• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.529-537
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• 1994

Sector scanner which has a conical end is used to image through the intercostal space because heart is protected by the ribs. Cardiac data published all around the world were also obtained by sector scanner. Although scanners being used in every small animal practice and animal hospital at college in Korea include convex ape and linear type, linear type is not appropriate f3r cardiac scan because of a wide contact surface. The purpose of this study is to establish ultrasonographic images of normal cardiac structures by measuring shape, size of reflectable cardiac structure according to restraint position in scanning normal heart of the puppies with 6.5 MHz convex scanner(SonoAce 4500, Medison, Korea) used in our veterinary teaching hospital, Seoul national university. Seventeen male and female puppies considered having healthy hear by X-ray and clinical examination are used feom April to July 1994. Scanning point selection of probe head and the distinction of imaged cardiac structures were accomplished by necropsy and cardiac scanning performed through thoracotomy under general anesthesia. At 10 o'clock position of transducer(at an angle of 30$^{\circ}$ between imaginary line from elbow joint to 3rd sternum and probe head, 60$^{\circ}$ from body surface, 4th intercostal space of right thorax) with the marker of scanner toward the head of dogs right atrium, left atrium and left ventricle were observed in 2, 3, 4, 5 intercostal space(2cm from the sternum) of experimental dog positioned ventrodorsally under general anesthesia. Under these conditions, the numerical values of imaged diastolic hear are as follows : the distance from skin to apex(mean$\pm$S.D) 47.53$\pm$6.94mm, thickness of left ventricular wall 6.00$\pm$1.60mm, length of left ventricle 16.27$\pm$5.31mm, width of left ventricle 15,33$\pm$4.25mm, length of left atrium 12.33$\pm$3.82mm, width of left atrium 11. 33$\pm$3.94mm, length of right atrium 1.00$\pm$2.41mm, width of right atrium 11.21$\pm$2.76mm and the area of left ventricle 270.92$\pm$109.81mm$^2$, area of left atrium 98.00$\pm$41.08mm$^2$, area of right atrium 62.75$\pm$21.04mm$^2$.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.275-281
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• 2004

Socket weldment used to change the flow direction of fluid nay have flaws such as lack of fusion and cracks. Liquid penetrant testing or Radiography testing have been applied as NDT methods for flaw detection of the socket weldment. But it is difficult to detect the flaw inside of the socket weldment with these methods. In order to inspect the flaws inside the socket weldment, a ultrasonic testing method is established and a ultrasonic transducer and automated ultrasonic testing system are developed for the inspection. The automated ultrasonic testing system is based on the portable personal computer and operated by the program based Windows 98 or 2000. The system has a pulser/receiver, 100MHz high speed A/D board, and basic functions of ultrasonic flaw detector using the program. For the automated testing, motion controller board of ISA interface type is developed to control the 4-axis scanner and a real time iC-scan image of the automated testing is displayed on the monitor. A flaws with the size of less than 1mm in depth are evaluated smaller than its actual site in the testing, but the flaws larger than 1mm appear larger than its actual size on the contrary. This tendency is shown to be increasing as the flaw size increases. h reliable and objective testing results are obtained with the developed system, so that it is expected that it can contribute to safety management and detection of repair position of pipe lines of nuclear power plants and chemical plants.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.65-69
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• 2011

Purpose: Normal pancreas has low uptake rate in $^{18}F$-FDG PET scan. However, it is possible to diagnose malignancy of pancreatic cancer which has high uptake rate. Many studies approve a high prevalence of diabetes in pancreatic cancer and if the blood glucose level (BGL) is over the normal range, FDG uptake will be decreased and there will be inconvenience for patients from the delay time to reduce the high BGL or could cause difficulty to arrange the schedule. Therefore, we studied the relation of BGL and image quality in pancreatic cancer on PET. Materials and Methods: A hundred patients had PET scan. The prevalence of pancreatic cancer and diabetes were evaluated using SPSS ver. 17. The fasting BGL of patients were examined and sorted as diabetes mellitus (DM) group and Non-DM group. For the evaluation, patients were divided into 3 groups (Non-DM, DM; BGL${\geq}7.0mmol/L$, and DM; BGL<7.0 mmol/L). The ROI was drown on Liver and Lung for the PET imaging analysis. Results: Fifty three male and forty seven female were in the patients. The average age was $60.1{\pm}13.5$. There were 36 patients (male: 22, female: 14, 36%) who had pancreatic cancer with DM. There were 15 patients who showed over 7.0 mmol/L in their fasting BGL and 85 patients who showed under 7.0 mmol/L in their fasting BGL. Among the Non-DM, DM; BGL${\geq}7.0mmol/L$, and DM; BGL<7.0 mmol/L, there was not a statistical significance (p>0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of pancreatic cancer was comparatively high in this study. If the fasting BGL was slightly over the normal BGL, we believe it will not give a severe disturbance when the patients have PET scan. Furthermore, the examination schedule doesn't need to change and the inconvenience from the delay of patients preparation will be reduced.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2008

