• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.368-373
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• 2009

A human tissue mimicking phantom is constructed to assess the performance of a medical ultrasound elasticity imaging system. In a human body, the tumor or cancer is stiffer than its surrounding normal tissue. A technique fur imaging the elasticity of such a tissue is referred to as elastography. Homogeneous elasticity phantoms with differing Young's moduli are constructed using a plastic hardener and softener to simulate the mechanical characteristics of a diseased human tissue. The Young's modulus of the fabricated homogeneous phantom materials were measured from 11.1 to 79.6 kPa depending on the mixing ratio of the amount of the hardener to that of the softener. An ultrasound lesion mimicking phantom was made of these materials, and ultrasound elasticity imaging was performed on it. It is confirmed in this paper that the fabricated plastic-based elasticity phantom is useful in representing the elastic characteristics of a human tissue.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.453-458
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• 2019

In this study we analyzed the tendency of the image characteristic by changing filtering factor for the proposed fast non local means (FNLM) noise reduction algorithm with designed Male Adult mesh (MASH) phantom through Geant4 application for tomographic emission (GATE) simulation program. To accomplish this purpose, MASH phantom for human copy was designed through the GATE simulation program. In addition, we acquired degraded image by adding Gaussian noise with a value of 0.005 using the MATALB program in MASH phantom. Moreover, in degraded image, the FNLM noise reduction algorithm was applied by changing the filtering factors, which set to 0.005, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 value, respectively. To quantitatively evaluate, the coefficient of variation (COV), signal to noise ratio (SNR), and contrast to noise ratio (CNR) were calculated in reconstructed images. Results of the COV, SNR and CNR were most improved in image with a filtering factor of 0.05 value. Especially, the COV was decreased with increasing filtering factor, and showed nearly constant values after 0.05 value of the filtering factor. In addition, SNR and CNR were showed that improvement with increasing filtering factor, and deterioration after 0.05 value of the filtering factor. In conclusion, we demonstrated the significance of setting the filtering factor when applying the FNLM noise reduction algorithm in degraded image.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.443-451
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• 2020

This study is to evaluate absorbed dose from right lung for brachytherapy and to estimate the effects of tissue heterogeneities on dose distribution for Iridium-192 source using Monte Carlo simulation. The study employed Geant4 code as Monte Carlo simulation to calculate the dosimetry parameters. The dose distribution of Iridium-192 source in solid water equivalent phantom including aluminium plate or steel plate inserted was calculated and compared with the measured dose by the ion chamber at various distances. And the simulation was used to evaluate the dose of gamma radiation absorbed in the lung organ and other organs around it. The dose distribution embedded in right lung was calculated due to the presence of heart, thymus, spine, stomach as well as left lung. The geometry of the human body was made up of adult male MIRD type of the computational human phantom. The dosimetric characteristics obtained for aluminium plate inserted were in good agreement with experimental results within 4%. The simulation results of steel plate inserted agreed well with a maximum difference 2.75%. Target organ considered to receive a dose of 100%, the surrounding organs were left the left lung of 3.93%, heart of 10.04%, thymus of 11.19%, spine of 12.64% and stomach of 0.95%. When the statistical error is performed for the computational human phantom, the statistical error of value is under 1%.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.427-433
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• 2018

Because of the expectation of the non-invasive treatment effect, Various studies on the treatment of varicose veins using focused ultrasound are reported. In this study, the bio-tissue phantom and tissue equivalent phantom that can be applied to estimation of ultrasonic varicose veins treatment effect. Each phantom was evaluated for its usefulness by evaluating the acoustic characteristics and the shrinkage rate according to the ultrasonic irradiation. A multi-layer structure phantom with three layers of skin, fat, and muscle was constructed considering the structure of the tissue where the varicose veins occurred. The materials constituting each layer were made to have characteristics similar to human body. In addition, the multi-layered phantoms with blood vessel mimic tube, with bovine blood vessel, and with animal tissue were fabricated. The degree of shrinkage of blood vessel mimic material and vascular tissue according to ultrasonic irradiation was evaluated using B-mode image. As the results of this study, it was thought that the proposed phantom could be used effectively in the evaluation of ultrasonic varicose veins treatment. In addition, it is thought that these phantoms could be applied to the development of varicose vein treatment device using the focused ultrasound and the verification of the therapeutic effect.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2014

