• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.191-197
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• 2014

Purpose : This study presents the usefulness assessment of metal artifact reduction for orthopedic implants(O-MAR) to decrease metal artifacts from materials with high density when acquired CT images. Materials and Methods : By CT simulator, original CT images were acquired from Gammex and Rando phantom and those phantoms inserted with high density materials were scanned for other CT images with metal artifacts and then O-MAR was applied to those images, respectively. To evaluate CT images using Gammex phantom, 5 regions of interest(ROIs) were placed at 5 organs and 3 ROIs were set up at points affected by artifacts. The averages of standard deviation(SD) and CT numbers were compared with a plan using original image. For assessment of variations in dose of tissue around materials with high density, the volume of a cylindrical shape was designed at 3 places in images acquired from Rando phantom by Eclipse. With 6 MV, 7-fields, $15{\time}15cm2$ and 100 cGy per fraction, treatment planning was created and the mean dose were compared with a plan using original image. Results : In the test with the Gammex phantom, CT numbers had a few difference at established points and especially 3 points affected by artifacts had most of the same figures. In the case of O-MAR image, the more reduction in SD appeared at all of 8 points than non O-MAR image. In the test using the Rando Phantom, the variations in dose of tissue around high density materials had a few difference between original CT image and CT image with O-MAR. Conclusion : The CT images using O-MAR were acquired clearly at the boundary of tissue around high density materials and applying O-MAR was useful for correcting CT numbers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.1025-1033
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• 2019

Although magnetic resonance imaging without linear hardening of CT is recognized as a method of obtaining high contrast of tissue and excellent resolution image in brain disease and head and neck examination, magnetic susceptibility artifact is generated in case of metal implants in the oral cavity, which is an obstacle to image diagnosis. Therefore, an effort was made in this thesis to find a method to reduce artifacts caused by dental implants and prosthesis in MRI. Implant-induced artifacts in magnetic resonance imaging showed that the signal size increased with shorter TE in GE technique and was inconsistent with water temperature change. In SE technique as well, the signal size of water was generally higher than that of air, but the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was not different by air and temperature. In EPI technique, images with fewer artifacts were obtained quantitatively and qualitatively when there was more water than air, and the signal to noise ratio was measured the highest, especially at water temperatures of 20° and 30°. In conclusion, when examining using the EPI technique rather than the SE or the GE technique, obtaining brain diffusion using a 20° and 30° water bag reduces the magnetic susceptibility artifacts caused by implants and prosthesis, suggesting that it may provide images with high diagnostic value.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics S
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• v.35S no.12
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• pp.46-54
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• 1998

In this paper we propose a fast adaptive image restoration filter using DCT-based block classification for reducing block artifacts in compressed images. In order to efficiently reduce block artifacts, edge direction of each block is classified by using the DCT coefficients, and the constrained least square (CLS) on the observation that the quantization operation in a series of coding process is a nonlinear and many-to-one mapping operator. And then we propose an approximated version of constrained optimization technique as a restoration process for removing the nonlinear and space-varying degradation operator. For real-time implementation, the proposed restoration filter can be realized in the form of a truncated FIR filter, which is suitable for postprocessing reconstructed images in HDTV, DVD, or video conference systems.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.227-232
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• 2019

MRI examination for patients with metal objects has in poor image quality. Metallic implants can result in poor image because magnetic susceptibility causes signal loss and distortion and makes poor imaging, which is called magnetic susceptibility artifact or metal artifact. There are several approaches to reduce metal artifacts. In this study, we study the reduction of metal artifact by VAT and SEMAC techniques. A metal implant used for orthopedic surgery was attached to the phatom and the distortion caused by the artifact was measured under T1WI and T2WI protocols. Several techniques of VAT only and VAT and SEMAC for the reduction of metal artifact were compared. The metal artifact showed a reduction of at least 8% to a maximum of 26% in the VAT-SEMAC. The VAT-SEMAC technique can be applied to patients with orthopedic implants to improve image quality. If scan time and image quality are simultaneously considered in VAT-SEMAC technique, metal artifact will be reduced in clinical practice.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.257-263
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• 2011

