• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.41-46
• /
• 2002

The Fourier transform arteriography (FTA) exploits the periodic variation of arterial flow velociety of arterial flow velocity in stnchronized with cardiac cycles. This technique is intrinsically unique compared to other modern techniques. This technique separates the arteries from the veins using the pulsatile arterial flow without using the presaturation RF pulses. Therefore, it has less RF deposition and is free from the dark band artifacts that can arise from retrograde flow and curved arteries. Furthermore, it is free from the artifacts induced by eddy currents. However, there are some drawbacks such as a single projection view and the saturation of arteries at the end of an imaging slab. These drawbacks are circumvented by applying recently developed techniques. The fast gradient switching capability of modern MRI systems enabled us to incorporate dual projection views into the conventional FTA sequence without increasing the repetition time. In addition, signals from the distal arteries were enhanced by use of a ramped RF pulse and therefore the distal arteries were less saturated. By use of the FTA sequence with dual projection views and the ramped RF pulse, we acquired the sagittal and coronal projection views of femoral arteriograms simultaneously with more enhanced signals of distal arteries than the conventional FTA.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.15 no.9
• /
• pp.403-410
• /
• 2015

Since 1970, MRI has greatly been developing in terms of strength of magnetic field, the number of receipt channels, and short time of examination. With the development of digital systems and wireless network, hospitals have also acquired, saved, and managed digital images taken by various kinds of medical imaging equipment. However, domestic universities fail to provide practice training course independently thanks to expensive practice equipment and high maintenance cost, and rely on clinical training. Therefore, this study developed a MR patient diagnosis program based on Windows PC to help out students before their working in clinical filed. The designed Relational Database of MRI Simulator is made up of seven tables according to functions and data characteristics. Regarding the designed patient information, each stepwise function was classified by the patient registration method in clinical field. In addition, on the assumption of the basic information for diagnosis, each setting and content were classified. The menu by execution step was arrayed on the left side for easy view. For patient registration, a patient's name, gender, unique ID, birth date, weight, and other types of basic information were entered, and the patient's posture and diagnosis direction were set up. In addition, the body regions for diagnosis and Pulse Sequence were listed for selection. Also, Protocol name and other additional factors were allowed to be entered. The final window was designed to check diagnosis images, patient information, and diagnosis conditions. By learning how to enter patient information and change diagnosis conditions in this program, users will be able to understand more theories and terms learned in practice and thereby to shorten their learning time in actual clinical work.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.48-60
• /
• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to design and build an optimized birdcage resonator configuration with a low pass filter, which would facilitate the acquisition of high-resolution 3D-image of small animals at 3T MRI system. Methods and Materials: The birdcage resonator with 12-element structures was built, in order to ensure B1 homogeneity over the image volume and maximum filling factor, and hence to maximize the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and resolution of the 3-dimensional images. The diameter and length of each element of a birdcage resonator were as follows: (1) diameter 13 cm, length 22 cm, (2) diameter 15 cm, length 22 cm, (3) diameter 17 cm, length 25 cm. Spin echo pulse sequence and fast spin echo pulse sequence were employed in obtaining MR images. The quality of the manufactured birdcage resonators wes evaluated on the basis of the return loss following matching and tuning process. Results: The experimental MR image of phantoms by the various manufactured birdcage resonators were obtained to compare the SNR in accordance with the size of objects. The size of an object to that of coil was identified by parameters that were estimated from the image of a phantom. First, the diameter of the birdcage resonator was 15cm, and the ratio of the tangerine to the birdcage resonator accounted for approximately 27%. The Q factor was 53.2 and the SNR was 150.7. Second, at the same birdcage resonator, the ratio of the orange was approximately 53%. The SNR and the Q parameter was 212.8 and 91.2, respectively. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that if birdcage resonators have the same forms, SNR could be different depending on the size of an object, especially when the size of an object to that of coil is approximately 40~80%, the former is bigger than the latter. Therefore, when the size of an object to be observed is smaller than that of coil, the coil should be manufactured in accordance with the size of an object in order to obtain much more excellent images.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.54-58
• /
• 2004

The aim of this study was to develop special birdcage resonators for small objects including the human wrist, hand and small animals, using 3T MRI/MRS. Before substantial development, different types of parameters were arranged, based on theoretical analysis, through lumped element transmission line theory. The primary analysis was peformed with a network analyzer (HP 4195A) and the final experimental analysis was carried out with 3T MRI (Medinus, Korea). The manufactured birdcage resonator is typically composed of 12-element structures to which a low-pass filter is fundamentally applied. The diameter and length of each element of the birdcage resonator were as follows: (1) diameter 12 cm, length of element 22 cm, (2) diameter 15 cm, length of element 22 cm, and (2) diameter 17 cm, length of element 25 cm. Copper tape with a width of 1 cm was used for the coils. MRI acquisition parameters were TR=500 ms, TE=17 ms, and Ave=2 for T1-WT images, and TR=4,000 ms, TE=96 ms, and Ave=2 for T2-WT images. The ratio of the samples diameter to the birdcage resonators diameter was approximately 55%, 63% and 70%, respectively, for the three elements. This study determined that the best image quality and S/N ratio were obtained when the ratio of the object's diameter was approximately 50∼80%. A general theoretical analysis of the birdcage coil differs in many respects from the experimental results which were influenced by many factors that were not considering when the general theoretical analysis of the birdcage coil was peformed. The induced resistance may be considered as part of the resistive loss if the quantitative value can be determined using a radiation resistance approach.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.10-19
• /
• 2007

