction and pressure gradient has been developed using a cross-correlation method and new scanning technique for the speckle displacement.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.83 no.5
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• pp.1090-1103
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• 2022

Purpose To evaluate the diagnostic performance of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) with the two-dimensional synthesized mammogram (2DSM), compared to full-field digital mammography (FFDM), for suspicious microcalcifications in the breast ahead of stereotactic biopsy and to assess the diagnostic image visibility of the images. Materials and Methods This retrospective study involved 189 patients with microcalcifications, which were histopathologically verified by stereotactic breast biopsy, who underwent DBT with 2DSM and FFDM between January 8, 2015, and January 20, 2020. Two radiologists assessed all cases of microcalcifications based on Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) independently. They were blinded to the histopathologic outcome and additionally evaluated lesion visibility using a fivepoint scoring scale. Results Overall, the inter-observer agreement was excellent (0.9559). Under the setting of category 4A as negative due to the low possibility of malignancy and to avoid the dilution of malignancy criteria in our study, McNemar tests confirmed no significant difference between the performances of the two modalities in detecting microcalcifications with a high potential for malignancy (4B, 4C, or 5; p = 0.1573); however, the tests showed a significant difference between their performances in detecting microcalcifications with a high potential for benignancy (4A; p = 0.0009). DBT with 2DSM demonstrated superior visibility and diagnostic performance than FFDM in dense breasts. Conclusion DBT with 2DSM is superior to FFDM in terms of total diagnostic accuracy and lesion visibility for benign microcalcifications in dense breasts. This study suggests a promising role for DBT with 2DSM as an accommodating tool for stereotactic biopsy in female with dense breasts and suspicious breast microcalcifications.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.113-126
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• 1997

Electrical resistivity methods of dipole - dipole array profiling and Schiumberger array sounding were tested on a segment of the Woraksan granitic batholith for the research into the imaging of irregular attitudes of fracture zones in the crystaaline rock in terms of processing and interpretation schemes. By the dipole - dipole array method, inhomogeneities such as small scale of fracture zones were properly delineated down at some depth even within hard rock environment. Fracture zones were interpreted to be at the boundaries between the high amplitude zone and very low amplitude zone in the resistivity plot and they were also successfully outlined in two - dimensional layer and pseudo - three - dimensional volume constructed by the incorporation of vertical sounding data. The surface location of the fracture zones was correlated by the zero - crossing point in the VLF(very low frequency) electromagnetic data. Pseudo - three - dimensional attitudes of fracture zones were efficiently illuminated by optimum projection angle. The mean of bulk resistivity for the Woraksan granite and the near fracture zones is estimated to be approximately of 4,000 ohm - m which is much higher than the value of 700 ohm - m for the Rwachunri limesilicate environment. This difference is due to both the rock type, i.e., biotite granite vs limesilicate, and the occurrence of secondary openings of fold and fault associated with the intrusion of granite. In this study statistical analyses on the resistivity color plot were performed in terms of three representative statistical moments, i.e., standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis. The fracture zones in the standard deviation plot were characterized by the higher value, compared to the value of homogeneous portion. The upper boundary of the high resistivity zone was also successfully delineated in the skewness and kurtosis plots.