• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 2019

In the field of nuclear medicine, the various static phantoms of international standards are used to assess the performance of the nuclear medicine equipment. However, we only reproduced a fixed situation in spite of the movement of the cardiac, and the demands for dynamic situations have been continuously raised. More research is necessary to address these challenges. This study used flexible materials to design the dynamic cardiac phantom, taking into account the various clinical situations. It also intended to reproduce the images through dynamic cardiac flow to confirm the usefulness of the proposed technique. The frame of dynamic cardiac phantom was produced based on the international standard phantom. A nuclear medicine dynamic cardiac phantom was produced rubber material and silicone implemented by 3D printing technique to reproduce endocardium and epicardium movement. Therefore we compared and evaluated the image of a cardiac phantom made of rubber material and a cardiac phantom made of silicone material by 3D printing technique. According to the results of this study, the analysis of the Summed Rest Score(SRS) showed abnormalities in the image of a cardiac phantom made of rubber material at 10, 20, and 30 stroke rates, but the image of a cardiac phantom made of silicone material by 3D printing technique showed normal levels. And the analysis of the Total Perfusion Deficit(TPD) showed that TPD in the image of a cardiac phantom made of rubber material was higher than that of the image of a cardiac phantom made of silicone material by 3D printing technique at 10, 20, and 30 stroke rates. The potential for clinical application of the proposed method was confirmed in the dynamic cardiac phantom implemented with 3D printing technique. It is believed that the objective information secures the reliability of inspection equipment and it contributes to improve the diagnostic value of nuclear medicine.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.389-399
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• 2008

Corrections of attenuation, scatter and resolution are important in order to improve the accuracy of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) image reconstruction. Especially, the heart movement by respiration and beating cause the errors in the corrections. Myocardial phantom is used to verify the correction methods, but there are many different parts in the current phantoms in actual human body. Therefore the results using a phantom are often considered apart from the clinical data. We developed a new phantom that implements the human body structure around the thorax more faithfully. The new phantom has the small mediastinum which can simulate the structure in which the lung adjoins anterior, lateral and apex of myocardium. The container was made of acrylic and water-equivalent material was used for mediastinum. In addition, solidified polyurethane foam in epoxy resin was used for lung. Five different sizes of myocardium were developed for the quantitative gated SPECT (QGS). The septa of all different cardiac phantoms were designed so that they can be located at the same position. The proposed phantom was attached with liver and gallbladder, the adjustment was respectively possible for the height of them. The volumes of five cardiac ventricles were 150.0, 137.3, 83.1, 42.7 and 38.6ml respectively. The SPECT were performed for the new phantom, and the differences between the images were examined after the correction methods were applied. The three-dimensional tomography of myocardium was well reconstructed, and the subjective evaluations were done to show the difference among the various corrections. We developed the new cardiac and torso phantom, and the difference of various corrections was shown on SPECT images and QGS results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.248-253
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• 2023

Directly, it is not possible to measure the absorbed dose of radiopharmaceuticals in the organs of the human body. Therefore, simulation methods are utilized to estimate the dose in distinct organs. In this study, individual organs were separately considered as the source organ or target organ to calculate the mean absorption dose, which SAF and S factors were then calculated according to the target uptake via MIRD method. Here, ^99mTc activity distribution within the target was analyzed using the definition and simulation of ideal organs by summing the fraction of cumulative activities of the heart as source organ. Thus, GATE code was utilized to simulate the Zubal humanoid phantom. To validate the outcomes in comparison to the similar results reported, the accumulation of activity in the main organs of the body was calculated at the moment of injection and cardiac rest condition after 60 min of injection. The results showed the highest dose absorbed into pancreas was about 21%, then gallbladder 18%, kidney 16%, spleen 15%, heart 8%, liver 8%, thyroid 7%, lungs 5% and brain 2%, respectively, after 1 h of injection. This distinct simulation model may also be used for different periods after injection and modifying the prescribed dose.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.141-153
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• 2020