Conventional MRI methods using T1-, T2-, diffusion-, perfusion-weighting, and functional imaging rely on characterizing the physical and functional properties of the tissue. In this review, we introduce an imaging modality based on measured the mechanical properties of soft tissue, namely magnetic resonance elastography (MRE). The use of palpation to identify the stiffness of tissue remains a fundamental diagnostic tool. MRE can quantify the stiffness of the tissue thereby providing a objective means to measure the mechanical properties. To accomplish a successful clinical setting using MRE, hardware and software techniques in the area of transducer, pulse sequence, and imaging processing algorithm need to be developed. Transducer, a mechanical vibrator, is the core of MRE application to make wave propagate invivo. For this reason, considerations of the frame of human body, pressure and friction of the interface, and high magnetic field of a MRI system needs to be taken into account when designing a transducer. Given that the wave propagates through human body effectively, developing an appropriate pulse sequence is another important issue in obtaining an optimal image. In this review paper, we introduce the technical aspects needed for MRE experiments and introduce several applications of this new field.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2014.10a
• /
• pp.981-984
• /
• 2014

Volumetric measurement of hippocampus using IBASPM, the 20's normal adults 10 people's brain images were acquired in order to assess the changes according to the type of the Atlas. Images was obtained using MPRAGE of a 3-D gradient echo pulse sequence on Head matrix coil of 1.5T MRI system. The results of Paired t-test using obtained volume of hippocampus depending on the type of the Atlas, Atlas69-Altas84, Atlas69-Atlas116(p=0.729, 0.729) in the left hippocampus and Atlas69-Atlas84, Atlas69-Atlas116(p=0.219, 0.219) in right hippocampal formation were no significant differences but in the area except this, there was significant difference(p=0.000). The volume of the hippocampus using Atlas84 and Atlas116, represented the same value and there was no significant difference. In the image analysis using the overlay of atlas image and original image, Atlas71 could be found that the area of hippocampus did mismatch. In the case of atlas used in this study, because it has been developed by the westerners, there are differences between brain of asian. It would be needed to development of new Atlas for high accuracy measurement of the volume of hippocampus.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.493-502
• /
• 2009

In this paper, we compare the performance of initial timing acquisition in direct sequence ultra-wideband(DS-UWB) systems with different transmit pulse shaping filters through extensive computer simulations. Simulation results show that the timing acquisition performance of the DS-UWB system, whose chip rate is 1.32 Gchip/s, employing a rectangular transmit filter is similar to that employing a square root raised cosine(SRRC) filter with an interpolation factor of 4 in the realistic UWB channels(CM1 and CM3) as well as the additive white Gaussian noise(AWGN) channel. Additionally, we present both a 24-parallel digital correlator structure and a 24-parallel processing searcher operating at a 55 MHz system clock, and then briefly discuss the initial timing acquisition procedure. Because we can adopt an 1.32 Gsample/s digital-to-analog(D/A) converter and an 1.32 Gsample/s analog-to-digital(AID) converter in the DS-UWB system by employing the rectangular transmit filter, we have a realistic solution for the DS-UWB chipset development.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.15 no.10
• /
• pp.829-841
• /
• 1990

On assuming that the transmission speed of the original information is the fifth-order transmission speed of the Korea digital multiplex hierarchy (564.992Mb/s), this paper proposes a new structure of the transmission line frame at the terminal repeater system, in order to not only maintain and conserve 565Mb/s optical fiber transmission system but also make the B.S.I. of digital communication network for the optical transmission. And the structure uses the mBIZ transmission line code, which is considered the optimal transmission line code of conventional transmission line codes. System hardware of the transmission line frame structure proposed in this paper is consisted by a method of pulse stuffing after converting the speed of the original information signal sequence at the terminal repeater system for 565Mb/s optical transmission. As a result of this, we can prevent the optical transmission system from a domino phenomenon, the phenomenon of the continuous error multiplication of systems by the transmission error, and suppress timing jitter and the identical consecutive digit number. And also we can improve SNR of the optical transmission system about 2dB because of raising total BER at the optical terminal system up to 10.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.24-29
• /
• 2004

In ocean acoustic tomography (OAT), the pulse compression techniques using M-sequences are employed in the many studies for investigating the ocean structures. M-sequences can provide the good time and Doppler resolution in the process of demodulation using matched-filter. The signal-to-noise (SNR) performance at the output of receiver may be improved by manipulating received signal, i. e. coherently averaging. The processing time can be significantly reduced by using fast hadarmard transform (FHT) or fast Fourier transform (FFT). In this paper, we estimate the multipath arrival structures and delay times using the East Korean Sea experiment data and explore the compensation method for the detrimental effects on performance due to sampling rate error. We also analyze the characteristics of the ocean acoustic channels through scattering function, delay power profile, and time dispersions.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.165-169
• /
• 2004

In Magnetic Resonance Electrical Impedance Tomography (MREIT), we inject current through electrodes placed on the surface of a subject and measure the induced magnetic flux density distribution using an MRI scanner. This requires a constant current source whose output pulses are synchronized with MR pulse sequences. In this paper, we present a design and performance analysis of a current source used in a 3.0T MREIT system. The developed current source was tested using a saline phantom. We found that its performance is satisfactory for the current MREIT system. We suggest future improvements for better SNR(signal-to-noise ratio).