• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.203-210
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• 2003

PET (positron emission tomography) permits the investigation of physiological and biochemical processes in vivo. The accuracy of quantifying PET data is affected by its finite spatial resolution, which causes partial volume effects. In this study, we developed a method for partial volume correction using Hoffman phantom PET and MR data, and applied various FWHM (full width at half maximum) levels. We also applied this method to PET images of normal controls and tested for the possibility of clinical application. $^{18}$ F-PET Hoffman phantom images were co-registered to MR slices. The gray matter and white matter regions were then segmented into binary images. Each binary image was convolved by 4, 8, 12, 16 mm FWHM levels. These convolved images of gray and white matter were merged corresponding to the same level of FWHM. The original PET images were then divided by the convolved binary images voxel-by-voxel. These corrected PET images were multiplied by binary images. The corrected PET images were evaluated by analyzing regions of interests, which were drawn on the gray and white matter regions of the original MR image slices. We calculated the ratio of white to gray matter. We also applied this method to the PET images of normal controls. On analyzing the corrected PET images of Hoffman phantom, the ratios of the corrected images increased more than that of the uncorrected images. With the normal controls, the ratio of the corrected images increased more than that of the uncorrected images. The ratio increase of the corrected PET images was lower than that of the corrected phantom PET images. In conclusion, the method developed for partial volume correction in PET data may be clinically applied, although further study may be required for optimal correction.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 1999

Purpose : To investigate the difference of total activation in visual area, motor area, and cerebellum according to the stimulation paradigm. Materials and Methods : Functional MR imaging was performed in 5 healthy volunteers with visual and motor activity using EPI technique. LED and Checker-Board stimulation were performed for visual activity. Thumb motion and Finger Tapping were performed for motor and cerebellum activity. Stimulus timing was 60sec. off, 120sec. on, 60sec. off. Data processing was carried out by using the cross-correlation method for each pixel. Each pixel was then selected and assumed activated if the correlation coefficient was equal or larger than a threshold value. Time course data was obtained by calculating the total activation which was defined as the number of activated pixel x averaged pixel intensity. Results : In the case of visual activity with LED stimulation, we found increased total activity of more than 100% compared with Checker-Board stimulation. In the case of motor area and cerebellum with Finger tapping stimulation, we found increased total activity of more than 10% and 150%, respectively compared with Thumb motion stimulation.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine usefulness of 3T equipment-based time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography (3T-TOF MRA) by comparing standard technique (ST) with high resolution technique (HRT) in evaluation of cerebral blood vessel. The 3T-TOF MRA was performed for 31 patients who were suspected of having cerebrovascular disease from March to July 2010. For evaluation of cerebral blood vessel, classification was conducted randomly: group I that included vertebral artery and basilar artery, group II that ranged from 2.5cm before basin part of common carotid artery to basin part of internal and external carotid arteries and to genu part of internal carotid artery, group III that ranged from vertebral part of internal carotid artery to the first basin art of anterior and middle cerebral through education recognizes the importance of dose reduction and examine if their efforts and further reduce patient dose could achieve optimization of the medical exposure is considered.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2004

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to assess supplementary motor area (SMA) activation during motor, sensory, word generation, listening comprehension, and working memory tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Materials and Methods : Sixteen healthy right-handed subjects (9M, 7F) were imaged on a Siemens 1.5T scanner. Whole brain functional maps were acquired using BOLD EPI sequences in the axial plane. Each paradigm consisted of five epochs of activation vs. the control condition. The activation tasks consisted of left finger complex movement, hot sensory stimulation of the left hand, word generation, listening comprehension, and working memory. The reference function was a boxcar waveform. Activation maps were thresholded at an uncorrected p=0.0001. The thresholded activation maps were placed into MNI space and the anatomic localization of activation within the SMA was compared across tasks. Results : SMA activation was observed in 16 volunteers for the motor task, 11 for the sensory task, 15 for the word generation task, 5 for the listening comprehension task, and 15 for the working memory task. The rostral aspects of the SMA showed activity during the word generation and working memory tasks, and the caudal aspects of the SMA showed activity during the motor and sensory tasks. Right (contralateral) SMA activation was observed during the motor and sensory tasks, and left SMA activation during the word generation and memory tasks. Conclusion : Our results suggest that SMA is involved in a variety of functional tasks including motor, sensory, word generation, and working memory. The results obtained also support the notion that functionally specific subregions exist within the region classically defined as the SMA.

• Journal of KIISE:Computer Systems and Theory
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• v.31 no.3_4
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• pp.224-238
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• 2004

Multi-modality image registration is a widely used image processing technique to obtain composite information from two different kinds of image sources. This study proposes an image registration method based on moment information and surface distance, which improves the previous surface-based registration method. The proposed method ensures stable registration results with low registration error without being subject to the initial position and direction of the object. In the preprocessing step, the surface points of the object are extracted, and then moment information is computed based on the surface points. Moment information is matched prior to fine registration based on the surface distance, in order to ensure stable registration results even when the initial positions and directions of the objects are very different. Moreover, surface comer sampling algorithm has been used in extracting representative surface points of the image to overcome the limits of the existed random sampling or systematic sampling methods. The proposed method has been applied to brain MRI(Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and PET(Positron Emission Tomography), and its accuracy and stability were verified through registration error ratio and visual inspection of the 2D/3D registration result images.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.36-42
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• 2005