Sparse-view CT imaging is considered to be a solution to reduce x-ray dose of CT. Sparse-view CT imaging may have severe streak artifacts that could compromise the image qualities. We have compared quality of sparseview images reconstructed with two representative iterative reconstruction techniques, SIRT and TV-minimization, in terms of image error and edge preservation. In the comparison study, we have used the Shepp-Logan phantom image and real CT images obtained with a micro-CT. In both phantom image and real CT image tests, TV-minimization technique shows the best performance in error reduction and preserving edges. However, the excessive computation time of TV-minimization is a technical challenge for the practical use.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.189-194
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of reducing noise and streaking artefacts by applying the Boost3D algorithm in the case of noise and streaking artifacts generated during computed tomography of the shoulder joint. A phantom study using a thoracic phantom including shoulder joint and clinical evaluation were conducted through shoulder joint images of 35 patients who underwent computed tomography of the shoulder joint from September 2020 to October 2020. The evaluation was divided into groups before and after the application of the Boost3D algorithm, and the noise values, signal to noise ratio, and mean to standard deviation ratio values were analyzed. Both noise values and mean to standard deviation ratio values analyzed in phantom image evaluation and clinical image evaluation were statistically significantly lower in the group after Boost3D was applied (p<0.05). Through this study, it was found that noise and streak artifacts were reduced through the application of Boost3D, and the mean to standard deviation ratio was high, which can be judged as an excellent image. If the Boost3D algorithm is used for computed tomography of the shoulder joint, it is thought that excellent images can be obtained with reduced noise and streaking artifacts that may occur in the shoulder joint area.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2020

Purpose: This study was performed to evaluate the magnitude of artifacts produced by gutta-percha and metal posts on cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans obtained with different tube currents and with or without metal artifact reduction (MAR). Materials and Methods: A tooth was inserted in a dry human mandible socket, and CBCT scans were acquired after root canal instrumentation, root canal filling, and metal post placement with various tube currents with and without MAR activation. The artifact magnitude was assessed by the standard deviation (SD) of gray values and the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) at the various distances from the tooth. Data were compared using multi-way analysis of variance. Results: At all distances, a current of 4 mA was associated with a higher SD and a lower CNR than 8 mA or 10 mA (P<0.05). For the metal posts without MAR, the artifact magnitude as assessed by SD was greatest at 1.5 cm or less (P<0.05). When MAR was applied, SD values for distances 1.5 cm or closer to the tooth were reduced (P<0.05). MAR usage did not influence the magnitude of artifacts in the control and gutta-percha groups(P>0.05). Conclusion: Increasing the tube current from 4 mA to 8 mA may reduce the magnitude of artifacts from metal posts. The magnitude of artifacts arising from metal posts was significantly higher at distances of 1.5 cm or less than at greater distances. MAR usage improved image quality near the metal post, but had no significant influence farther than 1.5 cm from the tooth.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.2854-2863
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• 2023

Objective: To present a hybrid approach that incorporates a constrained beam-hardening estimator (CBHE) and deep learning (DL)-based post-refinement for metal artifact reduction in dental cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Methods: Constrained beam-hardening estimator (CBHE) is derived from a polychromatic X-ray attenuation model with respect to X-ray transmission length, which calculates associated parameters numerically. Deep-learning-based post-refinement with an artifact disentanglement network (ADN) is performed to mitigate the remaining dark shading regions around a metal. Artifact disentanglement network (ADN) supports an unsupervised learning approach, in which no paired CBCT images are required. The network consists of an encoder that separates artifacts and content and a decoder for the content. Additionally, ADN with data normalization replaces metal regions with values from bone or soft tissue regions. Finally, the metal regions obtained from the CBHE are blended into reconstructed images. The proposed approach is systematically assessed using a dental phantom with two types of metal objects for qualitative and quantitative comparisons. Results: The proposed hybrid scheme provides improved image quality in areas surrounding the metal while preserving native structures. Conclusion: This study may significantly improve the detection of areas of interest in many dentomaxillofacial applications.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.296-306
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• 2006

We proposed the algorithm for the quantization noise reduction based on variable filter adaptive to edge signal in MPEG postprocessing system. In our algorithm, edge map and local modulus maxima in the decoded images are obtained by using 2D Mallat wavelet tilter. And then, blocking artifacts in inter-block are reduced by Gaussian LPF that is variable to filtering region according to edge map. Ringing artifacts in intra-block are reduced by 2D SAF according to local modulus maxima. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm was superior to the conventional algorithms as regards PSNR, which was improved by 0.04-0.20 dB, and the subjective image quality.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.30 no.7C
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• pp.716-725
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• 2005

In this paper, we propose a new approach for the reduction of the dynamic false contours, which detects and compensates false contour artifacts adaptively. First, we develop a simple but effective method to select the pixels that are likely to cause the motion artifacts, based on the distribution of pixel values. Then, we merge the selected pixels into several regions using tree structure. Next, we reduce number of gray levels within the regions slightly to reduce the false contours. Note that reducing number of gray levels yield the distortion, thus it is applied only to the selected regions, instead of the whole picture. Intensive simulations on real moving image show that the proposed algorithm alleviates the dynamic false contours effectively with tolerable computational complexity.