• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.83-87
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• 2011

Purpose: Recently in diagnostics area PET/CT is using a variety of areas including oncology, as well as in cardiology, neurology, etc. While increasing in the importance of PET/CT, there are various researches in the image quality related to reconstruction method. We compared and tested Iterative 2D Reconstruction Method with True X Reconstruction method by Siemens through phantom experiment, so we can see increasing of clinical usefulness of PET/CT. Materials and Methods: We measured contrast ratio and FWHM due to evaluating images on dose and experiment using Biograph 40 True Point PET/CT (Siemens, Germany). Getting a result of contrast ratio and FWHM, we used NEMA IEC PET body phantom (Data Spectrum Corp.) and capillary tube. We used the current TrueX and the previous Iterative 2D algorithm for all images which have 10 minutes long. Also, a clinical suitability of parameter for Iterative 2D and a recommended parameter by Siemens for True X are applied to the experiment. Results: We tested FWHM using capillary tube. As a result, TrueX was less than Iterative 2D. Also, the differences of FWHM get bigger in low dose. On the other hand, we tested contrasts ratio using NEMA IEC PET body phantom. As a result, TrueX was better aspect than Iterative 2D. However, there was no difference in dose. Conclusion: In this experiment, TrueX get higher results of contrast ratio and spatial resolution than Itertive 2D through experiment. Also, in the reconstruction result through TrueX, TrueX had better aspect of resolution than Iterative 2D in low dose. However, contrast ratio had no specific difference. In other words, TrueX reconstruction method in PET/CT had higher clinical value in use because TrueX can reduce exposure of patient and had a better quality of screen.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.387-394
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• 2022

120 kVp FBP reconstruction image standard by using raw data after scanning by changing tube voltage among the NECK CT protocols that are broad applied in clinical practice using a human phantom including thyroid gland The usefulness of the DLIR reconstruction technique was investigated. As a result, CTDIvol decreased when the DLIR reconstruction technique was applied, and in particular, the image quality obtained under the same standard scanning conditions at a lower dose for ASIR-V and DLIR reconstruction was reached than when FBP was applied at the same kVp In addition, as a result of SNR and CNR analysis, the DLIR reconstructed image was analyzed with high SNR and CNR values, and SSIM analysis, the SSIM index of the 100 kVp, DLIR reconstructed image was measured to be close to 1, and it was analyzed that the similarity of the reconstructed image to the original image was high (p>0.05). If the results of this study are used to supplement clinical image evaluation and further develop an algorithm applicable to various anatomical structures, it is thought that it will be useful for clinical application as it is possible to maintain the image quality while lowering the examination dose.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.63-69
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• 2004

HDR brachytherapy administers a large dose of radiation in a short time compare with LDR, and its optimization for treatment is related to several complex factors, such as physical, radiation and optimization algorithms, so there is a need for these to be verified for accurate dose delivery. In our approach, a previous study concerning the phantom for dose verification has been modified, and a new pelvic phantom fabricated for the purpose of localization, including a structure enabling the use of a CT or MRI system. In addition, a comparison study was performed to verify an orthogonal method that is commonly used for brachytherapy localization by comparing target coordinates from a CT system. Since the developed phantom was designed to simulate the clinical setups of cervix cancer, it included an air-filled bladder and a rectum structure shaped sphere and cylinder An N-shaped localizer was used to obtain precision coordinates from both CT and films. Moreover, the IDL 5.5 software program for Windows was used to perform coordinates analysis based on an orthogonal algorithm. The film results showed differences within 1.0 mm of the selected target points compare with the CT coordinates. For these results, a Plato planning system (Nucletron, Netherlands) could be independently verified using this phantom and software. Furthermore, the new phantom and software will be efficient and powerful qualify assurance (QA) tools in the field of brachytherapy QA.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.307-311
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• 2013

