• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.354-359
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to verify the dosimetric effect on real PTV (planning target volume) coverage and safety of OARs (organs at risk) at various image fusion protocol-based radiosurgery plan for pituitary adenomas. Real PTV coverage and its variation was acquired and maximum dose and the volume absorbing above threshold dose were also measured for verifying the safety of optic pathway and brainstem. The protocol that can reduce superior-inferior uncertainty by using both axial and coronal MR (magnetic resonance) image sets shows relatively lower values than that of case using only axial image sets. As a result, the image fusion protocol with both axial and coronal image sets can be beneficial to generate OAR-weighted radiosurgery plan.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.713-718
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• 1998

The paper is part of an investigation by the authors on development of a knowledge based frame work for multimodal medical image in collaboration with the All India Institute of Medical Science, new Delhi. After presenting the key aspects of the Dempster-Shafer Evidence theory we have presented implementation of registration and fusion of T₁and T₂ weighted MR images and CT images of the brain of an Alzheimer's patient for minimising the uncertainty and increasing the reliability for dianostics and therapeutic planning.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.120-124
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• 2008

In this study, we developed the protopype of QA phantom for image QA including an additional component for image based radiation treatment system. The new phantom considered two main parts: Image quality and fusion accuracy. Image quality part included for daily CT number linearity and spatial resolution, and fusion accuracy part designed to simulate a simple translation-rotation setting. The CT scans of the phantom obtained from conventional CT, MVCT of Tomotherapy unit, and both image sets were satisfied the recommendation of spatial resolution. This phantom was simple and efficient for daily imaging QA, and it is important to provide a new concept of verification of image registration.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.1181-1196
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• 2011

Image fusion is the process of combining information from two or more source images of a scene into a single composite image with application to many fields, such as remote sensing, computer vision, robotics, medical imaging and defense. The most common wavelet-based fusion is discrete wavelet transform fusion in which the high frequency sub-bands and low frequency sub-bands are combined on activity measures of local windows such standard deviation and mean, respectively. However, discrete wavelet transform is not translation-invariant and it often yields block artifacts in a fused image. In this paper, we propose a robust image fusion based on the stationary wavelet transform to overcome the drawback of discrete wavelet transform. We use the activity measure of interquartile range as the robust estimator of variance in high frequency sub-bands and combine the low frequency sub-band based on the interquartile range information present in the high frequency sub-bands. We evaluate our proposed method quantitatively and qualitatively for image fusion, and compare it to some existing fusion methods. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method is more effective and can provide satisfactory fusion results.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.265-270
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• 2005

A new Computer Integrated Surgical Robot system is composed of a surgical robot, a surgical planning system, and an optical tracking system. The system plays roles of an assisting surgeon and taking the place of surgeons for inserting a pedicle screw in spinal fusion. Compared to pure surgical navigation systems as well as conventional methods for spinal fusion, it is able to achieve better accuracy through compensating for the portending movement of the surgical target area. Furthermore, the robot can position and guide needles, drills, and other surgical instruments or conducts drilling/screwing directly. Preoperatively, the desired entry point, orientation, and depth of surgical tools for pedicle screw insertion are determined by the surgical planning system based on CT/MR images. Intra-operatively, position information on surgical instruments and targeted surgical areas is obtained from the navigation system. Two exemplary experiments employing the developed image-guided surgical robot system are conducted.

• Journal of Multimedia Information System
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2018

Direct volume rendering (DVR) is an important 3D visualization method for medical images as it depicts the full volumetric data. However, because DVR renders the whole volume, regions of interests (ROIs) such as a tumor that are embedded within the volume maybe occluded from view. Thus, conventional 2D cross-sectional views are still widely used, while the advantages of the DVR are often neglected. In this study, we propose a new visualization algorithm where we augment the 2D slice of interest (SOI) from an image volume with volumetric information derived from the DVR of the same volume. Our occlusion-based DVR augmentation for SOI (ODAS) uses the occlusion information derived from the voxels in front of the SOI to calculate a depth parameter that controls the amount of DVR visibility which is used to provide 3D spatial cues while not impairing the visibility of the SOI. We outline the capabilities of our ODAS and through a variety of computer tomography (CT) medical image examples, compare it to a conventional fusion of the SOI and the clipped DVR.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.513-518
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• 2009

Purpose: Integration of the functional information of myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) and the morphoanatomical information of coronary CT angiography (CTA) may provide useful additional diagnostic information of the spatial relationship between perfusion defects and coronary stenosis. We studied to know the added value of three dimensional cardiac SPECT/CTA fusion imaging (fusion image) by comparing between fusion image and MPS. Materials and Methods: Forty-eight patients (M:F=26:22, Age: $63.3{\pm}10.4$ years) with a reversible perfusion defect on MPS (adenosine stress/rest SPECT with Tc-99m sestamibi or tetrofosmin) and CTA were included. Fusion images were molded and compared with the findings from the MPS. Invasive coronary angiography served as a reference standard for fusion image and MPS. Results: Total 144 coronary arteries in 48 patients were analyzed; Fusion image yielded the sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive value for the detection of hemodynamically significant stenosis per coronary artery 82.5%, 79.3%, 76.7% and 84.6%, respectively. Respective values for the MPS were 68.8%, 70.7%, 62.1% and 76.4%. And fusion image also could detect more multi-vessel disease. Conclusion: Fused three dimensional volume-rendered SPECT/CTA imaging provides intuitive convincing information about hemodynamic relevant lesion and could improved diagnostic accuracy.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 1998

