• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.129-132
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• 2023

Purpose: Positron emisson tomography (PET) is a crucial medical imaging scanner for the detection of cancer lesions. In order to maintain the improved image quality, it is crucial to apply detectors of superior performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare PET image quality using Monte Carlo simulation based on the detector materials of BGO, LSO, and LuAP. Materials and Methods: The Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) was used to design the PET detector. Scintillations with BGO, LSO and LuAP were modelled, with a size of 3.95 × 5.3 mm2 (width × height) and 25.0 mm (thickness). The PET detector consisted of 34 blocks per ring and a total of 4 rings. A line source of 1 MBq was modelled and acquired with a radius of 1 mm and length of 20 mm for 20 seconds. The acquired image was reconstructed maximum likelihood expectation maximization with 2 iteration and 10 subsets. The count comparison was carried out. Results and Discussion: The highest true, random, and scatter counts were obtained from the BGO scintillation detector compared to LSO and LuAP. Conclusion: The BGO scintillation detector material indicated excellent performance in terms of detection of gamma rays from emitted PET phantom.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.239-247
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• 2015

It should be accurate dose calculation to increase the efficiency of radiation therapy, and it is priority to figure out the beam characteristics for this purpose. The target and primary collimator in head components of the linear accelerator have the greatest influence on determining the beam characteristics which is caused by backscatter and it is the factor to consider the shielding structures and equipment management. In this study, we made modeling of the linear accelerator through the Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation and investigated backscatter according to the change of the size and shape in head components. For the scattered electrons, it showed the greatest number of distributions inside of the inner radius at primary collimator. But, for the scattered photons which have the high energy, it was mostly located outside of the inner radius at primary collimator. Scattered positrons showed a small occurrence in about 0.03%. According to the change of the inner radius at primary collimator, it was great changes in the inside of inner radius for all three scattered particles. According to the change of the outer radius at primary collimator, it was shown some considerable effects from more than 60 mm outer radius. It was no significant effect according to the change of target thickness. In this study, we found that backscatter should be considered, and figured out that geometric size and shape of the peripheral components are the factors that influences the backscatter effect.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.791-799
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• 2019

We evaluated the physical properties that occur to dose enhancement and changes from secondary particle production resulting from the interaction between enhancement material. Geant4 was used to perform a Monte Carlo simulation, and the medical internal radiation dose (MIRD) head phantom were employed. X-rays of 4, 6, 10, 15, 18, and 25 MV were used. Aurum (Au) and gadolinium (Gd) were applied within the tumor volume at 10, 20, and 30 mg/g, and an experiment using soft tissue exclusively was concomitantly performed for comparison. Also, particle fluence and initial kinetic energy of secondary particle of interaction were measured to calculate equivalent doses using the radiation weight factor. The properties of physical interaction by the radiation enhancement material showed the great increased in photoelectric effect as compared to the compton scattering and pair production, occurred with the highest, in aurum and gadolinium it is shown in common. The photonuclear effect frequency increased as the energy increased, thereby increasing secondary particle production, including alpha particles, protons, and neutrons. During dose enhancement using aurum, a maximum 424.25-fold increase in the equivalent dose due to neutrons was observed. This study was Monte Carlo simulation corresponds to the physical process of energy transmission in dose enhancement. Its results may be used as a basis for future in vivo and in vitro experiments aiming to improve effects of dose enhancement.

• 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.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1524-1531
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• 2020

The aim of this work is to develop a Geiger-Muller (GM) detector system for robot to look for a radioactive source in case of a nuclear emergency or in a high radiation environment. In order to find a radiation source easily, a detector system, including 3 detectors, was designed to search γ-ray radiation sources autonomously. First, based on GEANT4 simulation, radiation dose rates in 3 Geiger-Muller (GM) counters were simulated at different source-detector distances, distances between detectors and angles. Various sensitivity analyses were performed experimentally to verify the simulated designed detector system. A mono-energetic ¹³⁷Cs γ-ray source with energy 662 keV and activity of 1.11 GBq was used for the observation. The simulated results were compared with the experimental dose rate values and good agreements were obtained for various cases. Only based on the dose rates in three detectors, the radiation source with a specific source activity and angle was localized in the different location. A method was adopted with the measured dose rates and differences of distances to find the actual location of the lost γ-ray source. The corresponding angles of deviation and detection limits were calculated to determine the sensitivity and abilities of our designed detector system. The proposed system can be used to locate radiation sources in low and high radiation environments.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.81-86
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• 2012

