• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.598-614
• /
• 2022

While ultrasound (US) is considered an important tool for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance, it has limited sensitivity for detecting early-stage HCC. Abbreviated MRI (AMRI) has recently gained popularity owing to better sensitivity in its detection of early-stage HCC than US, while also minimizing the time and cost in comparison to complete contrast-enhanced MRI, as AMRI includes only a few essential sequences tailored for detecting HCC. Currently, three AMRI protocols exist, namely gadoxetic acid-enhanced hepatobiliary-phase AMRI, dynamic contrast-enhanced AMRI, and non-enhanced AMRI. In this study, we discussed the rationale and technical details of AMRI techniques for achieving optimal surveillance performance. The strengths, weaknesses, and current issues of each AMRI protocol were also elucidated. Moreover, we scrutinized previously performed AMRI studies regarding clinical and technical factors. Reporting and recall strategies were discussed while considering the differences in AMRI protocols. A risk-stratified approach for the target population should be taken to maximize the benefits of AMRI and the cost-effectiveness should be considered. In the era of multiple HCC surveillance tools, patients need to be fully informed about their choices for better adherence to a surveillance program.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.59-65
• /
• 2016

Purpose Dynamic kidney scan is a typical imaging technique that visualizes kidney function. Reproducibility of dynamic kidney scans has been evaluated by comparing low-dose kidney scans with low-dose radiopharmaceutical and standard dynamic kidney scan. With this comparative study, if reproducibility is superb, the dynamic kidney scan method with reduced radioactivity to patients is to be utilized and radiation exposure to patient is to be reduced. Materials and Methods For gamma camera, Orbiter, SymbiaE (Siemens, Germany) was used. Among patients who had used 370 Mbq (10 mCi) from January of 2013 to February 2014 and other patients who had used 185 Mbq (5 mCi) from March of 2014 to July of 2015 with identical condition, 21 subjects using DTPA and 20 subjects using $MAG_3$, 41 subjects in total, had been selected as subjects for data. From renogram of the result image, frame of the peak point was selected. Then, region of interest of kidney and background had been selected and Kidney to Background Ratio has been calculated for comparison. Results In tests using DTPA, kidney to background ratio when using 370 Mbq was $5.67{\pm}0.8$ at average while it was $5.62{\pm}0.87$ when using 185 Mbq, which didn't show much difference. Also in the tests using $MAG_3$, kidney to background ratio when using 370 Mbq was $14.95{\pm}2.58$ at average and $14.56{\pm}2.02$ in 185 Mbq, which neither showed much difference. In paired sample t-test, p-value was 0.566 in DTPA and 0.363 in $MAG_3$, which confirmed that there was no difference between the groups. Conclusion In identical patients, when dose was decreased from 370 Mbq to 185 Mbq, reproducibility of dynamic kidney scan was proven to be excellent. Low-dose Dynamic kidney scan can achieve results with fine reproducibility without improvement in performance of gamma camera and is expected to reduce radiation exposure to patient.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.457-465
• /
• 2013

We integrated and correlated datasets from surface and subsurface geophysics, drilling cores, and engineering geology to identify geological interfaces and characterize the joints and fracture zones within the rock mass. The regional geometry of a geologically weak zone was investigated via a fence projection of electrical resistivity data and a borehole image-processing system. Subsurface discontinuities and intensive fracture zones within the rock mass are delineated by cross-hole seismic tomography and analyses of dip directions in rose diagrams. The dynamic elastic modulus is studied in terms of the P-wave velocity and Poisson's ratio. Subsurface discontinuities, which are conventionally identified using the N value and from core samples, can now be identified from anomalous reflection coefficients (i.e., acoustic impedance contrast) calculated using a pair of well logs, comprising seismic velocity from suspension-PS logging and density from logging. Intensive fracture zones identified in the synthetic seismogram are matched to core loss zones in the drilling core data and to a high concentration of joints in the borehole imaging system. The upper boundaries of fracture zones are correlated to strongly negative amplitude in the synthetic trace, which is constructed by convolution of the optimal Ricker wavelet with a reflection coefficient. The standard deviations of dynamic elastic moduli are higher for fracture zones than for acompact rock mass, due to the wide range of velocities resulting from the large numbers of joints and fractures within the zone.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.102-109
• /
• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the performance of the T1 3D subtraction technique and the conventional 2D dynamic contrast enhancement (DCE) technique in diagnosing Cushing's disease. Materials and Methods: Twelve patients with clinically and biochemically proven Cushing's disease were included in the study. In addition, 23 patients with a Rathke's cleft cyst (RCC) diagnosed on an MRI with normal pituitary hormone levels were included as a control, to prevent non-blinded positive results. Postcontrast T1 3D fast spin echo (FSE) images were acquired after DCE images in 3T MRI and image subtraction of pre- and postcontrast T1 3D FSE images were performed. Inter-observer agreement, interpretation time, multiobserver receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and net benefit analyses were performed to compare 2D DCE and T1 3D subtraction techniques. Results: Inter-observer agreement for a visual scale of contrast enhancement was poor in DCE (${\kappa}=0.57$) and good in T1 3D subtraction images (${\kappa}=0.75$). The time taken for determining contrast-enhancement in pituitary lesions was significantly shorter in the T1 3D subtraction images compared to the DCE sequence (P < 0.05). ROC values demonstrated increased reader confidence range with T1 3D subtraction images (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.94-1.00) compared with DCE (95% CI: 0.70-0.92) (P < 0.01). The net benefit effect of T1 3D subtraction images over DCE was 0.34 (95% CI: 0.12-0.56). For Cushing's disease, both reviewers misclassified one case as a nonenhancing lesion on the DCE images, while no cases were misclassified on T1 3D subtraction images. Conclusion: The T1 3D subtraction technique shows superior performance for determining the presence of enhancement on pituitary lesions compared with conventional DCE techniques, which may aid in diagnosing Cushing's disease.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
• /
• v.7 no.6
• /
• pp.897-906
• /
• 2017