Recently, MR Cholangiography used mainly bu controlling of patient's breathing. There is breathing hold techniques to get images within shopt time and gating technique adjusted to respiration cycle for high resolution image. In this study, the aim of this experiment is to know on clinical usefulness compared with PACE and RTG thchniques. This study's period is from 2006 in November to 2007 in January. A total of 21 patients investigated at MAGNETOM Sonata 1.5T (SIEMENS Erlangen) with use of 12ch body coil. MR acquisition protocol used 3D turbo spin echo coronal sequence. Scan parameters applied to potimal setting in use as gating techniques, respectively. Analysis of consuming timing evaluated with rapidness. As analysis of quantity, the common bile duct, gall bladder measured in signal intensities, then these data were calculated by signal to noise ratio and contrast to noise ratio. Qualitative analysis, experienced 2radiologists and 3 RTs were evaluated into 3groups about artifact, accuracy of lesions, sharpness of the common bile duct or gall bladder. As a result of analysis, when compared to PACE, consuming time of the RTG took less than PACE, On both CNRs and SNRs, PACE technique was slightly high values than RTG(p<0.05). Qualitative analysis' results, discrimination of lesions in the common bile duct, gall bladder get a significance level in both RTG and PACE techniques but presence's artifact of breathing and pulsation highly demonstrate in PACE techniques. In conclusion, both PACE and RTG methods at MRCP provided prominently clinical information for the common bile duct, gall bladder. If machines have not limitation with performance, induction of breathing holding also will help getting diagnistic quality.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.68-73
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• 2015

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate image quality change by truncated region in field of view (FOV) of attenuation correction computed tomography (AC-CT) in brain PET/CT. Materials and Methods Biograph Truepoint 40 with TrueV (Siemens) was used as a scanner. $^{68}Ge$ phantom scan was performed with and without applying brain holder using brain PET/CT protocol. PET attenuation correction factor (ACF) was evaluated according to existence of pallet in FOV of AC-CT. FBP, OSEM-3D and PSF methods were applied for PET reconstruction. Parameters of iteration 4, subsets 21 and gaussian 2 mm filter were applied for iterative reconstruction methods. Window level 2900, width 6000 and level 4, 200, width 1000 were set for visual evaluation of PET AC images. Vertical profiles of 5 slices and 20 slices summation images applied gaussian 5 mm filter were produced for evaluating integral uniformity. Results Patient pallet was not covered in FOV of AC-CT when without applying brain holder because of small size of FOV. It resulted in defect of ACF sinogram by truncated region in ACF evaluation. When without applying brain holder, defect was appeared in lower part of transverse image on condition of window level 4200, width 1000 in PET AC image evaluation. With and without applying brain holder, integral uniformities of 5 slices and 20 slices summation images were 7.2%, 6.7% and 11.7%, 6.7%. Conclusion Truncated region by small FOV results in count defect in occipital lobe of brain in clinical or research studies. It is necessary to understand effect of truncated region and apply appropriate accessory for brain PET/CT.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2010

Purpose: Nuclear medicine manufacturers provide various softwares which shorten imaging time using their own image processing techniques such as UlatraSPECT, ASTONISH, Flash3D, Evolution, and nSPEED. Seoul National University Hospital has introduced softwares from Siemens and Philips, but it was still hard to understand algorithm difference between those two softwares. Thus, the purpose of this study was to figure out the difference of two softwares in planar images and research the possibility of application to images produced with high energy isotopes. Materials and Methods: First, a phantom study was performed to understand the difference of softwares in static studies. Various amounts of count were acquired and the images were analyzed quantitatively after application of PIXON, Siemens and ASTONISH, Philips, respectively. Then, we applied them to some applicable static studies and searched for merits and demerits. And also, they have been applied to images produced with high energy isotopes. Finally, A blind test was conducted by nuclear medicine doctors except phantom images. Results: There was nearly no difference between pre and post processing image with PIXON for FWHM test using capillary source whereas ASTONISH was improved. But, both of standard deviation(SD) and variance were decreased for PIXON while ASTONISH was highly increased. And in background variability comparison test using IEC phantom, PIXON has been decreased over all while ASTONISH has shown to be somewhat increased. Contrast ratio in each spheres has also been increased for both methods. For image scale, window width has been increased for 4~5 times after processing with PIXON while ASTONISH showed nearly no difference. After phantom test analysis, ASTONISH seemed to be applicable for some studies which needs quantitative analysis or high contrast, and PIXON seemed to be applicable for insufficient counts studies or long time studies. Conclusion: Quantitative values used for usual analysis were generally improved after application of the two softwares, however it seems that it's hard to maintain the consistency for all of nuclear medicine studies because result images can not be the same due to the difference of algorithm characteristic rather than the difference of gamma cameras. And also, it's hard to expect high image quality with the time shortening method such as whole body scan. But it will be possible to apply to static studies considering the algorithm characteristic or we can expect a change of image quality through application to high energy isotope images.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.900-913
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• 1998