Purpose: Myocardial T1 and T2 relaxation times are affected by technical factors such as cardiovascular magnetic resonance platform/vendor. We aimed to validate T1 and T2 mapping sequences using a phantom; establish reference T1, T2, and extracellular volume (ECV) measurements using two sequences at 3T in normal Koreans; and compare the protocols and evaluate the differences from previously reported measurements. Materials and Methods: Eleven healthy subjects underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using 3T MRI equipment (Verio, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany). We did phantom validation before volunteer scanning: T1 mapping with modified look locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) with 5(3)3 and 4(1)3(1)2 sequences, and T2 mapping with gradient echo (GRE) and TrueFISP sequences. We did T1 and T2 mappings on the volunteers with the same sequences. ECV was also calculated with both sequences after gadolinium enhancement. Results: The phantom study showed no significant differences from the gold standard T1 and T2 values in either sequence. Pre-contrast T1 relaxation times of the 4(1)3(1)2 protocol was 1142.27 ± 36.64 ms and of the 5(3)3 was 1266.03 ± 32.86 ms on the volunteer study. T2 relaxation times of GRE were 40.09 ± 2.45 ms and T2 relaxation times of TrueFISP were 38.20 ± 1.64 ms in each. ECV calculation was 24.42% ± 2.41% and 26.11% ± 2.39% in the 4(1)3(1)2 and 5(3)3 protocols, respectively, and showed no differences at any segment or slice between the sequences. We also calculated ECV from the pre-enhancement T1 relaxation time of MOLLI 5(3)3 and the post-enhancement T1 relaxation time of MOLLI 4(1)3(1)2, with no significant differences between the combinations. Conclusion: Using phantom-validated sequences, we reported the normal myocardial T1, T2, and ECV reference values of healthy Koreans at 3T. There were no statistically significant differences between the sequences, although it has limited statistical value due to the small number of subjects studied. ECV showed no significant differences between calculations based on various pre- and post-mapping combinations.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.179-184
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect according to the NEX, VENC, targeted cardiac phases on the velocity measurement of 4D phase-contrast MRI. Materials and Methods: The abdominal aortic phantom was made to experiment. The working fluid was mixed with water and glycerin to mimic the density and viscosity of human blood. The inlet velocity was Reynolds number 2000. The experimental conditions were NEX 1 and 4, VENC 102 cm/s and 200 cm/s, and 10 and 15 targeted cardiac phases, respectively. The average flow rate, average velocity, maximum velocity, and cross-section area were measured. Results: As a result of the case-by-case comparison, the error rate was less than 5%. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05). Conclusion: It is expected that this result will be useful for acquiring blood flow information in clinical practice.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.122-127
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• 2010

Purpose: The Xpress3.$cardiac^{TM}$ which is a kind of wide beam reconstruction (WBR) method developed by UltraSPECT (Haifa, Israel) enables the acquisition of at quarter time while maintaining image quality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the usefulness of WBR method for decreasing scan times and to compare to it with filtered back projection (FBP), which is the method routinely used. Materials and Methods: Phantom and clinical studies were performed. The anthropomorphic torso phantom was made on an equality with counts from patient's body. The Tl-201 concentrations in the compartments were 74 kBq (2 ${\mu}Ci$)/cc in myocardium, 11.1 kBq (0.3 ${\mu}Ci$)/cc in soft tissue, and 2.59 kBq (0.07 ${\mu}Ci$)/cc in lung. The non-gated Tl-201 myocardial perfusion SPECT data were acquired with the phantom. The former study was scanned for 50 seconds per frame with FBP method, and the latter study was acquired for 13 seconds per frame with WBR method. Using the Xeleris ver. 2.0551, full width at half maximum (FWHM) and average image contrast were compared. In clinical studies, we analyzed the 30 patients who were examined by Tl-201 gated myocardial perfusion SPECT in department of nuclear medicine at Asan Medical Center from January to April 2010. The patients were imaged at full time (50 second per frame) with FBP algorithm and again quarter-time (13 second per frame) with the WBR algorithm. Using the 4D MSPECT (4DM), Quantitative Perfusion SPECT (QPS), and Quantitative Gated SPECT (QGS) software, the summed stress score (SSS), summed rest score (SRS), summed difference score, end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV) and ejection fraction (EF) were analyzed for their correlations and statistical comparison by paired t-test. Results: As a result of the phantom study, the WBR method improved FWHM more than about 30% compared with FBP method (WBR data 5.47 mm, FBP data 7.07 mm). And the WBR method's average image contrast was also higher than FBP method's. However, in result of quantitative indices, SSS, SDS, SRS, EDV, ESV, EF, there were statistically significant differences from WBR and FBP(p<0.01). In the correlation of SSS, SDS, SRS, there were significant differences for WBR and FBP (0.18, 0.34, 0.08). But EDV, ESV, EF showed good correlation with WBR and FBP (0.88, 0.89, 0.71). Conclusion: From phantom study results, we confirmed that the WBR method reduces an acquisition time while improving an image quality compared with FBP method. However, we should consider significant differences in quantitative indices. And it needs to take an evaluation test to apply clinical study to find a cause of differences out between phantom and clinical results.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.299-306
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• 2009

