• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.34-37
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• 2012

Purpose: To verify the optimal scan time per bed for clinical application, we evaluated the quality of $^{18}F$-FDG images with varying scan times in a phantom and 20 patients with 38 lesions using a Philips (TOF) PET/CT scanner. Materials and Methods: The PET/CT images of a NEMA IEC body phantom and 20 patients (16 males, 4 females) were acquired for 5 different scan times of 20-100 sec per bed with intervals of 20 sec. The activity ratio of hot spheres (diameter of 17 [H1], 22 [H2] and 28 [H3] mm) to the background region in the IEC body phantom was 8-to-1. The contrast recovery coefficient (CRC) and standard uptake value (SUV) based on ROIs of hot spheres and background region were calculated. The noise in each background region was estimated as the ratio of SD of counts to the mean counts in the background region. On the patient image, the injected dose of $^{18}F$-FDG was $444{\pm}74$ MBq and the SUVs in the 38 hot lesions were measured. Results: The two scan time groups (LT-60 [<60 sec] and GT-60 [${\geq}60$ sec]) were compared. In the phantom study, the coefficient of deviations (CVs, %) of CRC and SUV in LT-60 (H1: 14.2 and 7.3, H2: 11.4 and 7.8, H3: 4.9 and 3.2) were higher than GT-60 (H1: 8.9 and 2.8, H1: 8.2 and 5.0, H3: 2.0 and 1.6). In the patient study, the mean CV of CRC and SUV in LT-60 (4.0) was higher than GT-60 (1.2). Conclusion: This study showed that noise increased as the scan time decreased. High noise for the scan time <60 sec per bed yielded high variation of SUV and CRC. Therefore, considering PET/CT image quality, the scan time per bed in the TOF PET/CT scanner should be at least ${\geq}60$ sec.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.3-7
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• 2014

Purpose SPECT/CT scan to be performed attenuation correction on the basis of CT induce an overestimation of the site due to the beam hardening artifact by metal cover and reduce the images quality. Therefore, this study using a phantom that has been inserted artificial hip joint investigated that effect on the SPECT/CT image causing by metal artifact for varying the parameters of the Attenuation Map. Materials and Methods Siemens Symbia T16 SPECT/CT equipment was used. Artificial hip joint was inserted to SPECT/PET phantom, 17 mm sphere of Bright Streak area in CT image was filled with Tc-99m so that the radiation activity was 8 times compared to background. And then Hot and Background was measured in varying Wide Beam Coefficient on Attenuation Map and RBR (Region to Background Ratio) of Metal and Non-Metal was calculated and analyzed depending on the presence or absence of the hip joint. Results It tended to hot count of Non-Metal and Metal to increase as the value of the manual mode is increased, hot count ratio with the group of both manual mode 0.5 and 0.4 is the best match. Also, in automatic mode, the ratio of RBRNon-Metal and RBRMetal was 1.135, statistically significant difference was not observed in the manual mode 0.5 and 0.4. Conclusion In the automatic mode of Wide Beam Coefficient in attenuation correction map, it was found that it is over-correction by 13.52%, it was possible to minimize the over-correction by the artifact in 0.5 and 0.4 of manual mode. Further studies should be performed in order to apply to a patient with the help of this and it is considered possible to reduce the over-correction by the metal artifact of an artificial hip joint for Hip-Resurfacing Arthroplasty patients, and to improve the diagnostic performance.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.55-59
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• 2010

