• 한국의학물리학회지:의학물리
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.65-72
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• 2007

대부분의 임상용 자기공명영상 장치에서 확산텐서(difiusion tensor) 영상을 얻기 위하여 에코플렌(EPI) 스핀에코(spin-echo) 시퀀스를 사용한다. 하지만 이 영상법은 자화감수성에 매우 예민한 단점이 있다. 따라서 본 연구의 목적은 자화감수성에 의해 발생하는 영상의 변질을 최소화하면서 확산텐서를 한번에 얻을 수 있는 시퀀스를 개발하는데 있다. 모든 확산 텐서 성분을 한번에 얻기 위하여 다편(multi-slice) 8에코 스핀에코 시퀀스(MePGSE)가 개발되었다. 모든 180도 펄스는 기존에 사용된 방법과는 달리 선택된(slice selective) 경사자장을 이용하였다. 처음 7개의 에코 영상은 확산텐서 영상을 위하여 사용하였고, 마지막 에코 영상에서는 영상을 얻는 경사자장은 사용하지 않고 남아있는 자화를(residual magnetization) 최소화하기 위하여 삼차원 경사자장(crusher gradients)만을 사용하였다. 따라서 6개의 텐서 성분을 단 한번의 실험에 의하여 얻을 수 있었다. 이 시퀀스를 사용하여 물과 수박을 이용하여 실험을 하였으며 물에서의 확산 값이 기존에 출판된 값과 유사하게 나타나 본 연구에서 MePGSE 시퀀스의 신뢰를 가질 수 있었다.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.27-35
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• 2016

Purpose: Among RF pulses, a sinc pulse is typically used for slice selection due to its frequency-selective feature. When a sinc pulse is implemented in practice, it needs to be apodized to avoid truncation artifacts at the expense of broadening the transition region of the excited-band profile. Here a sinc pulse tailored by a new apodization function is proposed that produces a sharper transition region with well suppression of truncation artifacts in comparison with conventional tailored sinc pulses. A multiband pulse designed using this newly apodized sinc pulse is also suggested inheriting the better performance of the newly apodized sinc pulse. Materials and Methods: A new apodization function is introduced to taper a sinc pulse, playing a role to slightly shift the first zero-crossing of a tailored sinc pulse from the peak of the main lobe and thereby producing a narrower bandwidth as well as a sharper pass-band in the excitation profile. The newly apodized sinc pulse was also utilized to design a multiband pulse which inherits the performance of its constituent. Performances of the proposed sinc pulse and the multiband pulse generated with it were demonstrated by Bloch simulation and phantom imaging. Results: In both simulations and experiments, the newly apodized sinc pulse yielded a narrower bandwidth and a sharper transition of the pass-band profile with a desirable degree of side-lobe suppression than the commonly used Hanning-windowed sinc pulse. The multiband pulse designed using the newly apodized sinc pulse also showed the better performance in multi-slice excitation than the one designed with the Hanning-windowed sinc pulse. Conclusion: The new tailored sinc pulse proposed here provides a better performance in slice (or slab) selection than conventional tailored sinc pulses. Thanks to the availability of analytical expression, it can also be utilized for multiband pulse design with great flexibility and readiness in implementation, transferring its better performance.

• 대한의용생체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한의용생체공학회 1992년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.22-25
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• 1992

화학적 이동성을 이용하여, 생체의 경우 지방질의 영상 혹은 물성분의 영상을 얻을 수 있다. 여러 가지 기술을 사용하여 분리된 성분의 자기공명 영상을 얻었다. Dixon의 방법은 두 번의 영상실험을 하여 지방질 영상과 물성분 영상을 구분할 수 있으며, 부분적 자기장의 불균질성에 영향을 적게 받고 다층 영상법에 용이하게 적용할 수 있다. CHESS와 SECSI 방법은 한번의 영상실험으로 물 또는 지방질 영상을 획득할 수 있다. 그러나 부분적 자기장의 불균질성에 영향을 많이 받으며, 다층영상법에 적용하기에는 어려운 점이 있다. 화학 성분의, 즉 지방질과 물성분의 분리의 척도가 되는 지방질 신호대 물성분신호 비에 있어 SECSI 방법이 가장 우수함을 보였다.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.13-18
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• 2004