Despite of technical difficulties, the combination of occlusal projection and densitometric digital analysis may ultimately provide a means of detection of subtle bone loss at the facial and lingual side of dental implant (Oblique occlusal view is more useful for $ITI^{(R)}$ dental implant due to its contour of shoulder as like tulip flower). In this study, conventional periapical projections of x-ray beam had shown more high sensitivity to detect the bony defects than oblique occlusal projections in alveolar crest obscured by dental implants or not, even if the difference was not statistically significant. Unlike conventional periapical projections. occusal projections combined with densitometric digital analysis technique may provide a means for detection of subtle bone change at the all around of implants without obscuring effect by implant itself. Although the results from this in vitro study were performed under limited circumstances, these results might afford more possibility and versatile modality of diagnosis options to clinician in the implant practice.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.122-127
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• 2010

Purpose: The Xpress3.$cardiac^{TM}$ which is a kind of wide beam reconstruction (WBR) method developed by UltraSPECT (Haifa, Israel) enables the acquisition of at quarter time while maintaining image quality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the usefulness of WBR method for decreasing scan times and to compare to it with filtered back projection (FBP), which is the method routinely used. Materials and Methods: Phantom and clinical studies were performed. The anthropomorphic torso phantom was made on an equality with counts from patient's body. The Tl-201 concentrations in the compartments were 74 kBq (2 ${\mu}Ci$)/cc in myocardium, 11.1 kBq (0.3 ${\mu}Ci$)/cc in soft tissue, and 2.59 kBq (0.07 ${\mu}Ci$)/cc in lung. The non-gated Tl-201 myocardial perfusion SPECT data were acquired with the phantom. The former study was scanned for 50 seconds per frame with FBP method, and the latter study was acquired for 13 seconds per frame with WBR method. Using the Xeleris ver. 2.0551, full width at half maximum (FWHM) and average image contrast were compared. In clinical studies, we analyzed the 30 patients who were examined by Tl-201 gated myocardial perfusion SPECT in department of nuclear medicine at Asan Medical Center from January to April 2010. The patients were imaged at full time (50 second per frame) with FBP algorithm and again quarter-time (13 second per frame) with the WBR algorithm. Using the 4D MSPECT (4DM), Quantitative Perfusion SPECT (QPS), and Quantitative Gated SPECT (QGS) software, the summed stress score (SSS), summed rest score (SRS), summed difference score, end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV) and ejection fraction (EF) were analyzed for their correlations and statistical comparison by paired t-test. Results: As a result of the phantom study, the WBR method improved FWHM more than about 30% compared with FBP method (WBR data 5.47 mm, FBP data 7.07 mm). And the WBR method's average image contrast was also higher than FBP method's. However, in result of quantitative indices, SSS, SDS, SRS, EDV, ESV, EF, there were statistically significant differences from WBR and FBP(p<0.01). In the correlation of SSS, SDS, SRS, there were significant differences for WBR and FBP (0.18, 0.34, 0.08). But EDV, ESV, EF showed good correlation with WBR and FBP (0.88, 0.89, 0.71). Conclusion: From phantom study results, we confirmed that the WBR method reduces an acquisition time while improving an image quality compared with FBP method. However, we should consider significant differences in quantitative indices. And it needs to take an evaluation test to apply clinical study to find a cause of differences out between phantom and clinical results.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.212-222
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• 2004