Recently High-Definition Reference Korean-Man (HDRK-Man) and High-Definition Reference Korean-Woman (HDRK-Woman) were constructed in Korea. The HDRK phantoms were designed to represent respectively reference Korean male and female to calculate effective doses for Korean by performing Monte Carlo dose calculation. However, the Monte Carlo dose calculation requires detailed knowledge on computational human phantoms and Monte Carlo simulation technique which regular researchers in radiation protection dosimetry and practicing health physicists do not have. Recently the UFPE (Federal University of Pernambuco) research group has developed, and opened to public, an online Monte Carlo dose calculation system called CALDOSE_X(www.caldose.org). By using the CALDOSE_X, one can easily perform Monte Carlo dose calculations. However, the CALDOSE_X used caucasian phantoms to calculate organ doses or effective doses which are limited for Korean. The present study developed an online reference Korean dose calculation system which can be used to calculate effective doses for Korean.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate CTDI (computed tomography dose index at center) for various phantom shapes, sizes, and compositions by using GATE (geant4 application for tomographic emission) simulations. GATE simulations were performed for various phantom shapes (cylinder, elliptical, and hexagonal prism PMMA phantoms) and phantom compositions (water, PMMA, polyethylene, polyoxymethylene) with various diameters (1-50 cm) at various kVp and mAs levels. The $CTDI_{100center}$ values of cylinder, elliptical, and hexagonal prism phantom at 120 kVp, 200 mAs resulted in 11.1, 13.4, and 12.2 mGy, respectively. The volume is the same, but $CTDI_{100center}$ values are different depending on the type of phantom. The water, PMMA, and polyoxymethylene phantom $CTDI_{100center}$ values were relatively low as the material density increased. However, in the case of Polyethylene, the $CTDI_{100center}$ value was higher than that of PMMA at diameters exceeding 15 cm ($CTDI_{100center}$ : 35.0 mGy). And a diameter greater than 30 cm ($CTDI_{100center}$ : 17.7 mGy) showed more $CTDI_{100center}$ than Water. We have used limited phantoms to evaluate CT doses. In this study, $CTDI_{100center}$ values were estimated and simulated by GATE simulation according to the material and shape of the phantom. CT dosimetry can be estimated more accurately by using various materials and phantom shapes close to human body.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2015

Purpose : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of a 3D printed phantom for in-vivo dosimetry of a prostate cancer patient. Materials and Methods : The phantom is produced to equally describe prostate and rectum based on a 3D volume contour of an actual prostate cancer patient who is treated in Asan Medical Center by using a 3D printer (3D EDISON+, Lokit, Korea). CT(Computed tomography) images of phantom are aquired by computed tomography (Lightspeed CT, GE, USA). By using treatment planning system (Eclipse version 10.0, Varian, USA), treatment planning is established after volume of a prostate cancer patient is compared with volume of the phantom. MOSFET(Metal OXIDE Silicon Field Effect Transistor) is estimated to identify precision and is located in 4 measuring points (bladder, prostate, rectal anterior wall and rectal posterior wall) to analyzed treatment planning and measured value. Results : Prostate volume and rectum volume of prostate cancer patient represent 30.61 cc and 51.19 cc respectively. In case of a phantom, prostate volume and rectum volume represent 31.12 cc and 53.52 cc respectively. A variation of volume between a prostate cancer patient and a phantom is less than 3%. Precision of MOSFET represents less than 3%. It indicates linearity and correlation coefficient indicates from 0.99 ~ 1.00 depending on dose variation. Each accuracy of bladder, prostate, rectal anterior wall and rectal posterior wall represent 1.4%, 2.6%, 3.7% and 1.5% respectively. In- vivo dosimetry represents entirely less than 5% considering precision of MOSFET. Conclusion : By using a 3D printer, possibility of phantom production based on prostate is verified precision within 3%. effectiveness of In-vivo dosimetry is confirmed from a phantom which is produced by a 3D printer. In-vivo dosimetry is evaluated entirely less than 5% considering precision of MOSFET. Therefore, This study is confirmed the usefulness of a 3D printed phantom for in-vivo dosimetry of a prostate cancer patient. It is necessary to additional phantom production by a 3D printer and In-vivo dosimetry for other organs of patient.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.401-408
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• 2021

