• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제43권4호
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• pp.344-351
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• 2009

목적: 광학영상기술은 소동물이나 임상연구에서 분자영상법으로 알려진 첨단연구 분야이다. 광학영상기기는 소동물영상연구 및 추적연구에 중요한 역할을 수행하고 있다. 발광영상에서 소동물을 영상화 하기 위해서는 피부조직을 뚫고 나오는 광자를 검출하기 위한 고민감도 CCD카메라가 필요하다. 이 연구에서는 소동물에서 발생하는 발광신호를 검출하기 위해 개발한 광학영상기기를 소개하고자 한다. 대상 및 방법: 냉각형 CCD카메라와 집광렌즈, 8개의 백색광 LED광원을 암실상자 안에 장치하였다. 팬텀 및 튜브를 이용한 영상을 얻은 후 발광 박테리아를 이용하여 CT26 암모델 누드마우스에서 영상을 획득하였다. 결과: 발광영상을 얻기 위한 광학영상기기를 설계하고 개발하였다. 영상획득이 성공적으로 수행되었고, 시스템을 완성하였다. 개발된 장비는 분자영상연구에 사용되고 있다. 결론 개발된 광학영상장비는 다양한 실험적 조건을 만족하는 연구에 최적화하여 유용한 도구로 자리잡을 것으로 기대한다.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제41권2호
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• pp.158-165
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• 2007

Technological advances in molecular imaging made it possible to image synaptic neurotransmitter concentration in living human brain. The dopaminergic system has been most intensively studied because of its importance in neurological as well as psychiatric disorders. This paper provides a brief overview of recent progress in imaging studies of dopamine release induced by pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic stimulations.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제41권2호
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• pp.152-157
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• 2007

Imaging of the dopamine transporter (DAT) provides a marker for the integrity of presynaptic nigrostriatal dopaminergic system. DAT density is reduced in Parkinson disease, multiple system atrophy, and progressive supranuclear palsy. In patients with suspicious parkinsonism, normal DAT imaging suggests an alternative diagnosis such as essential tremor, vascular parkinsonism, or drug-induced parkinsonism. DAT imaging is a useful tool to aid clinician's differential diagnosis in parkinsonism.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제41권2호
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• pp.132-140
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• 2007

Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder that is mainly caused by dopaminergic neuron loss in the substantia nigra. Several radiopharmaceutics have been developed to evaluate the integrity of dopaminergic neuronal system. In vivo PET and SPECT imaging of presynaptic dopamine imaing are already applied to Parkinson's disease and other parkinsonism, and can demonstrate the dopaminergic dysfunction. This review summarized the use of the presynaptic dopaminergic imaging in PD as biomarkers in evaluation of disease progression as well as in diagnosis of PD.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제41권3호
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• pp.263-264
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• 2007

Splenic metastasis from colon carcinoma are rare and usually occur in the presence of disseminated visceral metastasis. The liver is the most common site of metastatic spread from colon cancer. Several hypotheses have attempted to explain the low incidence of splenic metastasis. It should be difficult for colorectal cancer cells to reach the spleen through the portal venous system, in which the blood flow is usually from the spleen to the liver. Reticuloendothelial system or rhythmic contraction of the spleen may squeeze out the tumor in the spleen. The absence of afferent lymphatic to the spleen, phagocytic activity and humoral anticancer substances are considered to be other reason for low incidence of splenic metastasis. We report the case of $^{18}F-FDG$ PET/CT finding in a 70-year-old woman who develop isolated splenic metastasis of sigmoid colon cancer.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제42권2호
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• pp.98-111
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• 2008