Purpose : To develop a novel approach to calculate the sensitivity profiles of the phased array coil for use in non-uniform intensity correction. Materials and Methods : The proposed intensity correction method estimates the sensitivity profile of the coil to extract intensity variations that represent the scanned image. The sensitivity profile is estimated by fitting a non-linear curve to various angles of projections through the imaged object in order to eliminate the high-frequency image content. Filtered back projection is then used to compute the estimates of the sensitivity profile of each coil. The method was applied both to phantom and brain images from 8-channel phased-array coil and 4-channel phased-array coil, respectively. Results : Intensity-corrected images from the proposed method have more uniform intensity than those from the commonly used 'sum-of-squares' approach. By using the proposed correction method, the intensity variation was reduced to $6.1\%$ from $13.1\%$, acquired from the 'sum-of-squares'. Conclusion : The proposed method is more effective at correcting the intensity non-uniformity of the phased-array surface-coil images than the conventional 'sum-of-squares' method.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.84 no.6
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• pp.1361-1366
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• 2023

The persistent primitive olfactory artery (PPOA) is a rare variant of the anterior cerebral artery, first reported in 1979. It reportedly has a high correlation with the development of aneurysms, owing to the hemodynamic stress induced by the structural characteristics of the hairpin turn. Herein, we present a rare case of PPOA type 4 with a fusiform aneurysm at the hairpin turn segment in a 46-year-old female with occasional headaches. Time-of-flight MR angiography and transfemoral cerebral angiography revealed an unusual branch arising from the left A1 segment, running anteromedially along the ipsilateral olfactory tract, and turning the hairpin posterior to the olfactory bulb. This branch continued into the left accessory middle cerebral artery, and a fusiform aneurysm was observed at the hairpin segment. No further treatment was performed, and follow-up imaging was recommended. Nevertheless, it is essential to recognize and diagnose these rare variations.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.227-234
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• 2011

The purpose of present study was to examine brain functions associated with intention to conceal information. Kubo & Nittono(2009) and Verschuere et al.(2009) studied the intention to conceal information using P300 amplitude. On the basis of these two studies, present study attempted to identify brain area while participants were performing concealed information test. 19 healthy college students participated in fMRI-based concealed information test. Participants' name were used as concealed information. The test was performed in two conditions. In the intention condition, participants were instructed to try leaving their names undetected by suppressing their brain response to it. In the no intention condition, participants performed the test without intention to conceal. The fMRI results showed that the right anterior cingulated cortex (Rt. ACC), and left orbito-frontal cortex (Lt. OFC) activations were greater in the deceptive condition than the truth condition. These finding confirmed that ACC is area a deception-specific process as shown in the previous fMRI study. The OFC activation was also observed in the deceptive condition. The OFC is an area known as associated with emotional response such as anxiety, fear, and guilty. The anxiety induced while participants were intended to conceal information might be related to the OFC activation.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.68-78
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• 1993

The pathophysiology and neural mechanism involved in Tourette's and chronic motor tic disorder are highly controversial. In order to investigate the functional abnormalities of brain. In Tourette's and chronic motor tic disorder, 42 children with Tourette's and chronic motor disorder underwent single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT) using Tc-99m-HM-PAO. The results are summarized as follows : 1) 31.0% (13/42) of this series revealed perfusion defect in cerebral cortex. 2) 4.8% (2/42) revealed perfusion defect in basal ganglia. 3) 4.8(2/42) revealed perfusion defect in thalamus. 4) 16.7%(7/42) showed perfusion defect in cerebellum. 5) The frequency of abnormal perfusion showed no significant difference between tic with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 6) The frequency of abnormal perfusion showed no significant difference between Tourette's and chronic motor tic disorder. These findings support the hypothesis of a possible involvement of brain dysfunction in the production of Tourette's and chronic motor tic disorder, and quantification of blood flow and co-registration with magnetic resonance imaging will increase the validity of this study.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.31-38
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• 2007

To evaluate the accuracy and extent in the localization of cerebral motor coutex activation using a gradient- echo echo planar imaging(GE-EPI) compared to spin-echo echo planar iimaging(SE-EPI) on 3T MR imaging. Functional MR imaging of cerebral motor cortex activation was examined in GE-EPI and SE-EPI in five healthy male volunteers. A right finger movement was accomplished with a paradigm of 6 task and rest, periods and the cross-correlation was used for a statistical mapping algorithm. We evaluated any sorts of differenced of the time seried and the signal intensity changes between the rest and task periods obtained with two technoques. The qualitative analysis was distributed with activation sites of large veins and small veins by using two techniques and was found that both the techniques were clinically uesful for delineating large veins and small veins in fMRL Signal intensity charge of the rest and activation periods provided simmilar activations in both methods(GE-EPI : 0.93$\pm$0.11, SE-EPI : 0.80$\pm$.015) but the signal intensity in GE-EPI(133.95$\pm$15.76) was larger than in SE-EPI(74.5$\pm$18.90). The average SNRs of EPI raw data were higher at SMA in SE-EPI(48.54$\pm$12.37) than GE-EPI(41.4$\pm$12.54) and at M1 in SE-EPI(43.24$\pm$11.77) than GE-EPI(38.27$\pm$6.53). The localization of activation voxels of the GE-EPI showed a larger vein but the SE-EPI generally showed small vein. Then the analysis results of the two techniques were used for a statistacal paired student t-test. SE-EPI was found clinically useful for localizing the cerebral moter cortex cativation on 3.0T, but showed a little different activation patterns comparad to GE-EPI. In conclusion, SE-EPI may be feasible and can detect true cortical activation from capillaries and GE-EPI can obtain the large veins in the motor cortex activation on 3T MR imaging.