This study examined the change of artifact volume by analyzing the level of image change associated with the setting of threshold through 3D imaging in scan parameter(slice thickness and helical pitch) and 3D image reconstruction to explore whether the presence of pathology was fully distinguished when CT was taken by lower dose than the existent dose to reduce exposure. Furthermore, this study attempted to investigate Scan Parameter acceptable in CT to reduce exposure dose. For materials and methods, silicon was used to produce samples. Five spherical samples were produced at 10-millimeter intervals(50, 40, 30, 20, and 10 mm) in diameter and were fixed at 120 Kvp of tube voltage and 50 mA of tube current. Varied slab thickness((1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 5.0, and 7.0mm) and Helical Pitch(1.5, 2.0, 3.0) were scanned. The image at an interval of 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 5.0, and 7.0mm was transmitted to the workstation. Threshold(-200, -50, 50 ~ 1,000) was changed using the volume rendering technique, 3D image was reconstructed, and artifact volume was measured. In conclusion, 1.5 of Helical Pitch showed the least change of volume and 3.0 of helical pitch showed the greatest reduction of volume change. The experiment suggested that as slice thickness was increased, artifact volume was decreased more than actual measurement. Furthermore, in the 3D image reconstruction, when the range of threshold was set as -200 ~1,000, artifact volume was changed the least. Based on the results, it is expected to have an effect of reducing exposure dose.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.217-223
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• 2014

The aim of this study is evaluation of dose distribution on radiation therapy planning system with the CT image of high-density material inserted phantom. Gammex 467 Tissue Characterization Phantom is used to acquire an image similar to the human tissues and insert a Titanium to generate metal artifact. The acquired images were reconstructed with Metal Artifact Reduction for Orthopedic Implants (O-MAR). By using the treatment planning system, the volume was analyzed and dose distribution was extracted. Photon dose distribution in linear accelerator was measured by the $MapCHECK^{TM}$ and compared with planned and measured dose distributions. In result of the comparative analysis, when artifact is generated by Titanium, The volume applied O-MAR was increased 6.8% to BR-12 Breast and 40.2% to LV 1 Liver. After O-MAR was used, Dose distribution was higher 1.4 to 1.6% than before. Consequently, The artifact caused by metal objects should be removed if possible, and after that used in the radiotherapy treatment plan can be considered to reduce errors.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.252-260
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• 2012

The reduction of radiation dose from x-ray is a main concern in computed tomography (CT) imaging due to the side-effect of the dose on human body. Recently, the various methods for dose reduction have been studied in CT and one of the method is a iterative reconstruction based on total variation (TV) minimization at few-views data. In this paper, we evaluated the image quality between total variation (TV) minimization algorithm and Feldkam-Davis-kress (FDK) algorithm in micro computed tomography (CT). To evaluate the effect of TV minimization algorithm, we produced a cylindrical phantom including contrast media, water, air inserts. We can acquire maximum 400 projection views per rotation of the x-ray tube and detector. 20, 50, 90, 180 projection data were chosen for evaluating the level of image restoration by TV minimization. The phantom and mouse image reconstructed with FDK algorithm at 400 projection data used as a reference image for comparing with TV minimization and FDK algorithm at few-views. Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), Universal quality index (UQI) were used as a image evaluation metric. When projection data are not insufficient, our results show that the image quality of reconstructed with TV minimization is similar to reconstructed image with FDK at 400 view. In the cylindrical phantom study, the CNR of TV image was 5.86, FDK image was 5.65 and FDK-reference was 5.98 at 90-views. The CNR of TV image 0.21 higher than FDK image CNR at 90-views. UQI of TV image was 0.99 and FDK image was 0.81 at 90-views. where, the number of projection is 90, the UQI of TV image 0.18 higher than FDK image at 90-views. In the mouse study UQI of TV image was 0.91, FDK was 0.83 at 90-views. the UQI of TV image 0.08 higher than FDK image at 90-views. In cylindrical phantom image and mouse image study, TV minimization algorithm shows the best performance in artifact reduction and preserving edges at few view data. Therefore, TV minimization can potentially be expected to reduce patient dose in clinics.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.167-175
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• 2006

