• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.271-280
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• 2014

Recently, digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has been investigated to overcome the limitation of conventional mammography for overlapping anatomical structures and high patient dose with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). However incomplete sampling due to limited angle leads to interference on the neighboring slices. Many studies have investigated to reduce artifacts such as interference. Moreover, appropriate filters for tomosynthesis have been researched to solve artifacts resulted from incomplete sampling. The primary purpose of this study is finding appropriate filter scheme with FBP reconstruction for DBT system to reduce artifacts. In this study, we investigated characteristics of various filter schemes with simulation and prototype digital breast tomosynthesis under same acquisition parameters and conditions. We evaluated artifacts and noise with profiles and COV (coefficinet of variation) to study characteristic of filter. As a result, the noise with parameter 0.25 of Spectral filter reduced by 10% in comparison to that with only Ramp-lak filter. Because unbalance of information reduced with decreasing B of Slice thickness filter, artifacts caused by incomplete sampling reduced. In conclusion, we confirmed basic characteristics of filter operations and improvement of image quality by appropriate filter scheme. The results of this study can be utilized as base in research and development of DBT system by providing information that is about noise and artifacts depend on various filter schemes.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.6-12
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• 2013

Objective : This consecutive retrospective study was designed to analyze and to compare the efficacy and outcomes of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) using a fibular and femur allograft with anterior cervical plating. Methods : A total of 88 consecutive patients suffering from cervical degenerative disc disease (DDD) who were treated with ACDF from September 2007 to August 2010 were enrolled in this study. Thirty-seven patients (58 segments) underwent anterior interbody fusion with a femur allograft, and 51 patients (64 segments) were treated with a fibular allograft. The mean follow-up period was 16.0 (range, 12-25) months in the femur group and 19.5 (range, 14-39) months in the fibular group. Cage fracture and breakage, subsidence rate, fusion rate, segmental angle and height and disc height were assessed by using radiography. Clinical outcomes were assessed using a visual analog scale and neck disability index. Results : At 12 months postoperatively, cage fracture and breakage had occurred in 3.4% (2/58) and 7.4% (4/58) of the patients in the femur group, respectively, and 21.9% (14/64) and 31.3% (20/64) of the patients in the fibular group, respectively (p<0.05). Subsidence was noted in 43.1% (25/58) of the femur group and in 50.5% (32/64) of the fibular group. No difference in improvements in the clinical outcome between the two groups was observed. Conclusion : The femur allograft showed good results in subsidence and radiologic parameters, and sustained the original cage shape more effectively than the fibular allograft. The present study suggests that the femur allograft may be a good choice as a fusion substitute for the treatment of cervical DDD.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.84-88
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• 2017

Background and Objectives : The purpose of this study was to compare the usefulness of Cepstral peak prominence (CPP) with parameter of Multiple Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP) in evaluating unilateral vocal fold paraylsis patients with subjective voice impairment. Materials and Methods : From July 2014 to August 2016, 37 patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis who had been diagnosed with unilateral vocal fold paralysis and had received two or more voice tests before and after the diagnosis were evaluated for maximum phonation time (MPT), MDVP and CPP. Respectively. Voice tests were performed with short vowel /a/ and paragraph reading. Results : The CPP-a (CPP with vowel /a/) and CPP-s (CPP with paragraph reading) of the Cepstrum were statistically negatively correlated with G, R, B, and A before the voice therapy. Jitter, Shimmer, and NHR of MDVP were positively correlated with G, R, B. Jitter, Shimmer, and NHR of the MDVP were significantly correlated with the Cepstrum index. G, B, A and CPP-a and CPP-s showed a statistically significant negative correlation and a somewhat higher correlation coefficient between 0.5 and 0.78. On the other hand, in MDVP index, there was a positive correlation with G and B only with Jitter of 0.4. Conclusion : CPP can be an important evaluation tool in the evaluation of speech in the unilateral vocal cord paralysis when speech energy changes or the cycle is not constant during speech.

• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of our study is the comparison of radiological and clinical outcomes between modified distal chevron osteotomy and proximal metatarsal osteotomy for the patients who had moderate to severe hallux valgus deformity. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, we included 54 patients (65 feets) who underwent the operation of moderate to severe hallux valgus in our hospital from May 2007 to August 2010. Our study compares two groups. For Group 1, a modified distal chevron osteotmy and a distal soft tissue procedure were done and for Group 2, a proximal metatarsal osteotmy and a distal soft tissue procedure were done. The group 1 were 29 feets; the group 2 were 36 feets, and the average follow up was 9 months. Results: The radiological results show that the hallux valgus angle and the first-second intermetatarsal angle were significantly decreased in two groups. In each parameter, the correction of the hallux valgus angle was $19.1^{\circ}$ (Group 1) and $24.3^{\circ}$ (Group 2), the correction of the first-second intermetatarsal angle was $9.6^{\circ}$ (Group 1) and $10.3^{\circ}$ (Group 2). Shortening of the first metatarsal length was 0.87 mm (Group 1) and 0.77 mm (Group 2). There are no significant clinical results (American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society score, AOFAS score) in two groups. Conclusion: It is thought that a modified distal chevron osteotomy and a distal soft tissue procedure are a considerable operative treatment of moderate to severe hallux valgus deformity because of the similar cilinical results, more simple operative techniques, and less complications than a proximal metatarsal osteotomy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.705-711
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• 2019

Currently, the brain CT scan of the latest equipment lacks the study of parameter change and dose change and especially of noise, uniformity analysis and dose change. Therefore, this study attempted to study the phenomenon that occurs at this time by analyzing tube voltage, slice thickness, and pitch change in exposure parameters when using high specification CT. Experimental results show that uniformity is better when using high voltage, thick slice thickness selection, and minimum pitch. As a result of the combination, the most uniformity condition was 140 kVp, 10 mm and pitch 0.5. Noise was found to be improved regardless of pitch by increasing tube voltage and slice thickness. The radiation dose increased linearly with tube voltage and pitch. Therefore, the results of this study will serve as a reference for the use of High specification brain CT.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.178-183
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• 2021

