• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.197-204
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• 2017

Background: X-ray imaging detectors for the nondestructive cargo container inspection using MeV-energy X-rays should accurately portray the internal structure of the irradiated container. Internal and external factors can cause noise, affecting image quality, and scattered radiation is the greatest source of noise. To obtain a high-performance transmission image, the influence of scattered radiation must be minimized, and this can be accomplished through several methods. The scatter rejection method using an anti-scatter grid is the preferred method to reduce the impact of scattered radiation. In this paper, we present an evaluation the characteristics of the signal and noise according to physical and material changes in the anti-scatter grid of the imaging detector used in cargo container scanners. Materials and Methods: We evaluated the characteristics of the signal and noise according to changes in the grid ratio and the material of the anti-scatter grid in an X-ray image detector using MCNP6. The grid was composed of iron, lead, or tungsten, and the grid ratio was set to 2.5, 12.5, 25, or 37.5. X-ray spectrum sources for simulation were generated by 6- and 9-MeV electron impacts on the tungsten target using MCNP6. The object in the simulation was designed using metallic material of various thicknesses inside the steel container. Using the results of the computational simulation, we calculated the change in the scatter-to-primary ratio and the signal-to-noise ratio improvement factor according to the grid ratio and the grid material, respectively. Results and Discussion: Changing the grid ratios of the anti-scatter grid and the grid material decreased the scatter linearly, affecting the signal-to-noise ratio. Conclusion: The grid ratio and material of the anti-scatter grid affected the response characteristics of a container scanner using high-energy X-rays, but to a minimal extent; thus, it may not be practically effective to incorporate anti-scatter grids into container scanners.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.71-78
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• 2017

Scattered radiation is inherent phenomenon of x-ray, which occurs to the subject (or patient). Therefore it cannot be avoidable but also interacts as serious noise factor because the only meaningful information on x-ray radiography is primary x-ray photons. The purpose of this study was to quantify scattered radiation for various shooting parameters and to verify the effect of anti-scatter grid. We employed beam stopper method to characterize scatter to primary ratio. To evaluate effect on the projection images calculated contrast to noise ratio of given shooting parameters. From the experiments, we identified the scattered radiation increases in thicker patient and smaller air gap. Moreover, scattered radiation degraded contrast to noise ratio of the projection images. We find out that the anti-scatter grid rejected scattered radiation effectively, however there were not fewer than 100% of scatter to primary ratio in some shooting parameters. The results demonstrate that the scattered radiation was serious problem of medical x-ray system, we confirmed that the scattered radiation was not considerable factor of dig ital radiog raphy.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is evaluated scatter radiation in digital radiological condition by using photo-stimulated luminescence (BaFBr:$Eu^{2+}$). Experiment condition changed kVp (from 50 kVp to 120 kVp), filed size (from $4{\times}4cm^2$ to $26{\times}26cm^2$) and phantom thickness (from 1 cm to 15 cm). This method was analysed ImageJ and characteristic curve of CR. This results was scatter radiation to primary radiation ratio increased from 50 kVp to 70 kVp, and it was fixed at over 80 kVp. The scatter radiation to primary radiation ratio are increased according to increasing the ratio of field size. Scatter radiation is also increased by increasing the phantom thickness.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.404-406
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• 2002

We have investigated the contribution of the scattered x rays to the signal imaging in the radiographs acquired with anti-scatter grids of several grid ratios by separating the line spread functions (LSFs) derived from the signal edge image into the primary and the scatter components. By using a 1.0-mm lead plate in the scattering material, the blurred signal edge images were acquired by use of an imaging plate at a tube voltage of 80 kV with the anti-scatter grids of grid ratios for 5:1, 6:1, 8:1, 10:1 and 12:1. The edge profiles of the signal images were scanned and those in relative exposure were differentiated to obtain the LSFs. To investigate the contribution of the scattered x rays to the signal imaging, we proposed a method for separating the LSFs derived from the signal images into the primary and the scatter components, where the scatter component was approximated with exponential function. Our basic approach is to separate the area of the LSFs by ratios of the scattered x-ray exposure to the primary x-ray exposure, which were obtained for the grid ratios by use of a lead disk method. The LSFs and the two components were Fourier transformed to obtain the modulation transfer functions (MTFs) and their two components. As the result, we found that, by using the anti-scatter grids, the scattered x rays were reduced, but the shape of the LSFs of the scatter component hardly changed. The contributions of the scatter component to the MTFs were not negligible (more than 10 %) for spatial frequencies lower than about 1.0 mm$\^$-l/ and that was greater as the grid ratio decreasing. On the other hand, for higher frequencies, the primary component was dominant compared with the scatter component.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.143-150
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• 2014

In general radiotherapy, mega-voltage (MV) x-ray images are widely used as the unique method to verify radio-therapeutic fields. But, the image quality of MV images is much lower than that of kilo-voltage x-ray images due to scatter interactions. Since 1990s, studies for the scatter correction have performed with digital-based MV imaging systems. In this study, a novel method for the scatter correction is suggested using scatter to primary ratio (SPR), instead of conventional methods such as digital image processing or scatter kernel calculations. We measured two MV images with and without a solid water phantom describing a patient body with given imaging conditions, and calculated un-attenuated ratios. Then, we obtained SPR distributions for the scatter correction. For experimental validation, a line-pair (LP) phantom using several Al bars and a clinical pelvis MV image was used. As the result, scatter signals of the LP phantom image were successfully reduced so that original density distribution of the phantom was restored. Moreover, image contrast values increased after SPR correction at all ROIs of the clinical image. The mean value of increases was 48%. The SPR correction method suggested in this study has high reliability because it is based on actually measured data. Also, this method can be easily adopted in clinics without additional cost. We expected that the SPR correction can be an effective method to improve the quality of MV image guided radiotherapy.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.175-180
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• 2019