Purpose : This study was to evaluate the influence of slice thickness of computed tomography (CT) and rapid protyping (RP) type on the accuracy of 3-dimensional medical model. Materials and Methods: Transaxial CT data of human dry skull were taken from multi-detector spiral CT. Slice thickness were 1, 2, 3 and 4 mm respectively. Three-dimensional image model reconstruction using 3-D visualization medical software (V-works /sup TM/ 3.0) and RP model fabrications were followed. 2-RP models were 3D printing (Z402, Z Corp., Burlington, USA) and Stereolithographic Apparatus model. Linear measurements of anatomical landmarks on dry skull, 3-D image model, and 2-RP models were done and compared according to slice thickness and RP model type. Results: There were relative error percentage in absolute value of 0.97, 1.98,3.83 between linear measurements of dry skull and image models of 1, 2, 3 mm slice thickness respectively. There was relative error percentage in absolute value of 0.79 between linear measurements of dry skull and SLA model. There was relative error difference in absolute value of 2.52 between linear measurements of dry skull and 3D printing model. Conclusion: These results indicated that 3-dimensional image model of thin slice thickness and stereolithographic RP model showed relative high accuracy.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.210-222
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• 2017

Purpose: To develop a novel combination of controlled aliasing in parallel imaging results in higher acceleration (CAIPIRINHA) with integrated SSFP (CAIPI-iSSFP) for accelerated SSFP imaging without banding artifacts at 3T. Materials and Methods: CAIPI-iSSFP was developed by adding a dephasing gradient to the balanced SSFP (bSSFP) pulse sequence with a gradient area that results in $2{\pi}$ dephasing across a single pixel. Extended phase graph (EPG) simulations were performed to show the signal behaviors of iSSFP, bSSFP, and RF-spoiled gradient echo (SPGR) sequences. In vivo experiments were performed for brain and abdominal imaging at 3T with simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) acceleration factors of 2, 3 and 4 with CAIPI-iSSFP and CAIPI-bSSFP. The image quality was evaluated by measuring the relative contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and by qualitatively assessing banding artifact removal in the brain. Results: Banding artifacts were removed using CAIPI-iSSFP compared to CAIPI-bSSFP up to an SMS factor of 4 and 3 on brain and liver imaging, respectively. The relative CNRs between gray and white matter were on average 18% lower in CAIPI-iSSFP compared to that of CAIPI-bSSFP. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that CAIPI-iSSFP provides up to a factor of four acceleration, while minimizing the banding artifacts with up to a 20% decrease in the relative CNR.

• 한국의학물리학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국의학물리학회 2002년도 Proceedings
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• pp.506-508
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• 2002

As an advancement of medical imaging modalities and analyzing software with multi-function, active researches to acquire high contrast and high resolution image being done. In recently, development of medical imaging modalities like as Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is aiming to display anatomical structure more accuracy and faster. Thus, one of the important areas in CT today is the use of CT scanner for the quantitative evaluation of 3-D reconstruction images from 2-D tomographic images. In CT system, the effective slice thickness and the quality of 3-D reconstructed image will be influenced by imaging acquisition parameters (e.g. pitch and scan mode). In diagnosis and surgical planning, the accurate distance measurements of 3-D anatomical structures play an important role and the accuracy of distance measurements will depend on the acquisition parameters such as slice thickness, pitch, and scan mode. The skull phantom was scanned with SDCT for various acquisition parameters and acquisition slice thicknesses were 3 and 5 mm, and reconstruction intervals were 1, 2, and 3 mm to each pitch. 3-D visualizations and distance measurements were performed with PC based 3-D rendering and analyzing software. Results showed that the image quality and the measurement accuracy of 3-D SDCT images are independent to the reconstruction intervals and pitches.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.15-23
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• 2010

