• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2022

This study compared DLP values along with phantom entrance surface doses and the image quality of chest CT scans made using a Care Dose 4D+Care kV System, scans that are made using only the Care Dose 4D function, and scans that are made with changes made by applying 80 kVp, 100 kVp, 120 kVp, and 140 kVp to the Care Dose 4D and tube voltage to search for methods to maintain the highest image quality with minimal patient doses. It was shown that DLP values decreased 6.727% when scans were taken with Chest Care Dose 4D + Care kV semi 100 and 6.481% when scans were taken with Chest Care Dose 4D + Care kV. With Chest Non as a standard, skin surface doses decreased 16.519% when scans were taken with Chest Care Dose 4D + Care kV semi 100 and 15.705% when scans were taken with Chest Care Dose 4D + Care kV. With comparisons of image quality, when comparisons were made with Chest Non, comparisons made of SNR values and CNR values in all scanning conditions including Care Dose 4D + Care kV showed that there were no significant differences at P>0.05. Imaging using Chest Care Dose 4D + Care kV in chest CT showed that exposure doses decreased similarly to result values gained from the best conditions through manual adjustments of kV and mAS, and there were no significant differences in image SNR and CNR. If the Chest Care Dose 4D + Care kV function is used, image quality is maintained and patient exposure to radiation can be reduced.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.77-77
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• 2003

CT와 MRI의 단면 영상을 대상으로 영상분할 (Image segmentation)과 Image registration방법을 이용하여 인체 모델을 개발 하고자 한다. 우선 인체의 Head와 Neck부분의 CT와 MR 영상을 얻어 뼈, 근육, 인대, 그리고 그 밖의 장기의 해부학적 영상 특징을 분석하였다. 인체의 Head와 Neck 부분에 대한 CT와 MR 영상에 대해 각 부위별로 ROI(region-of-interrest)를 설정하였고, 각 volxel 마다 3차원 좌표를 계산할 수 있는 소프트웨어를 개발하였다. 특히 각 해부학적 영상에서 부위별로 CT 번호를 분석하고, pulse sequence에 따른 MRI 영상의 부위별 특정을 분석하였다. 이 분석한 자료를 바탕으로 영상 분할을 하였다. 영상 분할전에 각종 잡음(noise) 제거 및 영상 분할을 효과적으로 처리하기 위해 기본적인 영상처리 (filtering)를 구현하였고, 대조도(contrast) 및 밝기(brightness)를 조절할 수 있게 프로그램을 구현하였다. 영상 분할 방법 중 선(line) 및 에지(edge) 의 검출 방법, 문턱치화(threshold) 방법, 영역확대(region growing) 방법으로 영상 분할을 해봄으로써 우리의 인체 모델링 개발에 가장 적합한 영상 분할 알고리듬 방법을 찾도록 시도하였다. 결과적으로 말하면, 한가지 방법의 알고리듬을 쓰는 것보다는 인체의 부위에 따라 두 가지 이상의 알고리듬 방법을 쓰는 것이 원하고자 하는 부위를 영상 분할하는데 더 효과적이다는 것을 알게 되었다. 우리의 연구 과제에서는 영역확대(region growing) 방법과 문턱치화 방법, 모드법(피크니스, 밸리)의 알고리듬을 이용하여 영상 분할을 한 결과 우리가 얻고자 하는 인체 부위별 중 근육과 뼈를 구별하는데는 별 무리가 없었으나, 인대 및 기타 장기를 구별하는데는 어려움을 겪게 되었다. 이후에 좀더 알고리듬을 연구하여 이번 연구에서 구별하기 어려운 장기 부분도 구별 할 수 있도록 노력하겠다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Information Science Society Conference
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• 2012.06c
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• pp.415-417
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• 2012

본 논문에서는 산업용 CT 영상에서 다중 해상도 기반의 밝기값 정보와 형태 정보를 이용하여 내부 기공결함을 정확하고 빠르게 검출하는 기법을 제안한다. 첫째, 대용량 CT 데이터에서 계산량을 줄이기 위하여 1/2 해상도로 변환 후 관심영역을 자동 산정하고, 링 또는 금속 인공물 등의 잡음을 제거하기 위해 비등방성 확산 필터링을 수행한다. 둘째, 기공 결함 후보군을 검출하기 위해 밝기값 기반의 결함 검출 기법을 제안한다. 셋째, 결함 검출의 민감도를 향상시키기 위해 형태 정보를 이용한 기공 결함 검출 기법을 제안한다. 넷째, 수행시간 가속화를 위하여 다중 해상도 영상 처리 및 Open MP를 적용한다. 제안방법의 평가를 위하여 육안평가와 정확성 평가, 수행시간을 측정하였다. 정확성 평가는 실제 기공 결함과 제안방법 적용 후 결함 간 중복 픽셀 수로 측정하였다. 실험 결과 평균 중복 픽셀 비율은 91%로 측정되었고, 가장 큰 비율은 99%, 가장 작은 비율은 80%로 측정되었다. 다중 해상도 기법 및 Open MP를 적용함으로써 해상도 데이터 수행시간보다 90% 가속화되었다.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.276-286
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• 2013