Background: This study was carried out to provide environmental transfer parameter values to estimate activity concentrations of these radionuclides in agricultural crops when direct contamination occurred. Materials and Methods: Mass interception fractions (F_Bs) and weathering half-lives (T_ws) of ¹³¹I and radiocesium were calculated using openly available monitoring data obtained after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. F_B is the ratio between the initial radioactivity concentration of a radionuclide retained by the edible part of the plant (Bq·kg^-1 fresh weight [FW]) and the amount of deposited radionuclide in that area (Bq·m^-2). T_w values can be calculated using activity concentrations of crops decreased with time after the initial contamination. Results and Discussion: Calculated F_B and T_w values for ¹³¹I and radiocesium were mostly obtained for leafy vegetables. The analytical results showed that there was no difference of F_Bs between ¹³¹I and radiocesium by t-test; geometric mean values for leafy vegetables cultivated under outdoor conditions were 0.058 and 0.12 m²·kg^-1 FW, respectively. Geometric mean T_w value of ¹³¹I in leafy vegetables grown under outdoor conditions was 8.6 days, and that of radiocesium was 6.6 days; there was no significant difference between T_w values of these radionuclides by Wilcoxon rank sum test. Conclusion: There was no difference between ¹³¹I and radiocesium for F_Bs and T_ws. By using these factors, we would be able to carry out a rough estimation of the activity concentrations of ¹³¹I and radiocesium in the edible part of leafy crops when a nuclear accident occurred.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3403-3414
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to model and optimize the block-matching and 3D filtering (BM3D) algorithm and to evaluate its applicability in brain single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images using a fan beam collimator. For quantitative evaluation of the noise level, the coefficient of variation (COV) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were used, and finally, a no-reference-based evaluation parameter was used for optimization of the BM3D algorithm in the brain SPECT images. As a result, optimized results were derived when the sigma values of the BM3D algorithm were 0.15, 0.2, and 0.25 in brain SPECT images acquired for 5, 10, and 15 s, respectively. In addition, when the sigma value of the optimized BM3D algorithm was applied, superior results were obtained compared with conventional filtering methods. In particular, we confirmed that the COV and CNR of the images obtained using the BM3D algorithm were improved by 2.40 and 2.33 times, respectively, compared with the original image. In conclusion, the usefulness of the optimized BM3D algorithm in brain SPECT images using a fan beam collimator has been proven, and based on the results, it is expected that its application in various nuclear medicine examinations will be possible.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.277-285
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• 2023

In this study, pneumonia identification networks with the small number of layers were constructed by using chest X-ray images. The networks had similar trainable-parameters, and the performance of the trained models was quantitatively evaluated with the modification of the network architectures. A total of 6 networks were constructed: convolutional neural network (CNN), VGGNet, GoogleNet, residual network with identity blocks, ResNet with bottleneck blocks and ResNet with identity and bottleneck blocks. Trainable parameters for the 6 networks were set in a range of 273,921-294,817 by adjusting the output channels of convolution layers. The network training was implemented with binary cross entropy (BCE) loss function, sigmoid activation function, adaptive moment estimation (Adam) optimizer and 100 epochs. The performance of the trained models was evaluated in terms of training time, accuracy, precision, recall, specificity and F1-score. The results showed that the trained models with the small number of layers precisely detect pneumonia from chest X-ray images. In particular, the overall quantitative performance of the trained models based on the ResNets was above 0.9, and the performance levels were similar or superior to those based on the CNN, VGGNet and GoogleNet. Also, the residual blocks affected the performance of the trained models based on the ResNets. Therefore, in this study, we demonstrated that the object detection networks with the small number of layers are suitable for detecting pneumonia using chest X-ray images. And, the trained models based on the ResNets can be optimized by applying appropriate residual-blocks.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.177-182
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• 2008

Digital imaging for general rediography has many advantages over the film/screen systems, including a wider dynamic range and the ability to manipulate the images produced. The wider range means that acceptable images may by acquired at a range of dose levels, and therefore repeat exposures can be reduced. Digital imaging can result in the over use of radiation, however, because there is a tendency can be reduced. Digital imaging can result in the over use of radiation, however, because there is a tendency for images to be acquired at too high a dose. We investigated the actual exposure dose conditions on general radiography and a questionnaire survey was conducted with radiotechnologiest at medical institutions using digital radiology system. As a results, the dose of exposure was not controlled with patient's figure and dose optimization but was controlled by worker's convenience and image quality. Radio-technologiests often set up the exposure dose regardless of patient figure and body part to be examined. Many organizations, such as the International Commission on Radiological Protection, recommend to keep the dose as low as possible. In addition, they strongly recommend to keep the optimal but minimal dosage by proper training programs and constant quality control, including frequent patient dose evaluations and education.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.827-832
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• 2018

Research on effective dose analysis of actual conditions of use based on large data is scarce. In this study, the exposure conditions of Chest X-Ray examinations used by 324 medical institutions in Korea were calculated and evaluated using computer simulations. As a result of the experiment, the effective dose in the low energy parameter bands was 0.024 mSv, followed by spleen, adrenal glands, and lung. The effective dose in the high-energy exposure parameter band was 0.123 mSv, followed by height, spleen and adrenal glands. The effective dose was 0.017 mSv when the optimal conditions considered the quality and exposure proposed in Park's study were used. The results of the study will be a reference for chest X-rays and will help reduce patient exposure.