• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.663-668
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• 2016

In single-photon-emission computed tomography (SPECT) with a pixelated semiconductor detector (PSD), not only pinhole collimators but also parallel-hole collimators are often used in preclinical nuclear-medicine imaging systems. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare pinhole and parallel-hole collimators in a PSD. For that purpose, we paired a PID 350 (Ajat Oy Ltd., Finland) CdTe PSD with each of the four collimators most frequently used in preclinical nuclear medicine: (1) a pinhole collimator, and (2) low-energy high-resolution (LEHR), (3) low-energy general-purpose (LEGP), and (4) low-energy high-sensitivity (LEHS) parallel-hole collimators. The sensitivity and spatial resolution of each collimator was evaluated using a point source and a hot-rod phantom. The highest sensitivity was achieved using LEHS, followed by LEGP, LEHR, and pinhole. Also, at a source-to-collimator distance of 2 cm, the spatial resolution was 1.63, 2.05, 2.79, and 3.45 mm using pinhole, LEHR, LEGP, and LEHS, respectively. The reconstructed hot-rod phantom images showed that the pinhole collimator and the LEHR parallel-hole collimator give a fine spatial resolution for preclinical SPECT with PSD. In conclusion, we successfully compared different types of collimators for a preclinical pixelated semiconductor SPECT system.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.325-330
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• 2011

To predict the details of flow in industrial process unit, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is a promising technique. Recently, industrial SPECT based on medical system has developed by researchers of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and Hanyang University. In the present study, to confirm the effect of the number of detectors on image quality, and determine the optimal number of detectors in industrial SPECT, industrial SPECT system with various geometries were evaluated by the Monte Carlo simulation. CsI(Tl) detectors ($12mm{\times}12mm{\times}20mm$) with collimators (the geometric resolution of collimator $R_g$ was 4 cm at the center of the 30 cm diameter cylindrical vessel object) were modeled in a hexagonal array, and the point sources of $^{99m}Tc$, $^{68}Ga$, and $^{137}Cs$ were simulated at the center of the cylindrical vessel object using the MCNPX code. Then, the reconstruction images of each geometry were reconstructed using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm. In this study, the reciprocity theorem was used to improve computation time required for system matrix of the EM algorithm. The result shows that the resolution of the reconstructed image was significantly improved by increasing the number of detectors in industrial SPECT system and more than 60 detectors will be required for the resolution of the reconstructed image.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.201-208
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• 2007

Purpose: We investigated whether the diagnostic performance of SPECT scintimammography (SMM) can be improved by adding computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) of ultrasonography (US). Materials and methods: We reviewed breast SPECT SMM images and corresponding US images from 40 patients with breast masses (21 malignant and 19 benign tumors). The quantitative data of SPECT SMM were obtained as the uptake ratio of lesion to contralateral normal breast. The morphologic features of the breast lesions on US were extracted and quantitated using the automated CAD software program. The diagnostic performance of SPECT SMM and CAD of US alone was determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The best discriminating parameter (D-value) combining SPECT SMM and the CAD of US was created. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of combined two diagnostic modalities were compared to those of a single one. Results: Both SPECT SMM and CAD of US showed a relatively good diagnostic performance (area under curve = 0.846 and 0.831, respectively). Combining the results of SPECT SMM and CAD of US resulted in improved diagnostic performance (area under curve =0.860), but there was no statistical differerence in sensitivity, specificity and accuracy between the combined method and a single modality. Conclusion: It seems that combining the results of SPECT SMM and CAD of breast US do not significantly improve the diagnostic performance for diagnosis of breast cancer, compared with that of SPECT SMM alone. However, SPECT SMM and CAD of US may complement each other in differential diagnosis of breast cancer.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.237-243
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• 1999

We conducted this study to find the optimal correction factor(${\alpha}$) of Lassen's linearization algorithm which has been applied for correction of flow-limited uptake at a high flow range in $^{99m}Tc$ d,l-hexamethylpropy leneamine oxime(HMPAO) and $^{99m}Tc$ ethyl cysteinate dimer(ECD). Ten patients with chronic cerebral infarction were involved in this study. We obtained the corrected $^{99m}Tc$ HMPAO and $^{99m}Tc$-ECD brain SPECT(single photon emission computed tomography) using the algorithm with ${\alpha}$ values that varied from 0.1 to 10 and compared the results with regional cerebral blood flow determined by positron emission tomography (PET-rCBF). The multi-modal volume registration by maximization of mutual information was used for matching between PET-rCBF and SPECT images. The highest correlation coefficient between $^{99m}Tc$-HMPAO and $^{99m}Tc$-ECD brain uptake and PET-rCBF was revealed at ${\alpha}$ 1.4 and 2.1, respectively. We concluded that the ${\alpha}$ values of Lassen's linearization algorithm for $^{99m}Tc$-HMPAO and $^{99m}Tc$-ECD brain SPECT images were 1.4 and 2.1, respectively to indicate cerebral blood flow with comparison of PET-rCBF.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.328-332
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• 2016