Nuclear Medicine Images have comparatively poor spatial resolution, making it difficult to relate the functional information which they contain to precise anatomical structures. Anatomical structures useful in the interpretation of SPECT /PET Images were radiolabelled. PET/SPECT Images Provide functional information, whereas MRI mainly demonstrate morphology and anatomical. Fusion or Image Registration improves the information obtained by correlating images from various modalities. Brain Scan were studied on one or more occations using MRI and SPECT. The data were aligned using a point pair methods and surface matching. SPECT and MR Images was tested using a three dimensional water fillable Hoffman Brain Phantom with small marker and PET and MR Image was tested using a patient data. Registration of SPECT and MR Images is feasible and allows more accurate anatomic assessment of sites of abnormal uptake in radiolabeled studies. Point based registration was accurate and easily implemented three dimensional registration of multimodality data set for fusion of clinical anatomic and functional imaging modalities. Accuracy of a surface matching algorithm and homologous feature pair matching for three dimensional image registration of Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Images(MRD was tested using a three dimensional water fill able brain phantom and Patients data. Transformation parameter for translation and scaling were determined by homologous feature point pair to match each SPECT and PET scan with MR images.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.123-131
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• 2020

Purpose: Joint label fusion (JLF) is a popular multi-atlas-based segmentation algorithm, which compensates for dependent errors that may exist between atlases. However, in order to get good segmentation results, it is very important to set the several free parameters of the algorithm to optimal values. In this study, we first investigate the feasibility of a JLF algorithm for prostate segmentation in MR images, and then suggest the optimal set of parameters for the automatic prostate segmentation by validating the results of each parameter combination. Materials and Methods: We acquired T2-weighted prostate MR images from 20 normal heathy volunteers and did a series of cross validations for every set of parameters of JLF. In each case, the atlases were rigidly registered for the target image. Then, we calculated their voting weights for label fusion from each combination of JLF's parameters (r_pxy, r_pz, r_sxy, r_sz, β). We evaluated the segmentation performances by five validation metrics of the Prostate MR Image Segmentation challenge. Results: As the number of voxels participating in the voting weight calculation and the number of referenced atlases is increased, the overall segmentation performance is gradually improved. The JLF algorithm showed the best results for dice similarity coefficient, 0.8495 ± 0.0392; relative volume difference, 15.2353 ± 17.2350; absolute relative volume difference, 18.8710 ± 13.1546; 95% Hausdorff distance, 7.2366 ± 1.8502; and average boundary distance, 2.2107 ± 0.4972; in parameters of r_pxy = 10, r_pz = 1, r_sxy = 3, r_sz = 1, and β = 3. Conclusion: The evaluated results showed the feasibility of the JLF algorithm for automatic segmentation of prostate MRI. This empirical analysis of segmentation results by label fusion allows for the appropriate setting of parameters.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.6
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• pp.901-912
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• 2021

Objective : In the cervical spine, many surgical procedures have been developed to achieve optimal results for various disorders, including degenerative diseases, traumatic injury, and tumor. In this study, we report our experience and follow-up results with a new surgical technique for cervical spine entitled posterior floating laminotomy (PFL) in comparison with conventional laminectomy and fusion (LF). Methods : Data for 85 patients who underwent conventional LF (n=66) or PFL (n=19) for cervical spine disorders between 2012 and 2019 were analyzed. Radiological parameters, including cervical lordosis (CL), T1 slope (T1S), segmental lordosis (SL), and C2-7 sagittal vertical axis (SVA), were measured with lateral spine X-rays. Functional outcomes, comprising the modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association (mJOA), neck disability index (NDI), and visual analog scale (VAS) scores, were also measured. For the patients who underwent PFL, postoperative magnetic resonance image (MRI) was performed in a month after the surgery, and the degree of decompression was evaluated at the T2-weighted axial image, and postoperative computed tomography (CT) was conducted immediately and 1 year after the operation to evaluate the gutter fusion. Results : There was no difference in CL, T1S, SL, and C2-7 SVA between the groups but there was a difference in the preoperative and postoperative SL angles. The mean difference in the preoperative SL angle compared with that at the last follow-up was -0.3° after conventional LF and 4.7° after PFL (p=0.04), respectively. mJOA, NDI, and VAS scores showed significant improvements (p<0.05) during follow-up in both groups. In the PFL group, postoperative MRI showed sufficient decompression and postoperative CT revealed gutter fusion at 1 year after the operation. Conclusion : PFL is a safe surgical method which can preserve postoperative CL and achieve good clinical outcomes.