Purpose : This study was designed to compare the effective doses from low-dose and standard-dose multi-detector CT (MDCT) scanning protocols and evaluate the image quality and the spatial resolution of the low-dose MDCT protocols for clinical use. Materials and Methods : 6-channel MDCT scanner (Siemens Medical System, Forschheim, Germany), was used for this study. Protocol of the standard-dose MDCT for the orthodontic analysis was 130 kV, 35 mAs, 1.25 mm slice width, 0.8 pitch. Those of the low-dose MDCT for orthodontic analysis and orthodontic surgery were 110 kV, 30 mAs, 1.25 mm slice width, 0.85 pitch and 110 kV, 45 mAs, 2.5 mm slice width, 0.85 pitch. Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) were placed at 31 sites throughout the levels of adult female ART head and neck phantom. Effective doses were calculated according to ICRP 1990 and 2007 recommendations. A formalin-fixed cadaver and AAPM CT performance phantom were scanned for the evaluation of subjective image quality and spatial resolution. Results : Effective doses in ${\mu}Sv$ ($E_{2007}$) were 699.1, 429.4 and 603.1 for standard-dose CT of orthodontic treatment, low-dose CT of orthodontic analysis, and low-dose CT of orthodontic surgery, respectively. The image quality from the low-dose protocol were not worse than those from the standard-dose protocol. The spatial resolutions of both standard-dose and low-dose CT images were acceptable. Conclusion : From the above results, it can be concluded that the low-dose MDCT protocol is preferable in obtaining CT images for orthodontic analysis and orthodontic surgery.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.55-63
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• 2005

A novel imaging system for High-resolution Ultrasonic Transmission Tomography (HUTT) and soft tissue differentiation methodology for the HUTT system are presented. The critical innovation of the HUTT system includes the use of sub-millimeter transducer elements for both transmitter and receiver arrays and multi-band analysis of the first-arrival pulse. The first-arrival pulse is detected and extracted from the received signal (i.e., snippet) at each azimuthal and angular location of a mechanical tomographic scanner in transmission mode. Each extracted snippet is processed to yield a multi-spectral vector of attenuation values at multiple frequency bands. These vectors form a 3-D sinogram representing a multi-spectral augmentation of the conventional 2-D sinogram. A filtered backprojection algorithm is used to reconstruct a stack of multi-spectral images for each 2-D tomographic slice that allow tissue characterization. A novel methodology for soft tissue differentiation using spectral target detection is presented. The representative 2-D and 3-D HUTT images formed at various frequency bands demonstrate the high-resolution capability of the system. It is shown that spherical objects with diameter down to 0.3㎜ can be detected. In addition, the results of soft tissue differentiation and characterization demonstrate the feasibility of quantitative soft tissue analysis for possible detection of lesions or cancerous tissue.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제34권3호
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• pp.159-164
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• 2004

Purpose: To compare alveolar bony height of pantomograph with bony height of thin slice, multiplanar reformatted (MPR) Computed Tomograph. Materials and Methods : Panoramic radiograms of 12 young adult patients had been taken by one radologic technitian and the measurements were corrected by magnification ratio (1.20). The slice thickness of Multi-detector Computed Tomography (CT) was at least 1mm for the accuracy. The raw CT datas were imported into the V-works 4.0 (CyberMed Corp., Seoul, Korea) and transformed to MPR images. Pantomographic measurements of alveolar bone were compared to CT values by average mean bony height measurements for the accuracy. Inter-, and Intra-observer variability was evaluated. Results : There was no significant differences between height measurement of pantomography and that of CT (P>0.05). There were no significant differences in either inter-or intra-observer measurements (P>0.05). Conclusion : Pantomography showed relatively high accuracy and precision in measuring alveolar bony height.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.110-116
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• 2006

Finite element method (FEM) provides several advantages over other numerical methods such as boundary element method, since it allows truly volumetric analysis and incorporation of realistic electrical conductivity values. Finite element mesh generation is the first requirement in such in FEM to represent the volumetric domain of interest with numerous finite elements accurately. However, conventional mesh generators and approaches offered by commercial packages do not generate meshes that are content-adaptive to the contents of given images. In this paper, we present software that has been implemented to generate content-adaptive finite element meshes (cMESHes) based on the contents of MR images. The software offers various computational tools for cMESH generation from multi-slice MR images. The software named as the Content-adaptive FE Mesh Generation Toolbox runs under the commercially available technical computation software called Matlab. The major routines in the toolbox include anisotropic filtering of MR images, feature map generation, content-adaptive node generation, Delaunay tessellation, and MRI segmentation for the head conductivity modeling. The presented tools should be useful to researchers who wish to generate efficient mesh models from a set of MR images. The toolbox is available upon request made to the Functional and Metabolic Imaging Center or Bio-imaging Laboratory at Kyung Hee University in Korea.