Background: Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a new radiation therapy. In BNCT, there exists some very critical problems that should be solved. One of the severest problems is that the treatment effect cannot be known during BNCT in real time. We are now developing a SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) system (BNCT-SPECT), with a cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor detector. BNCT-SPECT can obtain the BNCT treatment effect by measuring 478 keV gamma-rays emitted from the excited state of $^7Li$ nucleus created by $^{10}B(n,{\alpha})$ $^7Li$ reaction. In the previous studies, we investigated the feasibility of the BNCT-SPECT system. As a result, the S/N ratio did not meet the criterion of S/N > 1 because deterioration of the S/N ratio occurred caused by the influence of Compton scattering especially due to capture gamma-rays of hydrogen. Materials and Methods: We thus produced an arrayed detector with two CdTe crystals to test cross talk phenomenon and to examine an anti-coincidence detection possibility. For more precise analysis for the anti-coincidence detection, we designed and made a collimator having a similar performance to the real BNCT-SPECT. Results and Discussion: We carried out experiments with the collimator to examine the effect of cross talk of scattering gamma-rays between CdTe elements more practically. As a result of measurement the coincidence events were successfully extracted. Conclusion: We are now planning to carry out evaluation of coincidence rate from the measurement and comparison of it with the numerical calculations.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.72-79
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• 2017

Arbutin is a hydroquinone derivative with a glucose moiety. As a tyrosinase inhibitor, it is widely used as a skin-whitening cosmetic agent for the treatment of cutaneous hyperpigmentary disorders, such as melasma and freckles. In the medical field, many studies have addressed the use of arbutin in various tumors, but the mechanism for tumor uptake of arbutin is still unclear. In this paper, we radiolabeled arbutin using radioiodine and studied its pharmacokinetics and tumor uptake via biodistribution experiments and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging. Radiolabeled $^{131}I-arbutin$ was stable for up to 24 h in PBS and serum. Biodistribution studies and SPECT imaging indicated high uptake of the compound in the bladder and kidneys shortly after injection. Twenty-four hours post-injection, significant deiodination was observed. Apart from high thyroid uptake, selective tumor uptake was clearly observed. The tumor-to-muscle and tumor-to-blood ratios were 26 and 9, respectively.

• Neonatal Medicine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.116-122
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• 2010

Kasabach-Merritt syndrome is a rare thrombocytopenic consumptive coagulopathy associated with a giant hemangioma. We experienced a case of unexplained ascites with thrombocytopenia in a 32 week premature infant. An exploratory laparotomy was performed to determine the cause of the refractory ascites and thrombocytopenia. An intestinal hemangioma was found, but, surgical removal was not performed due to the extensive involvement. Hemangioma was confirmed by SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography) and the thrombocytopenia was treated with steroid therapy. It is recommended that hemangioma of the visceral organs should be suspected when unexplained thrombocytopenia and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy persist.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.322-331
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• 2009

In clinical SPECT, FWHM provides quality information of the images obtained under different observing conditions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the optimum cut off level with comparison of FWHM according to cut off levels in each filter - Band limited, Sheep-Logan, Hanning, Hamming, Low pass cosine, Parazen and Butterworth filter in a SPECT camera. I recorded images along the X, Y, Z-axis with 99mTcO4 point source and measured FWHM with profile curves. In conclusion, all filters showed the longest figures of FWHM with cut off level 0.4, which has the worst image resolution. The images with cut off level 0.7 showed best image resolution. The shortest average of FWHM in MS2 was $11.07\pm0.07mm$ using the Butterworth filter, in MS3 it was $8.44\pm0.19mm$ through using the Hanning filter.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.77-82
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• 2017

We proposed the objective ROC analysis method based on the setting of threshold value for evaluation of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) image. This proposed ROC analysis method uses the quantification computational threshold value to each signal on the SPECT image. The SPECT images for this study were acquired by using Monte Carlo n-particle extended simulation code (MCNPX, Ver. 2.6.0, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA). The basic SPECT detectors and specific water phantom were realized in the simulation, and we could get the simulation results by the simulation operation. We tried to analyze the reconstructed images using threshold value application based objective ROC method. We can get the accuracy information of reconstructed region in the image. This proposed ROC technique can be helpful when we have to evaluate the weak signal for the NM image. In this study, the proposed threshold value based computational ROC analysis method can provide better objectivity than the conventional ROC analysis method.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.434-440
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• 2006

Objective : The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of cranioplasty on dynamics of cerebral blood flow[CBF] and cerebrovascular reserve capacity[CVRC], and to investigate the usefulness of single photon emission computed tomography [SPECT] as a prognostic factor for neurological improvement after cranioplasty. Methods : Between March 2003 and December 2005, a prospective study was performed on 24 patients who had undergone total 25 cranioplasty operations. Cerebral blood flow velocities in the middle cerebral artery[MCA] and internal carotid artery[ICA] were obtained by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography[TCD]. The CVRC was assessed by SPECT in the natural state and after stimulation with 1g of acetazolamide. Neurological improvement after cranioplasty was compared between patients who showed hyperactivity to acetazolamide-activated SPECT [Group 1, n=7] and hypoactivity to acetazolamide-activated SPECT [Group 2, n=17]. These measurements were obtained two weeks prior to and two weeks after cranioplasty. Results : The blood flow velocities at the opposite site to the cranioplasty as well as at the cranioplasty site were significantly increased [P<0.05]. Compared with Group 2, there was significant increase in CBF and neurological improvement after cranioplasty in Group 1. Conclusion : Among patients with surgical bony defects, the patients who had normal reactivity of the CVRC showed a significant increase in CBF and neurological improvement after cranioplasty. The authors suggest that CVRC measurement prior to surgery may be an important prognostic factor for neurological improvement after cranioplasty.