• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.889-896
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• 2023

Changes in the energy spectrum were analyzed using ^99mTc as a point source and a scattering phantom, and the shielding effect of the lead apron according to the changed gamma ray energy was evaluated. In the gamma ray energy spectrum of the scattering phantom, the photo peak area decreased and the compton scattering area increased compared to the point source. The coefficients for each energy range according to the change in the shape of the gamma ray source showed a reduction rate of up to 66.1 % at a distance of 20 cm compared to the coefficient of the point source, and in the compton scattering area, the coefficient of the scattering phantom was 122.2 % at a distance of up to 40 cm compared to the coefficient of the point source. In the difference in shielding rate according to the distance between the source and the scattering phantom using a gamma camera, the photo peak area showed similar results, but in the Compton scattering area, the shielding rate of the scattering phantom at a distance of 20 cm increased by 29.2 % compared to the shielding rate of the point source. As the distance increased, the difference in shielding rate decreased. In measuring the shielding rate of the lead apron using a radiation dosimeter, the difference in the shielding rate of the scattering phantom was up to 15.3 %, and as the distance increased, the difference in the shielding rate between the two sources decreased. The shielding rate of the lead apron of the scattering phantom is higher than that of the point source, and the effectiveness of the lead apron increases as the distance to the source increases. As a result, wearing a lead apron when directly confronting a patient who has injected radioactive pharmaceuticals is expected to be helpful in reducing radiation exposure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.05a
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• pp.872-878
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• 1995

방사성폐기물 드럼내에 포함되어 있는 방사성 핵종의 양이 핵종분석장치로 측정할 수 있는 검출 하한치 이하이거나, 혹은 너무 높아 불감시간이 크게 증가될 경우에는 순수 Ge 검출기를 장착한 핵종분석장치로는 분석이 불가능하게 되므로 본 연구에서는 표면선량율과 Scaling Factor를 이용하여 드럼속에 포함되어 있는 핵종들의 양을 평가하는 방법을 제시하였으며, 불균일성이 높을 경우의 가능한 평가방법을 알아보기 위하여 점선원을 이용한 실험을 실시하였다. 그 결과 비균질 드럼에 대해서는 점선원을 이용한 자료를 이용하는 것이 합리적이고 기하학적 산술평균을 취함으로써 보다 정확도가 증가됨을 알 수 있었다. 그러나 그 오차범위는 -25%∼5.5%로서 실제보다 상당히 낮게 평가되는 경향이 있으므로 적절한 비균질성 보정인자를 적용할 필요가 있는 것으로 생각된다.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2008

Purpose: Micro-pinhole SPECT system with conventional multiple-head gamma cameras has the advantage of high magnification factor for imaging of rodents. However, several geometric factors should be calibrated to obtain the SPECT image with good image quality. We developed a simplified geometric calibration method for rotating triple-head pinhole SPECT system and assessed the effects of the calibration using several phantom and rodent imaging studies. Materials and Methods: Trionix Triad XLT9 triple-head SPECT scanner with 1.0 mm pinhole apertures were used for the experiments. Approximately centered point source was scanned to track the angle-dependent positioning errors. The centroid of point source was determined by the center of mass calculation. Axially departed two point sources were scanned to calibrate radius of rotation from pinhole to center of rotation. To verify the improvements by the geometric calibration, we compared the spatial resolution of the reconstructed image of Tc-99m point source with and without the calibration. SPECT image of micro performance phantom with hot rod inserts was acquired and several animal imaging studies were performed. Results: Exact sphere shape of the point source was obtained by applying the calibration and axial resolution was improved. Lesion detectibility and image quality was also much improved by the calibration in the phantom and animal studies. Conclusion: Serious degradation of micro-pinhole SPECT images due to the geometric errors could be corrected using a simplified calibration method using only one or two point sources.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.96-99
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to assess attenuation correction algorithms utilized in a multipurpose whole-body GSO PET scanner. Four different types of phantoms were tested using different types of attenuation correction techniques. FOV (Field of View) of 256mm was used for brain PET imaging. For compensating attenuation, transmission data of a $^{137}$Cs point source were acquired after the F-18 emission source was infused to the phantoms. Scatter correction were peformed. Reconstructed images of the phantoms were assessed. In addition, reconstructed images of a normal subject were compared and assessed by nuclear medicine physicians. As a result, decreased intensity at the central portion of the attenuation map with cylindrical phantom was noticed during use of the measured attenuation correction. On the other hand, segmentation or remapping attenuation correction provided uniform phantom image. the images reconstructed from the clinical brain data explained the attenuation of a skull, at though reconstructed images of the phantoms couldn't explain it. in conclusion, the complicated and improved attenuation correction methods were required to obtain the better accuracy of the quantitative brain PET images. Our study will be useful in improving quantitative brain PET imaging modalities with attenuation correction of $^{137}$Cs transmission source.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.299-307
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• 1997