This review introduces advances in clinical and pre-clinical single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) providing noninvasive functional images of biological processes. Development of new collimation techniques such as multi-pinhole and slit-slat collimators permits the improvement of system spatial resolution and sensitivity of SPECT. Application specific SPECT systems using smaller and compact solid-state detector have been customized for myocardial perfusion imaging with higher performance. Combined SPECT/CT providing improved diagnostic and functional capabilities has been introduced. Advances in PET and CT instrumentation have been incorporated in the PET/CT design that provide the metabolic information from PET superimposed on the anatomic information from CT. Improvements in the sensitivity of PET have achieved by the fully 3D acquisition with no septa and the extension of axial field-of-view. With the development of faster scintillation crystals and electronics, time-of-flight (TOF) PET is now commercially available allowing the increase in the signal-to-noise ratio by incorporation of TOF information into the PET reconstruction process. Hybrid PET/SPECT/CT systems has become commercially available for molecular imaging in small animal models. The pre-clinical systems have improved spatial resolution using depth-of-interaction measurement and new collimators. The recent works on solid state detector and dual modality nuclear medicine instrumentations incorporating MRI and optical imagers will also be discussed.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제43권3호
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• pp.174-178
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• 2009

Many radiopharmaceuticals have been developed and wildy used in the imaging cardiac function. Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) is a well established noninvasive method of assessing coronary blood flow and has been widely used in patients diagnosed or suspected with coronary artery diseases. The innovation of radiopharmaceuticals used in the cardiac imaging is one of the most important contributors to the development of nuclear cardiology. Thallium-201 and various technetium-99m agents have been globally used for myocardial perfusion SPEG, and N-13 ammonia (13NH3), rubidium-82 (82Rb), 0-15 water (H2150) for myocardial perfusion PET. As well as the cardiac perfusion studies, new radiopharmaceuticals that visualize fat metabolism or receptors of the sympathetic nervous system have successfully been applied to clinical practice. Useful information can be obtained for diagnosing coronary artery disease, evaluating patients' condition, or assessing therapeutic effects. In this review, we describe the characteristics and clinical usefulness of radiopharmaceuticals used for cardiac SPEG and PET.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제42권2호
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• pp.127-136
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• 2008

Monte Carlo simulation methods are especially useful in studying a variety of problems difficult to calculate by experimental or analytical approaches. Nowadays, they are extensively applied to simulate nuclear medicine instrumentations such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) for assisting system design and optimizing imaging and processing protocols. The goal of this paper is to address the practical issues, a potential user of Monte Carlo simulations for nuclear medicine can encounter, to help them to choose a code. This review introduces the different types of Monte Carlo codes currently available for nuclear medicine, comments main features and properties for a code to be proper for a given purpose, and discusses current research trends in Monte Carlo codes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권11호
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• pp.2594-2600
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• 2020

A gamma camera system using radionuclide has a functional imaging technique and is frequently used in the field of nuclear medicine. In the gamma camera, it is extremely important to improve the image quality to ensure accurate detection of diseases. In this study, we designed a blind-deconvolution framework after a noise-reduction algorithm based on a non-local mean, which has been shown to outperform conventional methodologies with regard to the gamma camera system. For this purpose, we performed a simulation using the Monte Carlo method and conducted an experiment. The image performance was evaluated by visual assessment and according to the intensity profile, and a quantitative evaluation using a normalized noise-power spectrum was performed on the acquired image and the blind-deconvolution image after noise reduction. The result indicates an improvement in image performance for gamma camera images when our proposed algorithm is used.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제42권2호
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• pp.88-97
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• 2008

In this review paper, basic configurations of gamma detectors in SPECT and PET systems were reviewed together with key performance parameters of the imaging system, such as the detection efficiency, the spatial resolution, the contrast resolution, and the data acquisition time for quick understanding of the system-component relationship and future design of advanced systems. Also key elements of SPECT and PET detectors, such as collimators, gamma detectors were discussed in conjunction with their current and future trend. Especially development trend of new scintillation crystals, innovative silicon-based photo-sensors and futuristic room-temperature semiconductor detectors were reviewed for researchers who are interested in the development of future nuclear medical imaging instruments.