SVD-based deconvolution algorithm has been known as the most effective technique for CT perfusion image analysis. In this algorithm, in order to reduce noise effects, SVD coefficients smaller than a certain threshold are removed. As the truncation threshold, either a fixed value or a variable threshold yielding a predetermined OI (oscillation index) is frequently employed. Each of these two thresholding methods has an advantage to the other either in accuracy or efficiency. In this paper, we propose a Monte Carlo simulation method to evaluate the accuracy of the two methods. An extension of the proposed method is presented as well to measure the effects of image smoothing on the accuracy of the thresholding methods. In this paper, after the simulation method is described, experimental results are presented using both simulated data and real CT images.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.709-715
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• 2023

In this study, the performance evaluation of image quality for noise reduction was implemented using the U-net deep learning architecture in computed tomography (CT) images. In order to generate input data, the Gaussian noise was applied to ground truth (GT) data, and datasets were consisted of 8:1:1 ratio of train, validation, and test sets among 1300 CT images. The Adagrad, Adam, and AdamW were used as optimizer function, and 10, 50 and 100 times for number of epochs were applied. In addition, learning rates of 0.01, 0.001, and 0.0001 were applied using the U-net deep learning model to compare the output image quality. To analyze the quantitative values, the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and coefficient of variation (COV) were calculated. Based on the results, deep learning model was useful for noise reduction. We suggested that optimized hyper parameters for noise reduction in CT images were AdamW optimizer function, 100 times number of epochs and 0.0001 learning rates.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.541-549
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• 2023

The aim of this study wasto conduct a quantitative analysis of CT image quality according to an algorithm designed to reduce metal artifacts induced by metal components. Ten baseline images were obtained with the standard filtered back-projection algorithm using spectral detector-based CT and CT ACR 464 phantom, and ten images were also obtained on the identical phantom with the standard filtered back-projection algorithm after inducing metal artifacts. After applying the to raw data from images with metal artifacts, ten additional images for each were obtained by applying the virtual monoenergetic algorithm. Regions of interest were set for polyethylene, bone, acrylic, air, and water located in the CT ACR 464 phantom module 1 to conduct compare the Hounsfield units for each algorithm. The algorithms were individually analyzed using root mean square error, mean absolute error, signal-to-noise ratio, peak signal-to-noise ratio, and structural similarity index to assess the overall image quality. When the Hounsfield units of each algorithm were compared, a significant difference was found between the images with different algorithms (p < .05), and large changes were observed in images using the virtual monoenergetic algorithm in all regions of interest except acrylic. Image quality analysis indices revealed that images with the metal artifact reduction algorithm had the highest resolution, but the structural similarity index was highest for images with the metal artifact reduction algorithm followed by an additional virtual monoenergetic algorithm. In terms of CT images, the metal artifact reduction algorithm was shown to be more effective than the monoenergetic algorithm at reducing metal artifacts, but to obtain quality CT images, it will be important to ascertain the advantages and differences in image qualities of the algorithms, and to apply them effectively.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.967-976
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose an automatic lower extremity vessel extraction based on rigid registration and bone elimination techniques in CT and CT angiography images. First, automatic partitioning of the lower extremity based on the anatomy is proposed to consider the local movement of the bone. Second, rigid registration based on distance map is performed to estimate the movement of the bone between CT and CT angiography images. Third, bone elimination and vessel masking techniques are proposed to remove bones in CT angiography image and to prevent the vessel near to bone from eroding. Fourth, post-processing based on vessel tracking is proposed to reduce the effect of misalignment and noises like a cartilage. For the evaluation of our method, we performed the visual inspection, accuracy measures and processing time. For visual inspection, the results of applying general subtraction, registered subtraction and proposed method are compared using volume rendering and maximum intensity projection. For accuracy evaluation, intensity distributions of CT angiography image, subtraction based method and proposed method are analyzed. Experimental result shows that bones are accurately eliminated and vessels are robustly extracted without the loss of other structure. The total processing time of thirteen patient datasets was 40 seconds on average.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.19-26
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• 2018

We proposed a numerical calculation of the proportion of necrotic cells in pulmonary segmentation, pulmonary vessel segmentation lung disease site for diagnosis of lung disease from chest CT images. The first step is to separate the lungs and bronchi by applying a three-dimensional labeling technique from a chest CT image and a three-dimensional region growing method. The second step is to divide the pulmonary vessels by applying the rate of change using the first order polynomial regression, perform noise reduction, and divide the final pulmonary vessels. The third step is to find a disease prediction factor in a two-step image and calculate the proportion of necrotic cells.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.145-150
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• 2022

The main purpose of this work was to restore the blurry chest CT images by applying a blind deconvolution algorithm. In general, image restoration is the procedure of improving the degraded image to get the true or original image. In this regard, we focused on a blind deblurring approach with chest CT imaging by using digital image processing in MATLAB, which the blind deconvolution technique performed without any whole knowledge or information as to the fundamental point spread function (PSF). For our approach, we acquired 30 chest CT images from the public source and applied three type's PSFs for finding the true image and the original PSF. The observed image might be convolved with an isotropic gaussian PSF or motion blurring PSF and the original image. The PSFs are assumed as a black box, hence restoring the image is called blind deconvolution. For the 30 iteration times, we analyzed diverse sizes of the PSF and tried to approximate the true PSF and the original image. For improving the ringing effect, we employed the weighted function by using the sobel filter. The results was compared with the three criteria including mean squared error (MSE), root mean squared error (RMSE) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), which all values of the optimal-sized image outperformed those that the other reconstructed two-sized images. Therefore, we improved the blurring chest CT image by using the blind deconvolutin algorithm for optimal approach.