Purpose: Renal excretion is the main route of FDG clearance in FDG PET/CT scan. Applying optimal method of renal excretion is very important for enhancing image quality and diagnostic accuracy. We evaluated several methods of renal excretion in FDG PET/CT scan. Materials and Methods: Thirty patients with normal renal function were prospectively included. Patients were divided into three group and undergone early and delayed FDG PET/CT scans. (1) Delay group; at 1 hour later of early scan, delayed scan was performed without additional hydration, (2) Hydration group; at 1 hour later of early scan, delayed scan was performed with additional oral hydration (700 mL of water), (3) Lasix group; lasix was administered at the end of early scan and dealyed scan was performed 30 min later. Early and delayed scans were compared to evaluate efficiency of renal excretion. Visual and quantitative analyses were performed by experienced physician and technologist of nuclear medicine. Results: On the visual analysis, renal excretion was the most evident in Lasix group followed by Hydration group. Delay group showed poor renal excretion. On the quantitative analysis, washout rates were $9.2{\pm}20.7%$, $28.1{\pm}22.8%$ and $29.5{\pm}23.1%$ for Delay, Hydration and Lasix groups, respectively. Conclusion: Administration of lasix was the best method for enhancing renal excretion. Delayed scan with hydration was also efficient method, but delayed scan without hydration was not adequate method.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.201-208
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the optimal flip angle by measuring the SNR and CNR according to the angle of changes of the MRI technique using the Image J program. A total of 30 normal volunteers were assessed by using a 1.5T magnetic resonance imaging system (Philips, Medical System, Achieva). For the MRI angiography, we set the region of interest in four regions and evaluated the SNR and CNR. The statistical significance of SNR and CNR was calculated by one-way ANOVA using quantitative analysis at five different positions. The Bonferroni method was used for post-hoc analyzes. Statistical significance was determined by using ANOVA analysis at p<0.05 and Bonferroni method was used as a post-hoc analysis. The results of this study, the measurement values of ACA(SNR:$876.59{\pm}14.22$, CNR:$1999.7{\pm}12.5$), PCA(SNR:$863.48{\pm}13.29$, CNR:$1870.18{\pm}12.56$), ICA(SNR:$1116.87{\pm}08.34$, CNR:$2979.37{\pm}14.69$) and MCA(SNR:$848.66{\pm}15.25$, CNR:$2199.25{\pm}13.48$) were obtained with the high signal intensity at $25^{\circ}$(p<0.05). The values of a1, a2, a3, p1, p2, p3, m1, m2 and m3 were also the same (p<0.05). Post-hoc analysis results, There was a statistically significant difference (p=0.000) between $10^{\circ}$, $15^{\circ}$, $20^{\circ}$ on the $25^{\circ}$ reference for the flip angle, but no significant results were obtained with $30^{\circ}$(p<0.05). In concision, because the signal intensity decreased at $30^{\circ}$, this study revealed that the optimal flip angles were $25^{\circ}$ in cerebrovascular MR angiography.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.451-461
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• 2015

In megavoltage (MV) radiotherapy, delivering the dose to the target volume is important while protecting the surrounding normal tissue. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the modulation transfer function (MTF), the noise power spectrum (NPS), and the detective quantum efficiency (DQE) using an edge block in megavoltage X-ray imaging (MVI). We used an edge block, which consists of tungsten with dimensions of 19 (thickness) ${\times}$ 10 (length) ${\times}$ 1 (width) $cm^3$ and measured the pre-sampling MTF at 6 MV energy. Various radiation therapy (RT) devices such as TrueBeam$^{TM}$ (Varian), BEAMVIEW$^{PLUS}$ (Siemens), iViewGT (Elekta) and Clinac$^{(R)}$iX (Varian) were used. As for MTF results, TrueBeam$^{TM}$(Varian) flattening filter free(FFF) showed the highest values of $0.46mm^{-1}$ and $1.40mm^{-1}$ for MTF 0.5 and 0.1. In NPS, iViewGT (Elekta) showed the lowest noise distribution. In DQE, iViewGT (Elekta) showed the best efficiency at a peak DQE and $1mm^{-1}DQE$ of 0.0026 and 0.00014, respectively. This study could be used not only for traditional QA imaging but also for quantitative MTF, NPS, and DQE measurement for development of an electronic portal imaging device (EPID).

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2002

Receive dynamic focusing with an array transducer can provide near optimum resolution only in the vicinity of transmit focal depth. A customary method to increase the depth of field is to combine several beams with different focal depths, with an accompanying decrease in the frame rate. In this Paper. we Present a simultaneous multiple transmit focusing method in which chirp signals focused at different depths are transmitted at the same time. These chirp signals are mutually orthogonal in a sense that the autocorrelation function of each signal has a narrow mainlobe width and low sidelobe levels. and the crossorelation function of any Pair of the signals has values smaller than the sidelobe levels of each autocorrelation function. This means that each chirp signal can be separated from the combined received signals and compressed into a short pulse. which is then individually focused on a separate receive beamformer. Next. the individually focused beams are combined to form a frame of image. Theoretically, any two chirp signals defined over two nonoverlapped frequency bands are mutually orthogonal In the present work. however, a tractional overlap of adjacent frequency bands is permitted to design more chirp signals within a given transducer bandwidth. The elevation of the rosscorrelation values due to the frequency overlap could be reduced by alternating the direction of frequency sweep of the adjacent chirp signals We also observe that the Proposed method provides better images when the low frequency chirp is focused at a near Point and the high frequency chirp at a far point along the depth. better lateral resolution is obtained at the far field with reasonable SNR due to the SNR gain in Pulse compression Imaging .