The individual dose equivalent, $H_p$, effective dose, E, and gender specific effective dose, $E^m$ and E$^f$, were evaluated using the male and female phantoms of MIRD type located in the radial gamma radiation field near a point source. The point sources were placed at the distances of 15, 40 and 100 cm in front of the body at different heights. Two radionuclides, $^{137}Cs$ and $^{131}I$, were selected for the illustrative examples. In terms of the gender specific effective doses, $E^f$ is higher than $E^m$ with a few exceptions, e.g. the case where the point source is at the height of reproductive organs, but the differences from the sex- averaged values are not significant enough to justify use of gender specific dose conversion factors for the radial gamma field. The ratios $H_p$/E were in the range of 1 to 3 depending on the source and dosimeter positions when the dosimeter is worn on the front surface of the torso covering from chest to lower abdomen, but varied from 0.34 to 6.5 in extreme cases. When it is assumed that the typical handling procedure of radioactive source material and the typical dosimeter position(on the chest) be respected, the dosimeters calibrated against the broad parallel field appear to provide estimates with acceptable errors for the effective dose of workers exposed to radial broad gamma field around a point source.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.57-68
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• 2005

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess attenuation correction algorithms with the $^{137}Cs$ point source for the brain positron omission tomography (PET) imaging process. Materials & Methods: Four different types of phantoms were used in this study for testing various types of the attenuation correction techniques. Transmission data of a $^{137}Cs$ point source were acquired after infusing the emission source into phantoms and then the emission data were subsequently acquired in 3D acquisition mode. Scatter corrections were performed with a background tail-fitting algorithm. Emission data were then reconstructed using iterative reconstruction method with a measured (MAC), elliptical (ELAC), segmented (SAC) and remapping (RAC) attenuation correction, respectively. Reconstructed images were then both qualitatively and quantitatively assessed. In addition, reconstructed images of a normal subject were assessed by nuclear medicine physicians. Subtracted images were also compared. Results: ELEC, SAC, and RAC provided a uniform phantom image with less noise for a cylindrical phantom. In contrast, a decrease in intensity at the central portion of the attenuation map was noticed at the result of the MAC. Reconstructed images of Jaszack and Hoffan phantoms presented better quality with RAC and SAC. The attenuation of a skull on images of the normal subject was clearly noticed and the attenuation correction without considering the attenuation of the skull resulted in artificial defects on images of the brain. Conclusion: the complicated and improved attenuation correction methods were needed to obtain the better accuracy of the quantitative brain PET images.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.74-80
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• 2015

Purpose Breast lymphoscintigraphy is an important technique to present for body surface precisely, which shows a lymph node metastasis of malignant tumors at an early stage and is performed before and after surgery in patients with breast cancer. In this study, we evaluated several methods of body outline imaging to present exact location of lesions, as well as compared respective exposure doses. Materials and Methods RANDO phantom and SYMBIA T-16 were used for obtaining imaging. A lesion and an injection site were created by inserting a point source of 0.11 MBq on the axillary sentinel lymph node and 37 MBq on the right breast, respectively. The first method for acquiring the image was used by drawing the body surface of phantom for 30 sec using $Na^{99m}TcO_4$ as a point source. The second, the image was acquired with $^{57}Co$ flood source for 30 seconds on the rear side and the left side of the phantom, the image as the third method was obtained using a syringe filled with 37 MBq of $Na^{99m}TcO_4$ in 10 ml of saline, and as the fourth, we used a photon energy and scatter energy of $^{99m}Tc$ emitting from phantom without any addition radiation exposure. Finally, the image was fused the scout image and the basal image of SPECT/CT using MATLAB$^{(R)}$ program. Anterior and lateral images were acquired for 3 min, and radiation exposure was measured by the personal exposure dosimeter. We conducted preference of 10 images from nuclear medicine doctors by the survey. Results TBR values of anterior and right image in the first to fifth method were 334.9 and 117.2 ($1^{st}$), 266.1 and 124.4 ($2^{nd}$), 117.4 and 99.6 ($3^{rd}$), 3.2 and 7.6 ($4^{th}$), and 565.6 and 141.8 ($5^{th}$). And also exposure doses of these method were 2, 2, 2, 0, and $30{\mu}Sv$, respectively. Among five methods, the fifth method showed the highest TBR value as well as exposure dose, where as the fourth method showed the lowest TBR value and exposure dose. As a result, the last method ($5^{th}$) is the best method and the fourth method is the worst method in this study. Conclusion Scout method of SPECT/CT can be useful that provides the best values of TBR and the best score of survey result. Even though personal exposure dose when patients take scout of SPECT/CT was higher than another scan, it was slight level comparison to 1 mSv as the dose limit to non-radiation workers. If the scout is possible to less than 80 kV, exposure dose can be reduced, and also useful lesion localization provided.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.45-53
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• 1991