Projection Mapping, also known as Spatial Augmented Reality(SAR) has attracted much attention recently and used for many division, which can augment physical objects with projected various virtual replications. However, conventional approaches towards projection mapping have faced some limitations. Target objects' geometric transformation property does not considered, and movements of flexible objects-like paper are hard to handle, such as folding and bending as natural interaction. Also, precise registration and tracking has been a cumbersome process in the past. While there have been many researches on Projection Mapping on static objects, dynamic projection mapping that can keep tracking of a moving flexible target and aligning the projection at interactive level is still a challenge. Therefore, this paper propose a new method using Unity3D and ARToolkit for high-speed robust tracking and dynamic projection mapping onto non-rigid deforming objects rapidly and interactively. The method consists of four stages, forming cubic bezier surface, process of rendering transformation values, multiple marker recognition and tracking, and webcam real time-lapse imaging. Users can fold, curve, bend and twist to make interaction. This method can achieve three high-quality results. First, the system can detect the strong deformation of objects. Second, it reduces the occlusion error which reduces the misalignment between the target object and the projected video. Lastly, the accuracy and the robustness of this method can make result values to be projected exactly onto the target object in real-time with high-speed and precise transformation tracking.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.316-326
• /
• 1999

Purpose: We evaluated the feasibility of extracting pure left ventricular blood pool and myocardial time-activity curves (TACs) and of generating factor images from human dynamic N-13 ammonia PET using factor analysis. The myocardial blood flow (MBF) estimates obtained with factor analysis were compared with those obtained with the user drawn region-of-interest (ROI) method. Materials and Methods: Stress and rest N-13 ammonia cardiac PET imaging was acquired for 23 min in 5 patients with coronary artery disease using GE Advance tomograph. Factor analysis generated physiological TACs and factor images using the normalized TACs from each dixel. Four steps were involved in this algorithm: (a) data preprocessing; (b) principal component analysis; (c) oblique rotation with positivity constraints; (d) factor image computation. Area under curves and MBF estimated using the two compartment N-13 ammonia model were used to validate the accuracy of the factor analysis generated physiological TACs. The MBF estimated by factor analysis was compared to the values estimated by using the ROI method. Results: MBF values obtained by factor analysis were linearly correlated with MBF obtained by the ROI method (slope = 0.84, r = 0.91), Left ventricular blood pool TACs obtained by the two methods agreed well (Area under curve ratio: 1.02 ($0{\sim}1min$), 0.98 ($0{\sim}2min$), 0.86 ($1{\sim}2min$)). Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrates that MBF can be measured accurately and noninvasively with dynamic N-13 ammonia PET imaging and factor analysis. This method is simple and accurate, and can measure MBF without blood sampling, ROI definition or spillover correction.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.243-248
• /
• 2017

Sea ice which is an important component of the global climate system is being actively detected by satellite because it have been distributed to polar and high-latitude region. and the sea ice detection method using satellite uses reflectance and temperature data. the sea ice detection method of Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), which is a technique utilizing Ice Surface Temperature (IST) have been utilized by many studies. In this study, we propose a simple and effective method of sea ice detection using the dynamic threshold technique with no IST calculation process. In order to specify the dynamic threshold, pixels with freezing point of MODIS IST of 273.0 K or less were extracted. For the extracted pixels, we analyzed the relationship between MODIS IST, MODIS $11{\mu}m$ channel brightness temperature($T_{11{\mu}m}$) and Brightness Temperature Difference ($BTD:T_{11{\mu}m}-T_{12{\mu}m}$). As a result of the analysis, the relationship between the three values showed a linear characteristic and the threshold value was designated by using this. In the case ofsea ice detection, if $T_{11{\mu}m}$ is below the specified threshold value, it is detected as sea ice on clear sky. And in order to estimate the performance of the proposed sea ice detection method, the accuracy was analyzed using MODIS Sea ice extent and then validation accuracy was higher than 99% in Producer Accuracy (PA).