The application of acidulated phosphate fluoride gel(APF) and fluoride varnishes are the most common topical fluoride therapy. The purpose of this in vitro study was to compare the remineralization effects of two topical fluoride agents, APF gel and fluoride varnish with microtomograph and 3D image analyzer without sample preparation and chemical fixation. For the purpose of the study, the artificial caries lesion was caused on the caries-free permanent pre molar and 48 specimens were divided into three groups each containing 16 specimens No application was performed on group 1, which acted as control group. Group 2 was treated with APF gel and was removed after a minute. Group 3 was treated with the topical application of fluoride varnish and removed after 45 minutes. Each specimen was placed into a closed container with 50ml of a artificial saliva during three months and the 3D images of the remineralization area were taken using the SkyScan each month. Using the density-measuring program in V $works^{TM}$, the density value of the remineralization area was measured. The following results were obtained: 1. All groups demonstrated an increase in the density of artificial caries lesion with time. 2. The density was significantly higher in APF gel and fluoride varnish group than control group at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months after the treatment(P<0.05). 3. The difference of the density between that "prior to treatment" and that "1 month after treatment" in Group 2 and Group 3 was significantly higher than that of Group 1 and, the difference of the density between that "1 month after treatmen" and that "2 month after treatment" in Group 3 was significantly higher than that of Group 1 and 2(P<0.05). 4. The fluoride varnish was more effective after 2 and 3 months and continuous than the APF gel.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.105-110
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• 2007

Purpose : In spite of recent remarkable improvement of diagnostic imaging modalities such as CT, MRI, and PET and radiation therapy planing systems, ICR plan of uterine cervix cancer, based on recommendation of ICRU38(2D film-based) such as Point A, is still used widely. A 3-dimensional ICR plan based on CT image provides dose-volume histogram(DVH) information of the tumor and normal tissue. In this study, we compared tumor-dose, rectal-dose and bladder-dose through an analysis of DVH between CTV plan and ICRU38 plan based on CT image. Method and Material : We analyzed 11 patients with a cervix cancer who received the ICR of Ir-192 HDR. After 40Gy of external beam radiation therapy, ICR plan was established using PLATO(Nucletron) v.14.2 planing system. CT scan was done to all the patients using CT-simulator(Ultra Z, Philips). We contoured CTV, rectum and bladder on the CT image and established CTV plan which delivers the 100% dose to CTV and ICRU plan which delivers the 100% dose to the point A. Result : The volume$(average{\pm}SD)$ of CTV, rectum and bladder in all of 11 patients is $21.8{\pm}6.6cm^3,\;60.9{\pm}25.0cm^3,\;111.6{\pm}40.1cm^3$ respectively. The volume covered by 100% isodose curve is $126.7{\pm}18.9cm^3$ in ICRU plan and $98.2{\pm}74.5cm^3$ in CTV plan(p=0.0001), respectively. In (On) ICRU planning, $22.0cm^3$ of CTV volume was not covered by 100% isodose curve in one patient whose residual tumor size is greater than 4cm, while more than 100% dose was irradiated unnecessarily to the normal organ of $62.2{\pm}4.8cm^3$ other than the tumor in the remaining 10 patients with a residual tumor less than 4cm in size. Bladder dose recommended by ICRU 38 was $90.1{\pm}21.3%$ and $68.7{\pm}26.6%$ in ICRU plan and in CTV plan respectively(p=0.001) while rectal dose recommended by ICRU 38 was $86.4{\pm}18.3%$ and $76.9{\pm}15.6%$ in ICRU plan and in CTV plan, respectively(p=0.08). Bladder and rectum maximum dose was $137.2{\pm}50.1%,\;101.1{\pm}41.8%$ in ICRU plan and $107.6{\pm}47.9%,\;86.9{\pm}30.8%$ in CTV plan, respectively. Therefore, the radiation dose to normal organ was lower in CTV plan than in ICRU plan. But the normal tissue dose was remarkably higher than a recommended dose in CTV plan in one patient whose residual tumor size was greater than 4cm. The volume of rectum receiving more than 80% isodose (V80rec) was $1.8{\pm}2.4cm^3$ in ICRU plan and $0.7{\pm}1.0cm^3$ in CTV plan(p=0.02). The volume of bladder receiving more than 80% isodose(V80bla) was $12.2{\pm}8.9cm^3$ in ICRU plan and $3.5{\pm}4.1cm^3$ in CTV plan(p=0.005). According to these parameters, CTV plan could also save more normal tissue compared to ICRU38 plan. Conclusion : An unnecessary excessive radiation dose is irradiated to normal tissues within 100% isodose area in the traditional ICRU plan in case of a small size of cervix cancer, but if we use CTV plan based on CT image, the normal tissue dose could be reduced remarkably without a compromise of tumor dose. However, in a large tumor case, we need more research on an effective 3D-planing to reduce the normal tissue dose.