• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.573-579
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is predicted easily the entrance surface dose (ESD) in chest digital radiography. We used two detector type such as flat-panel detector (FP) and IP (Imaging plate detector). ESD was measured at each exposure condition combined tube voltage with tube current using dosimeter, after attaching on human phantom, it was repeated 3 times. Phantom images were evaluated independently by three chest radiologists after blinding image. Dose-area product (DAP) or exposure index (EI) was checked by Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) header on phantom images. Statistical analysis was performed by the linear regression using SPSS ver. 19.0. ESD was significant difference between FP and IP($85.7{\mu}Gy$ vs. $124.6{\mu}Gy$, p=0.017). ESD was positively correlated with image quality in FP as well as IP. In FP, adjusted R square was 0.978 (97.8%) and linear regression model was $ESD=0.407+68.810{\times}DAP$. DAP was 4.781 by calculating the $DAP=0.021+0.014{\times}340{\mu}Gy$. In IP, adjusted R square was 0.645 (64.5%) and linear regression model was $ESD=-63.339+0.188{\times}EI$. EI was 1748.97 by calculating the $EI=565.431+3.481{\times}340{\mu}Gy$. In chest digital radiography, the ESD can be easily predicted by the DICOM header information.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.413-420
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• 2005

Purpose: Neuroreceptor PET studies require 60-120 minutes to complete and head motion of the subject during the PET scan increases the uncertainty in measured activity. In this study, we investigated the effects of the data-driven head mutton correction on the evaluation of endogenous dopamine release (DAR) in the striatum during the motor task which might have caused significant head motion artifact. Materials and Methods: $[^{11}C]raclopride$ PET scans on 4 normal volunteers acquired with bolus plus constant infusion protocol were retrospectively analyzed. Following the 50 min resting period, the participants played a video game with a monetary reward for 40 min. Dynamic frames acquired during the equilibrium condition (pre-task: 30-50 min, task: 70-90 min, post-task: 110-120 min) were realigned to the first frame in pre-task condition. Intra-condition registrations between the frames were performed, and average image for each condition was created and registered to the pre-task image (inter-condition registration). Pre-task PET image was then co-registered to own MRI of each participant and transformation parameters were reapplied to the others. Volumes of interest (VOI) for dorsal putamen (PU) and caudate (CA), ventral striatum (VS), and cerebellum were defined on the MRI. Binding potential (BP) was measured and DAR was calculated as the percent change of BP during and after the task. SPM analyses on the BP parametric images were also performed to explore the regional difference in the effects of head motion on BP and DAR estimation. Results: Changes in position and orientation of the striatum during the PET scans were observed before the head motion correction. BP values at pre-task condition were not changed significantly after the intra-condition registration. However, the BP values during and after the task and DAR were significantly changed after the correction. SPM analysis also showed that the extent and significance of the BP differences were significantly changed by the head motion correction and such changes were prominent in periphery of the striatum. Conclusion: The results suggest that misalignment of MRI-based VOI and the striatum in PET images and incorrect DAR estimation due to the head motion during the PET activation study were significant, but could be remedied by the data-driven head motion correction.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.59-71
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• 2000

It is possible to obtain a fast CT scan during breath holding with spiral technique. But the risk of radiation is increased due to detailed and repeated scans. However, the limitation of X-ray doses is not fully specified on CT, yet. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to define the limitation of X-ray doses on CT The CT unit was somatom plus 4. Alderson Rando phantom, Solenoid water phantom, TLD, and reader were used. For determining adequate position and size of organs, the measurement of distance(${\pm}$2mm) from the midline of vertebral body was performed in 40 women(20~40 years). On the brain scan for 8:8(8mm slice thickness, 8mm/sec movement velocity of the table) and 10:10(10mm slice thickness, 10mm/sec movement velocity of the table) methods, the absorption doses of exposed area of the 10:10 were slightly higher than those of 8:8. The doses of unexposed uterus were negligible on the brain scan for both 8:8 and 10:10. On the chest scan for 8:8, 8:10(8mm slice thickness, 10mm/sec movement velocity of the table), 10:10, 10:12(10mm slice thickness, 12mm/sec movement velocity of the table) and 10:15(10mm slice thickness, 15mm/sec movement velocity of the table) methods, 8:8 method of the absorption doses of exposure area was the most highest and 10:15 method was the most lowest. The absorption doses of 8:10 method was relatively lower than those of the other methods. In conclusion, the 8:10 method is the most suitable to give a low radiation burden to patient without distorting image quality.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.131-139
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• 2011