Purpose : To compare radiation dose for coronary CT angiography (CTA) obtained with 6 examination protocols such as a retrospectively ECG gated helical scan, a prospectively ECG gated sequential scan, low kVp technique, and cardiac dose modulation technique. Materials and Methods : Coronary CTA was performed by using 6 current clinical protocols to evaluate effective dose and organ dose in primary beam area with anthropomorphic female phantom and glass dosimetric system in 64 channel multi-detector CT. After acquiring topograms of frontal and lateral projection with 80 kVp and 10 mA, main coronary scan was done with 0.35 sec tube rotation time, 40 mm collimation ($0.625\;mm{\times}64\;ea$), small scan field of view (32 cm diameter), 105 mm scan length. Heart beat rate of phantom was maintained 60 bpm in ECG gating. In constant mAs technique 120 kVp, 600 mA was used, and 100 kVp for low kVp technique. In a retrospectively ECG gated helical CT technique 0.22 pitch was used, peak mA (600 mA) was adopted in range of $40{\sim}80%$ of R-R interval and 120mA(80% reduction) in others with cardiac dose modulation. And 210 mAs was used without cardiac dose modulation. In a prospectively ECG gated sequential CT technique data were acquired at 75% R-R interval (middle diastolic phase in cardiac cycle), and 120 msec additional padding of the tube-on time was used. For effective dose calculation region specific conversion factor of dose length product in thorax was used, which was recommended by EUR 16262. Results : The mean effective dose for conventional coronary CTA without cardiac dose modulation in a retrospectively ECG gated helical scan was 17.8 mSv, and mean organ dose of heart was 103.8 mGy. With low kVp and cardiac dose modulation the mean effective dose showed 54.5% reduction, and heart dose showed 52.3% reduction, compared with that of conventional coronary CTA. And at the sequential scan(SnapShot pulse mode) under prospective ECG gating the mean effective dose was 4.9 mSv, this represents an 72.5% reduction compared with that of conventional coronary CTA. And heart dose was 33.8 mGy, this represents 67.4% reduction. In the sequential scan technique under prospective ECG gating with low kVp the mean effective dose was 3.0 mSv, this represents an 83.2% reduction compared with that of conventional coronary CTA. And heart dose was 17.7 mGy, this represents an 82.9% reduction. Conclusion : In coronary CTA at retrospectively ECG gated helical scan, cardiac dose modulation technique using low kVp reduced dose to 50% above compared with the conventional helical scan. And the prospectively ECG gated sequential scan offers substantially reduced dose compared with the traditional retrospectively ECG gated helical scan.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.49-53
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• 2016

Purpose Recently, Cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) semiconductor myocardial SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) has been used myocardial scintigraphy. In this study, the performance of Semiconductor SPECT and conventional SPECT systems was compared by a comprehensive analysis of phantom SPECT images. Materials and Methods Methods: We evaluated the DSPECT CZT SEPCT (Spectrum-dynamic) and INFINA conventional (GE). Physical performance was compared on reconstructed SPECT images from a phantom. Results For count sensitivity on cardiac phantom images ($counts{\cdot}sec^{-1}{\cdot}MBq^{-1}$), DSPECT had a sensitivity of conventional SPECT. This classification was similar to that of myocardial counts normalized to injected activities from phantom images (respective mean values, $counts{\cdot}sec^{-1}{\cdot}MBq^{-1}$: 195.83 and 52.83). For central spatial resolution: DSPECT, 9.47mm; conventional SPECT, 16.90mm. For contrast-to-noise ratio on the phantom: DSPECT, 4.2; conventional SPECT, 3.6. Conclusion The performance of CZT cameras is dramatically higher than that of conventional SPECT. However, CZT cameras differ in that spatial resolution and contrast-to-noise ratio are better with conventional SPECT, whereas count sensitivity is markedly higher with the DSPECT.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.462-470
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• 2020

Objective: To demonstrate that human visual illusion can contribute to sub-endocardial dark rim artifact in contrast-enhanced myocardial perfusion magnetic resonance images. Materials and Methods: Numerical phantoms were generated to simulate the first-passage of contrast agent in the heart, and rendered in conventional gray scale as well as in color scale with reduced luminance variation. Cardiac perfusion images were acquired from two healthy volunteers, and were displayed by the same gray and color scales used in the numerical study. Before and after k-space windowing, the left ventricle (LV)-myocardium boarders were analyzed visually and quantitatively through intensity profiles perpendicular the boarders. Results: k-space windowing yielded monotonically decreasing signal intensity near the LV-myocardium boarder in the phantom images, as confirmed by negative finite difference values near the board ranging -1.07 to -0.14. However, the dark band still appears, which is perceived by visual illusion. Dark rim is perceived in the in-vivo images after k-space windowing that removed the quantitative signal dip, suggesting that the perceived dark rim is a visual illusion. The perceived dark rim is stronger at peak LV enhancement than the peak myocardial enhancement, due to the larger intensity difference between LV and myocardium. In both numerical phantom and in-vivo images, the illusory dark band is not visible in the color map due to reduced luminance variation. Conclusion: Visual illusion is another potential cause of dark rim artifact in contrast-enhanced myocardial perfusion MRI as demonstrated by illusory rim perceived in the absence of quantitative intensity undershoot.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 2017

In the analyzed cardiac CT algorithm applied when comparing the MAR self-made metal artifact reduction in pacemaker inserted phantom degree. Result of comparing the energy value by CT showed a decrease in the CT value in the case of BKG 40 KeV in WSA maximum decreased to 663.2% in the case of 140 KeV BHA were increased a maximum of 56.2%. In addition, the maximum was decreased by approximately 145% based on a 70 KeV artifacts in CT value comparison by type WSA, BHA was to increase up to approximately 46.38%. MAR Algorithm is believed to provide a more quality cardiac CT image if the energy changes, or have the effect that by type and irrespective of reduced metal artifacts occurrence of artifacts applied to the pacemaker when tracking a heart CT scan after inserting MAR algorithm.