In this study, we have researched the effectiveness of silicone pad. A distribution of scatter ray in mammography was evaluated using Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation technique and then a silicone pad was applied to remove the scatter ray for improving image quality. Molybdenum target and Molybdenum filter combination made a difference of 59.8% to a number of photon at 17.5 keV. On the other hand, Tungsten target and Rhodium filter showed a variation of 24.5% at 20 keV. Mean 68 of SNR was increased in Selenia and mean 1.04 of SNR was raised in Senographe. Silicone pad was significantly effective to reduce the scatter ray that was generated by primary X-ray. It can decrease an absorption rate of scatter ray to patient body and whilst it improve the image quality from increasing SNR.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.135-143
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• 2022

In SPECT image, scatter count is the cause of quantitative count error and image quality degradation. This study is to evaluate the accuracy of CT based SC(CTSC) and energy window based SC(EWSC) as the comparison with existing Non SC. SPECT/CT images were obtained after filling air in order to acquire a reference image without the influence of scatter count inside the Triple line insert phantom setting hot rod(^99mTc 74.0 MBq) in the middle and each SPECT/CT image was obtained each separately after filling water instead of air in order to derive the influence of scatter count under the same conditions. For EWSC, 9 sub-energy windows were set additionally in addition to main energy window(140 keV, 20%) and then, images were acquired at the same time and five types of EWSC including DPW(dual photo-peak window)10%, DEW(dual energy window)20%, TEW(triple energy window)10%, TEW5.0%, TEW2.5% were used. Under the condition without fluctuations in primary count, total count was measured by drawing volume of interest (VOI) in the images of the two conditions and then, the ratio of scatter count of total counts was calculated as percent scatter fraction(%SF) and the count error with image filled with water was evaluated with percent normalized mean-square error(%NMSE) based on the image filled with air. Based on the image filled with air, %SF of images filled with water to which each SC method was applied is non scatter correction(NSC) 37.44, DPW 27.41, DEW 21.84, TEW10% 19.60, TEW5% 17.02, TEW2.5% 14.68, CTSC 5.57 and the scatter counts were removed the most in CTSC and %NMSE is NSC 35.80, DPW 14.28, DEW 7.81, TEW10% 5.94, TEW5% 4.21, TEW2.5% 2.96, CTSC 0.35 and the error in CTSC was found to be the lowest. In SPECT/CT images, the application of each scatter correction method used in the experiment could improve the quantitative count error caused by the influence of scatter count. In particular, CTSC showed the lowest %NMSE(=0.35) compared to existing EWSC methods, enabling relatively accurate scatter correction.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 2015

Purpose In SPECT image, scatter count is the cause of quantitative count error and image quality degradation. Thus, a wide range of scatter correction(SC) methods have been studied and this study is to evaluate the accuracy of CT based SC(CTSC) used in SPECT/CT as the comparison with existing energy window based SC(EWSC). Materials and Methods SPECT/CT images were obtained after filling air in order to acquire a reference image without the influence of scatter count inside the Triple line insert phantom setting hot rod(74.0 MBq) in the middle and each SPECT/CT image was obtained each separately after filling water instead of air in order to derive the influence of scatter count under the same conditions. In both conditions, Astonish(iterative : 4 subset : 16) reconstruction method and CT attenuation correction were commonly applied and three types of SC methods such as non-scatter correction(NSC), EWSC, CTSC were used in images filled with image. For EWSC, 9 sub-energy windows were set additionally in addition to main(=peak) energy window(140 keV, 20%) and then, images were acquired at the same time and five types of EWSC including DPW(dual photo-peak window)10%, DEW(dual energy window)20%, TEW(triple energy window)10%, TEW5.0%, TEW2.5% were used. Under the condition without fluctuations in primary count, total count was measured by drawing volume of interest (VOI) in the images of the two conditions and then, the ratio of scatter count of total counts was calculated as percent scatter fraction(%SF) and the count error with image filled with water was evaluated with percent normalized mean-square error(%NMSE) based on the image filled with air. Results Based on the image filled with air, %SF of images filled with water to which each SC method was applied is NSC 37.44, DPW 27.41, DEW 21.84, TEW10% 19.60, TEW5% 17.02, TEW2.5% 14.68, CTSC 5.57 and the most scattering counts were removed in CTSC and %NMSE is NSC 35.80, DPW 14.28, DEW 7.81, TEW10% 5.94, TEW5% 4.21, TEW2.5% 2.96, CTSC 0.35 and the error in CTSC was found to be the lowest. Conclusion In SPECT/CT images, the application of each scatter correction method used in the experiment could improve the quantitative count error caused by the influence of scatter count. In particular, CTSC showed the lowest %NMSE(=0.35) compared to existing EWSC methods, enabling relatively accurate scatter correction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.292-295
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• 1999

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.278-281
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the scattered x-rays on the subject contrast and image sharpness for various tube voltages. For the purpose, we measured the scatter-to-primary ratio(SPR) for the tube voltages f 50 to 100kV and obtained the tube voltage dependence of the subject contrast of an aluminum plate in a polymethyl methacrylate(PMMA) phantom. Furthermore, the overall modulation transfer functions(MTFs), which consist of MTFs of a screen-film system and scatter FTMs, were obtained for tube voltages of 50 to 100 kV. The subject contrast decreased with the tube voltage due to that the SPR increased with the tube voltage and that the difference in effective linear attenuation coefficients between the object and its surroundings decreased with the tube voltage. The maximum frequency of the overall MTF decreased from about 2 mm$\^$-1/ to 1 mm$\^$-1/ with the tube voltage increasing from 50 to 100 kV.