• Journal of the Korean Arthroscopy Society
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.154-158
• /
• 2000

Purpose : The purpose of this study is to demonstrate changes in the orientation ortho glenohumeral ligaments(GHL) in different degrees of abduction and rotation of the normal healthy individuals. Materials and Methods : Saline Magnetic Resonance(MR) arthrography of nine consecutive shoulders of normal healthy adults were checked. At that time, MR images were obtained in three different positions of abduction and external rotation($0^{\circ}C\;and\;0^{\circ},\;45^{\circ}C\;and\;25^{\circ}C,\;90^{\circ}$ and maximum, respectively). From a series of consecutive MRI, three-dimensional images were reconstructed after detecting the location of the middle glenohumeral ligament(MGHL) and the inferior glenohumeral ligament(IGHL) using workstation computer. Results : The shape of the MGHL was taken in double curved, and straight, and finally curved again in three different positions of the shoulder in sequence. On the other hand, the shape of the IGHL was obliquely positioned, and curvilinear, and finally straight and extended at lower part of the anterior surface of the humeral head. Conclusions : At $45^{\circ}$ of abduction and $25^{\circ}$ of external rotation, and at $90^{\circ}$ of abduction and maximal external rotation of the shoulder, the MGHL and the IGHL had the role of the most important static stabilizer of the glenohumeral joint repectively.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.72-81
• /
• 1992

Pharmacologic coronary vasodilation in conjunction with myocardial scintigraphy has become an accepted alternative to dynamic exercise testing for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. Although dipyridamole has traditionally been used for this purpose, it causes frequent side effect, which at times can be life-threatening. Moreover, dipyridamole dose not elicit maximal coronary vasodilation in a substantial number of patients receiving the usual i.v. dose. Adenosine is an endogenously produced compound that has significant effects as a coronary vasodilator and rapid onset action and extremely short half-life (< 10 seconds). The diagnostic accuracy and safety profile of adenosine $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ myocardial scintigraphy were evaluated and comparison with exercise $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ was performed. Twenty-eight subjects underwent $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ imaging after adenosine infusion and exercise $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ imaging. Adenosine was infused intravenously at a dose of 0.14mg/kg/body weight per minute for 6 min and MIBI was injected at 3 minute. Adenosine caused an incerease in heart rate ($64{\pm}12$ at baseline versus $74{\pm}16$ beats/min at peak effect, p<0.001), a mild decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and a slightly increase in PR interval(p; NS). Side effects were reported in 92% of patients and were mostly mild in nature and promptly resolved within 1 or 2 minutes of termination of adenosine infusion. Facial flushing (53%), chest pain (36%), mild dyspnea (39%), headache (21%), throat discomfort (21%) were frequent symptoms. ST segment depression (> 1 mm) and second degree AV block in electrocardiography occured in 11% of the patients, respectively. The overall sensitivity and specificity for individual coronary stenoses in 16 patients underwent coronary angiography were 88% and 95%, respectively. The agreement ratio of segmental perfusion between adenosine and exercise images was 92% (Kappa index=0.82). In conclusion, $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ myocardial perfusion scintigraphy with intravenous adenosine is a feasible, safe and highly accurate noninvasive technique for the detection of coronary artery disease and results are at least comparable with those of exercise $^{99m}Tc-MIBI$ scintigraphy.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.269-275
• /
• 2004

Different biological tissues have different values of electrical resistivity. In EIT (electrical impedance tomography), we try to provide cross-sectional images of a resistivity distribution inside an electrically conducting subject such as the human body mainly for functional imaging. However, it is well known that the image reconstruction problem in EIT is ill-posed and the quality of a reconstructed image highly depends on the measurement error. This requires us to develop a high-performance EIT system. In this paper, we describe the development of a 16-channel digital EIT system including a single constant current source, 16 voltmeters, main controller, and PC. The system was designed and implemented using the FPGA-based digital technology. The current source injects 50KHz sinusoidal current with the THD (total harmonic distortion) of 0.0029% and amplitude stability of 0.022%. The single current source and switching circuit reduce the measurement error associated with imperfect matching of multiple current sources at the expense of a reduced data acquisition time. The digital voltmeter measuring the induced boundary voltage consists of a differential amplifier, ADC, and FPGA (field programmable gate array). The digital phase-sensitive demodulation technique was implemented in the voltmeter to maximize the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio). Experimental results of 16-channel digital voltmeters showed the SNR of 90dB. We used the developed EIT system to reconstruct resistivity images of a saline phantom containing banana objects. Based on the results, we suggest future improvements for a 64-channel muff-frequency EIT system for three-dimensional dynamic imaging of bio-impedance distributions inside the human body.