A method to get a size of the radiation isocenter of linear accelerators using star-shot images was presented and a computer program was developed to automate the method. Accuracy of the method was verified. The developed program was used to measure sizes of the radiation isocenters for a Clinac 21EX (Varian, USA) using data of quality assurance (QA) performed from June 2008 to December 2010. To calculated the size of radiation isocenter, positions of two points on each central ray of the star-shot image were found and the equation of the central ray was determined using the positions of two points. Using the equations of central rays the radius of the minimum circle intersecting all the central rays, which is one half of the size of radiation isocenter, was calculated. The program measured x-intercepts and y-intercepts of the central rays within errors of 0.084 mm and sizes of radiation isocenters within 0.053 mm. All the errors were less than the spatial resolution of star-shot images 0.085 mm. The radiation isocenter sizes of Clinac 21EX were $0.33{\pm}0.27mm$, $0.71{\pm}0.36mm$, $0.50{\pm}0.16mm$ for collimator, gantry and couch respectively. During the measurement period all the measured sizes were less than 2.0 mm and within tolerance. The developed program could calculate the size of radiation isocenters and it would be helpful to routine QA.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.332-339
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• 2010

We aimed to setup an adaptive radiation therapy platform using cone-beam CT (CBCT) and multileaf collimator (MLC) log data and also intended to analyze a trend of dose calculation errors during the procedure based on a phantom study. We took CT and CBCT images of Catphan-600 (The Phantom Laboratory, USA) phantom, and made a simple step-and-shoot intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plan based on the CT. Original plan doses were recalculated based on the CT ($CT_{plan}$) and the CBCT ($CBCT_{plan}$). Delivered monitor unit weights and leaves-positions during beam delivery for each MLC segment were extracted from the MLC log data then we reconstructed delivered doses based on the CT ($CT_{recon}$) and CBCT ($CBCT_{recon}$) respectively using the extracted information. Dose calculation errors were evaluated by two-dimensional dose discrepancies ($CT_{plan}$ was the benchmark), gamma index and dose-volume histograms (DVHs). From the dose differences and DVHs, it was estimated that the delivered dose was slightly greater than the planned dose; however, it was insignificant. Gamma index result showed that dose calculation error on CBCT using planned or reconstructed data were relatively greater than CT based calculation. In addition, there were significant discrepancies on the edge of each beam while those were less than errors due to inconsistency of CT and CBCT. $CBCT_{recon}$ showed coupled effects of above two kinds of errors; however, total error was decreased even though overall uncertainty for the evaluation of delivered dose on the CBCT was increased. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate dose calculation errors separately as a setup error, dose calculation error due to CBCT image quality and reconstructed dose error which is actually what we want to know.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2002

Receive dynamic focusing with an array transducer can provide near optimum resolution only in the vicinity of transmit focal depth. A customary method to increase the depth of field is to combine several beams with different focal depths, with an accompanying decrease in the frame rate. In this Paper. we Present a simultaneous multiple transmit focusing method in which chirp signals focused at different depths are transmitted at the same time. These chirp signals are mutually orthogonal in a sense that the autocorrelation function of each signal has a narrow mainlobe width and low sidelobe levels. and the crossorelation function of any Pair of the signals has values smaller than the sidelobe levels of each autocorrelation function. This means that each chirp signal can be separated from the combined received signals and compressed into a short pulse. which is then individually focused on a separate receive beamformer. Next. the individually focused beams are combined to form a frame of image. Theoretically, any two chirp signals defined over two nonoverlapped frequency bands are mutually orthogonal In the present work. however, a tractional overlap of adjacent frequency bands is permitted to design more chirp signals within a given transducer bandwidth. The elevation of the rosscorrelation values due to the frequency overlap could be reduced by alternating the direction of frequency sweep of the adjacent chirp signals We also observe that the Proposed method provides better images when the low frequency chirp is focused at a near Point and the high frequency chirp at a far point along the depth. better lateral resolution is obtained at the far field with reasonable SNR due to the SNR gain in Pulse compression Imaging .

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.403-414
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• 2004