Proton therapy using the Bragg peak is one of the radiation therapies and can deliver its maximum energy to the tumor with giving least energy for normal tissue. A cross-sectional image of the human body taken with the computed tomography (CT) has been used for radiation therapy planning. The HU values change according to the tube voltage, which lead to the change in the boundary and thickness of the anatomical structure on the CT image. This study examined the changes in the Bragg peak of the brain region according to the thickness variation in the head phantom composed of several materials using the Geant4. In the phantom composed of a single material, the Bragg peak according to the type of media and the incident energy of the proton beams were calculated, and the reliability of Geant4 code was verified by the Bragg peak. The variation of the peak in the brain region was examined when each thickness of the head phantom was changed. When the thickness of the soft tissue was changed, there was no change in the peak position, and for the skin the change in the peak was small. The change of the peak position was mainly changed when the bone thickness. In particular, when the bone was changed only or the bone was changed together with other tissues, the amount of change in the peak position was the same. It is considered that measurement of the accurate bone thickness in CT images is one of the key factors in depth-dose distribution of the radiation therapy planning.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.159-167
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• 2014

In Korea, July 2012, the law as called 'Act on Safety Control of Radioactive Rays Around Living Environment' was implemented to control the consumer product containing Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM), but, there are no appropriate database and effective dose calculation system. The aim of this study was to develop evaluation technique of the exposure dose with the use of the consumer products containing NORM and to understand the characteristics of the exposed dose according to the radiation type and energy. For the evaluate of exposure dose, the ICRP reference phantom was simulated by the MCNPX code based on Monte Carlo method, and the minimum, medium, maximum energy of alphas, betas, gammas from the representative NORM of Uranium decay series were used as the source term in the simulation. The annual effective doses were calculated by the exposure scenario of the consumer product usage time and position. Short range of the alpha and beta rays are mostly delivered the dose to the skin. On the other hand, the gamma rays mostly delivered the similar dose to all of the organs. The results of the annual effective dose with $1Bq{\cdot}g^{-1}$ radioactive stone-bed and 10% radioactive concentration were employed with the usage time of 7 hours 50 minute per day, the maximum annual effective dose of alphas, betas, gammas were calculated 0.0222, 0.0836, $0.0101mSv{\cdot}y^{-1}$, respectively.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.199-208
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• 2012

The computational human phantom including major radiation sensitive organs at risk (OARs) can be used in the field of radiotherapy, such as the variation of secondary cancer risks caused by the radiation therapy and the effective dose evaluation in diagnostic radiology. The present study developed a Korean adult female voxel phantom, VKH-Woman, based on serially sectioned color slice images of Korean female cadaver. The height and weight of the developed female voxel phantom are 160 cm and 52.72 kg, respectively that are virtually close to those of reference Korean female (161 cm and 54 kg). The female phantom consists of a total of 39 organs, including 27 organs recommended in the ICRP 103 publication for the effective dose calculations. The female phantom composes of $261{\times}109{\times}825$ voxels (=23,470,425 voxels) and the voxel resolution is $1.976{\times}1.976{\times}2.0619mm^3$ in the x, y, and z directions. The VHK-Woman is provided as both ASCII and Binary data formats to be conveniently implemented in Monte Carlo codes.