SPECT 영상에서 콤프톤 산란 광자는 공간분해능의 감소와 그 양을 측정하는데 있어 정확성과 정밀성을 감소시킨다. 이와같은 콤프톤 산란의 영향을 감소시키기 위하여 사용하는 대부분의 보정방법은 선원의 위치로부터 거리의 단일지수함수로 대칭인 산란분포함수를 고려하게 된다. 본 연구는 균등 및 불균등 산란에 대한 산란분포함수를 얻기 위하여 보다 현실적인 접근방법을 시도하였다. 산란 및 비산란광자의 공간분포와 에너지분포를 얻기 위하여 뼈, 폐, 물의 균등 및 불균등 분포로 된 원통형의 팬톰 속에 $^{99m}Tc$의 선선원 및 점선원을 놓고 Monte Carlo Simulation을 하였으며, 깊이의 함수, media의 접촉영역으로부터 선원거리 및 산란체의 밀도의 변화로 표현한 산란분포함수(SDF)를 얻었다. 산란분포함수는 균등한 뼈, 폐, 물에서는 선원위치로부터 거리의 단일지수함수(single exponential functions)로 대칭으로 나타났으며, 두 물체의 조합에서는 2중지수함수(dual exponential functions)로 비대칭으로 나타났다. 산란분율은 20% window photopeak에서 총 계수의 8%에서 53%까지 다양한 변화가 있었으며, 지수함수의 기울기는 $0.1{\sim}0.9\;cm^{-1}$의 범위로 나타났다. 불균등 산란체에서 얻은 산란분포함수는 SPECT 영상에 있어 콤프톤 산란의 감소에 대한 보다 정확한 보정방법의 개발에 필요한 정보를 제공할 것이다.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.216-224
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• 2009

$^{131}I$ is a radiological isotope being used widely for treatment of cancer as emitting gamma-ray and it is also applied to estimate the function of thyroid for its accumulation in thyroid. However, $^{131}I$ is more difficult to quantitate comapred to $^{99m}Tc$, because $^{131}I$ has multiple energy gamma-ray emissions compared to $^{99m}Tc$ which is a mono energetic gamma-ray source. Especially, scattered ray and septal penetration resulted by high energy gamma ray have a bad influence upon nuclear medicine image. The purpose of this study was to estimate scatter components depending on the different source locations within a phantom using Monte Carlo simulation (GATE). The simulation results were validated by comparing with the results of real experiments. Dual-head gamma camera (ECAM, Chicago, Illinois Siemens) with high energy, general-purpose, and parallel hole collimators (hole radius: 0.17 cm, septal thickness: 0.2 cm, length: 5.08 cm) was used in this experiment. The NaI crystal is $44.5{\times}59.1\;cm$ in height and width and 0.95 cm in thickness. The diameter and height of PMMA phantom were 16 cm and 15 cm, respectively. The images were acquired at 5 different locations of $^{131}I$ point source within the phantom and the images of $^{99m}Tc$ were also acquired for comparison purpose with low energy source. The simulation results indicated that the scattering was influenced by the location of source within a phantom. The scattering effects showed the same tendency in both simulation and actual experiment, and the results showed that the simulation was very adequate for further studies. The results supported that the simulation techniques may be used to generalize the scattering effects as a function of a point source location within a phantom.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.73-81
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• 1999

Scatter correction for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) plays an important role to improve image quality and quantitation. The purpose of this study was to investigate three scatter correction methods using Monte Carlo simulation. Point source and Jaszack phantom filled with Tc-99m were simulated by Monte Carlo code, SIMIND. For scatter correction, we applied three methods, Compton window (CW) method, triple window (TW) method, and dual photopeak window (DPW) method. Point sources located at various depths along the center line within a 20-cm phantom were simulated to calculate the window ratios and corresponding scatter fractions by evaluating the polynomial coefficients for DPW method. Energy windows were located in W$_1$=92-125 keV, W$_2$=124-126 keV, W$_3$=136-140 keV, W$_4$=140-141 keV, and W$_{5}$=154-156 keV. The results showed that in Jaszack phantom with cold sphere and hot sphere, the TW gave the closest contrast and percentage recovery to the ideal image, respectively, while CW overestimated and DPW underestimated the contrast of ideal one. All three scatter correction methods showed an improved image contrast. In conclusion, scatter correction is essential for improving image contrast and accurate quantification. The choice of scatter correction method should be made on the basis of accuracies and ease of implementation.