In the accompanying paper, we proposed a real. time volumetric imaging method using a cross array based on receive dynamic focusing and synthetic aperture focusing along lateral and elevational directions, respetively. But synthetic aperture methods using spherical waves are subject to beam spreading with increasing depth due to the wave diffraction phenomenon. Moreover, since the proposed method uses only one element for each transmission, it has a limited transmit power. To overcome these limitations, we propose a new real. time volumetric imaging method using cross arrays based on synthetic aperture technique with linear wave fronts. In the proposed method, linear wave fronts having different angles on the horizontal plane is transmitted successively from all transmit array elements. On receive, by employing the conventional dynamic focusing and synthetic aperture methods along lateral and elevational directions, respectively, ultrasound waves can be focused effectively at all imaging points. Mathematical analysis and computer simulation results show that the proposed method can provide uniform elevational resolution over a large depth of field. Especially, since the new method can construct a volume image with a limited number of transmit receive events using a full transmit aperture, it is suitable for real-time 3D imaging with high transmit power and volume rate.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.141-148
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the distribution of clusters and blood flow rate in ADHD SPECT brain blood flow images of children using statistical parametric mapping (SPM99). We studied 64 ADHD children (4-15 y, $8.03{\pm}2.57$ y. male/female:52/12) and compared them with a control group of 12 children (6-l7 y, $9.42{\pm}3.37$ y, male/female:8/4). We injected blood flow tracer $^{99m}Tc$-ethylcysteinate dimer (ECD) as a rCBF agent and took blood flow images after 30 min. by SPECT camera. In the case of hyperperfusion of rCBF in the ADHD group, we found 3 clusters clearly separated at the cingulate gyrus, Rt.cerebral occipital lobe and Lt.cerebellar post. lobe, on probability level 0.05 (P<0.05). Thirty-six ADHD patients with average hyperfusion rates between 18.72-19.30% in each cluster had more increase in blood flow than the average perfusion rate at the Rt. cerebral occipital lobe. These levels were influenced by P-value. In the case of hypoperfusion in the ADHD children, 4 decreased clusters on Lt. and Rt. cerebral frontal lobe, Lt. cerebral claustrum and Rt. cerebral, sup. temporal gyrus at P<0.01 can be seen. The average hypoperfusion rates for the ADHD children were 18.41-18.69% in each cluster, which showed more hypopefusion than the average perfusion rate at the Lt. Cerebrum inf. Frontal gyrus. The perfusion rates and the number of patients were not affected by P-value. The result of this study shows significant hyperpefusion clusters at the probability level of P:0.05 and hypoperfusion clusters at P:0.01. The number of ADHD patients in each clusters and the perfusion rate were not affected by P-value.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.202-209
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• 2004

Flat panel based digital radiography (DR) systems have recently become useful and important in the field of diagnostic radiology. For DRs with amorphous silicon photosensors, CsI(TI) is normally used as the scintillator, which produces visible light corresponding to the absorbed radiation energy. The visible light photons are converted into electric signal in the amorphous silicon photodiodes which constitute a two dimensional array. In order to produce good quality images, detailed behaviors of DR detectors to radiation must be studied. The relationship between air exposure and the DR outputs has been investigated in many studies. But this relationship was investigated under the condition of the fixed tube voltage. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the DR outputs and X-ray in terms of the absorbed energy in the detector rather than the air exposure using SPEC-l8, an X-ray energy spectrum model. Measured exposure was compared with calculated exposure for obtaining the inherent filtration that is a important input variable of SPEC-l8. The absorbed energy in the detector was calculated using algorithm of calculating the absorbed energy in the material and pixel values of real images under various conditions was obtained. The characteristic curve was obtained using the relationship of two parameter and the results were verified using phantoms made of water and aluminum. The pixel values of the phantom image were estimated and compared with the characteristic curve under various conditions. It was found that the relationship between the DR outputs and the absorbed energy in the detector was almost linear. In a experiment using the phantoms, the estimated pixel values agreed with the characteristic curve, although the effect of scattered photons introduced some errors. However, effect of a scattered X-ray must be studied because it was not included in the calculation algorithm. The result of this study can provide useful information about a pre-processing of digital radiography.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.174-181
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• 2005

Purpose: Reduction of respiratory motion artifacts in PET images was studied using respiratory-gated PET (RGPET) with moving phantom. Especially a method of generating simulated helical CT images from 4D-CT datasets was developed and applied to a respiratory specific RGPET images for more accurate attenuation correction. Materials and Methods: Using a motion phantom with periodicity of 6 seconds and linear motion amplitude of 26 mm, PET/CT (Discovery ST: GEMS) scans with and without respiratory gating were obtained for one syringe and two vials with each volume of 3, 10, and 30 ml respectively. RPM (Real-Time Position Management, Varian) was used for tracking motion during PET/CT scanning. Ten datasets of RGPET and 4D-CT corresponding to every 10% phase intervals were acquired. from the positions, sizes, and uptake values of each subject on the resultant phase specific PET and CT datasets, the correlations between motion artifacts in PET and CT images and the size of motion relative to the size of subject were analyzed. Results: The center positions of three vials in RGPET and 4D-CT agree well with the actual position within the estimated error. However, volumes of subjects in non-gated PET images increase proportional to relative motion size and were overestimated as much as 250% when the motion amplitude was increased two times larger than the size of the subject. On the contrary, the corresponding maximal uptake value was reduced to about 50%. Conclusion: RGPET is demonstrated to remove respiratory motion artifacts in PET imaging, and moreover, more precise image fusion and more accurate attenuation correction is possible by combining with 4D-CT.