The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth within the inner radiation belt, where high-energy protons are produced by collisions of cosmic rays to the upper atmosphere. About 6 astronauts stay in the ISS for a long period, and it should be important to monitor and assess the radiation environment in the ISS. The tissue equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) is an instrument to measure the impact of radiation on the human tissue. KASI is developing a TEPC as a candidate payload of the ISS. Before the detailed design of the TEPC, we performed simulations to test whether our conceptual design of the TEPC will work propertly in the ISS and to predict its performance. The simulations estimated that the TEPC will measure the dose equivalent of about 1:1 mSv during a day in the ISS, which is consistent with previous measurements.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.141-148
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• 2023

The algebraic reconstruction technique is one of the reconstruction methods in CT and shows good image quality against noise-dominant conditions. The number of iteration is one of the key factors determining the execution time for the algebraic reconstruction technique. However, there are some rules for determining the number of iterations that result in more than a few hundred iterations. Thus, the rules are difficult to apply in practice. In this study, we proposed a method to determine the number of iterations for practical applications. The reconstructed image quality shows slow convergence as the number of iterations increases. Image quality 𝜖 < 0.001 was used to determine the optimal number of iteration. The Shepp-Logan head phantom was used to obtain noise-free projection and projections with noise for 360, 720, and 1440 views were obtained using Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation that has the same geometry dimension as a clinic CT system. Images reconstructed by around 10 iterations within the stop condition showed good quality. The method for determining the iteration number is an efficient way of replacing the best image-quality-based method, which brings over a few hundred iterations.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.346-352
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• 2012

Radiation dose estimation on the newborn and infants during radiation examinations, unlike for the adults, is not actively being progressed. Therefore, as an index to present exposure dose during radiation examinations on newborn and infants, entrance skin dose was measured, and the result was compared with results of monte carlo simulation to raise reproducibility of entrance skin dose measurement, and it was proved that various geometry implementation was possible. The resulting values through monte carlo simulation was estimated using normalization factors for entrance skin dose to calibrate radiation dose and then normalized to a unit X ray radiation field size. Average entrance skin dose per one time exposure was $78.41{\mu}Gy$ and the percentage error between measurement by dosimeter and by monte carlo simulation was found to be -4.77%. Entrance skin dose assessment by monte carlo simulation provides possible alternative method in difficult entrance skin dose estimation for the newborn and infants who visit hospital for actual diagnosis.

• 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%.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.12-17
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• 2015

The purpose of the Monte Carlo simulation study was to provide the optimized nozzle design to satisfy the beam conditions for biomedical researches in the Korean heavy-ion accelerator, RAON. The nozzle design was required to produce $C^{12}$ beam satisfying the three conditions; the maximum field size, the dose uniformity and the beam contamination. We employed the GEANT4 toolkit in Monte Carlo simulation to optimize the nozzle design. The beams for biomedical researches were required that the maximum field size should be more than $15{\times}15cm^2$, the dose uniformity was to be less than 3% and the level of beam contamination due to the scattered radiation from collimation systems was less than 5% of total dose. For the field size, we optimized the tilting angle of the circularly rotating beam controlled by a pair of dipole magnets at the most upstream of the user beam line unit and the thickness of the scatter plate located downstream of the dipole magnets. The values of beam scanning angle and the thickness of the scatter plate could be successfully optimized to be $0.5^{\circ}$ and 0.05 cm via this Monte Carlo simulation analysis. For the dose uniformity and the beam contamination, we introduced the new beam configuration technique by the combination of scanning and static beams. With the combination of a central static beam and a circularly rotating beam with the tilting angle of $0.5^{\circ}$ to beam axis, the dose uniformity could be established to be 1.1% in $15{\times}15cm^2$ sized maximum field. For the beam contamination, it was determined by the ratio of the absorbed doses delivered by $C^{12}$ ion and other particles. The level of the beam contamination could be achieved to be less than 2.5% of total dose in the region from 5 cm to 17 cm water equivalent depth in the combined beam configuration. Based on the results, we could establish the optimized nozzle design satisfying the beam conditions which were required for biomedical researches.