With the recent prevalence of helical CT and multi-slice CT, which deliver higher radiation dose than conventional CT due to overbeaming effect in X-ray exposure and interpolation technique in image reconstruction. Although multi-detector and helical CT scanner provide a variety of opportunities for patient dose reduction, the potential risk for high radiation levels in CT examination can't be overemphasized in spite of acquiring more diagnostic information. So much more concerns is necessary about dose characteristics of CT scanner, especially dose efficient design as well as dose modulation software, because dose efficiency built into the scanner's design is probably the most important aspect of successful low dose clinical performance. This study was conducted to evaluate z-axis geometric dose efficiency in single detector CT and each level multi-detector CT, as well as to compare z-axis dose efficiency with change of technical scan parameters such as focal spot size of tube, beam collimation, detector combination, scan mode, pitch size, slice width and interval. The results obtained were as follows ; 1. SDCT was most highest and 4 MDCT was most lowest in z-axis geometric dose efficiency among SDCT, 4, 8, 16, 64 slice MDCT made by GE manufacture. 2. Small focal spot was 0.67-13.62% higher than large focal spot in z-axis geometric dose efficiency at MDCT. 3. Large beam collimation was 3.13-51.52% higher than small beam collimation in z-axis geometric dose efficiency at MDCT. 4. Z-axis geometric dose efficiency was same at 4 slice MDCT in all condition and 8 slice MDCT of large beam collimation with change of detector combination, but was changed irregularly at 8 slice MDCT of small beam collimation and 16 slice MDCT in all condition with change of detector combination. 5. There was no significant difference for z-axis geometric dose efficiency between conventional scan and helical scan, and with change of pitch factor, as well as change of slice width or interval for image reconstruction. As a conclusion, for reduction of patient radiation dose delivered from CT examination we are particularly concerned with dose efficiency of equipment and have to select proper scanning parameters which increase z-axis geometric dose efficiency within the range of preserving optimum clinical information in MDCT examination.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.37 no.7C
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• pp.601-609
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• 2012

In this paper, a limited-view CT image reconstruction method was studied to reduce the scan times and the X-ray dose for the patients. To reduce streak artifacts which is caused by insufficient number of views, we introduce a sinogram interpolation method based on image matching. Image matching is achieved using the characteristics of the neighboring views including intensity, gradient and distance between the pixels. Interpolation is performed using the image matching results.. A numerical phantom and Al-acryl phantom were used for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed interpolation method. The results showed that streak artifacts were reduced in the reconstructed images while the details of the images were preserved. Moreover, maximum 5% improvements in terms of PSNR were observed.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2011

The measurement-based verification for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is a time-and labor-consuming procedure. Instead, this study aims to develop a MU fluence reconstruction method for IMRT QA. Total actual fluences from treatment planning system (TPS, Eclipse 8.6, Varian) were selected as a reference. Delivered leaf positions according to MU were extracted by the dynalog file generated after IMRT delivery. An in-house software was develop to reconstruct MU fluence from the acquired delivered leaf position data using MATLAB. We investigated five patient's plans delivered by both step-and-shoot IMRT and sliding window technologies. The total actual fluence was compared with the MU fluence reconstructed by using commercial software (Verisoft 3.1, PTW) and gamma analysis method (criteria: 3%/3 mm and 2%/1 mm). Gamma pass rates were $97.8{\pm}1.33$% and the reconstructed fluence was shown good agreement with RTP-based actual fluence. The fluence from step and shoot IMRT was shown slightly higher agreement with the actual fluence than that from sliding window IMRT. If moving from IMRT QA measurements toward independent computer calculations, the developed method can be used for IMRT QA. A point dose calculation method from reconstructed fluences is under development for the routine IMRT QA purpose.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.35-43
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• 1997

The knowledge of x-ray spectra is highly desirable in some investigation involves the differential penetrating power and absorption coefficient correction of various photon beam. The transmission data were obtained from the 80 kVp and 120 kVp of CT x-ray beam with the aluminium filter which is designed in a 30 cm of diameter and pipe-typed filter was prepared from 5.0 mm upto 92.3 mm of thickness. To obtain the reconstructed spectra of CT x-ray, the investigator used the iterative numerical analysis which has been extended to include the tungsten characteristics from experimental transmission data with energy interval of 2 keV. Comparison of the calculated transmission data from the reconstructed spectra with that of measurement shows good agreement in both 80 kVp and 120 kVp x-ray beams. This numerical analysis based on iteratively calculation of fractional exposure per energy interval shows the high potential of usefulness of determination the x-ray spectra from the attenuated beam in diagnostic energy range.