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.202-209
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• 2004

Flat panel based digital radiography (DR) systems have recently become useful and important in the field of diagnostic radiology. For DRs with amorphous silicon photosensors, CsI(TI) is normally used as the scintillator, which produces visible light corresponding to the absorbed radiation energy. The visible light photons are converted into electric signal in the amorphous silicon photodiodes which constitute a two dimensional array. In order to produce good quality images, detailed behaviors of DR detectors to radiation must be studied. The relationship between air exposure and the DR outputs has been investigated in many studies. But this relationship was investigated under the condition of the fixed tube voltage. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the DR outputs and X-ray in terms of the absorbed energy in the detector rather than the air exposure using SPEC-l8, an X-ray energy spectrum model. Measured exposure was compared with calculated exposure for obtaining the inherent filtration that is a important input variable of SPEC-l8. The absorbed energy in the detector was calculated using algorithm of calculating the absorbed energy in the material and pixel values of real images under various conditions was obtained. The characteristic curve was obtained using the relationship of two parameter and the results were verified using phantoms made of water and aluminum. The pixel values of the phantom image were estimated and compared with the characteristic curve under various conditions. It was found that the relationship between the DR outputs and the absorbed energy in the detector was almost linear. In a experiment using the phantoms, the estimated pixel values agreed with the characteristic curve, although the effect of scattered photons introduced some errors. However, effect of a scattered X-ray must be studied because it was not included in the calculation algorithm. The result of this study can provide useful information about a pre-processing of digital radiography.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.567-573
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether or not there was artifact when the upper limb could not be lifted to the top of the head during multi-detector computed tomography(MDCT) scans of the chest and abdomen. Contrast radiography of the human and chest phantom was performed with 128channal MDCT. Under the same conditions(120 kVp, 110 mAs, standard algorithm)both hands lifted up and put down each time in the human experiment. In the chest phantom experiment, the radiography was carried out when the upper limb phantom was adjusted at a certain distance(0, 3, 7 cm) from the chest phantom. Subsequently, the values of Noise, CT number, SNR, and CNR were measured in the field of concern. The noise value of fat, rib, and muscle increased when the arm was lifted in humans(0.79, 47.8, 27%). Furthermore, when the upper limb was lowered, the noise value of muscle and lung increased in the phantom(31.2, 9.4%). In addition, the noise value of the muscles and lung decreased by 5, 25.12% and 5.6, 15.35% as the upper limb moved about 0,3,7cm away from the chest. When the chest and abdominal radiography were performed, in the case of the presence of other parts outside the inspection area, the probability of artifact was minimal while the distance was more than 3cm away from the upper limb to the chest and abdomen.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 1998

Purpose : This study is to evaluate the efficacy of small bowel displacement system(SBDS) in post-operative pelvic radiation therapy(RT) of rectal cancer patients by measurement of small bowel volume included in the radiation fields receiving therapeutic dose. Materials and Method : Ten consecutive new rectal cancer patients referred to the department of Radiation Oncology of Samsung Medical Center in May of 1997 were included in this study. All patients were asked to drink $Castrographin^(R)$ before simulation and were laid prone for conventional simulation and CT scans with and without SBDS. The volume of opacified small bowel on CT scans, which was to be included in the radiation fields receiving therapeutic dose, was measured using Picture archiving and communication system (PACS). Results : The average small bowel volumes with and without SBDS were 176.0ml(5.2-415.6ml) and 185.1ml(54.5-434.2ml), respectively The changes of small bowel volume with SBDS compared to those without SBDS were more than $10\%$ decrease in three, less than 10% decrease in two, less than $10\%$ increase in three, and more than $10\%$ increase in two patients. Conclusion : No significant advantage of using SBDS in post-operative pelvic RT for rectal cancer patients has been shown by small bowel volume measurement using CT scan considering additional effort and time needed for simulation and treatment setup.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.344-352
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• 2000

Purpose: Re-188-Hydroxyethylidene diphosphonate (HEDP) is a new cost-effective agent for systemic radioisotope therapy of metastatic bone pain. We investigated the influence of carrier for labeling and biodistribution of Re-188-HEDP using HEDP kit with or without carrier ($KReO_4$). Materials and Methods: The kits (HEDP 15 mg, gentisic acid 4 mg and $SnCl_2.2H_2O_2$ 4.5 mg) with or without carrier ($KReO_4$ 0.1 mg) were labeled with Re-188 solution, made available from an in-house generator by boiling for 15 min. We compared the labeling efficiency and stability of carrier-added and carrier-free preparations of Re-188-HEDP Biodistribution and imaging studies of each preparation were performed in ICR mice ($1.85{\sim}3.7MBq/0.1ml$) and SD rats ($74.1{\sim}85.2MBq/0.5ml$). Results: The carrier-added preparation showed high labeling efficiency (95% at pH 5) and high stability in serum (88%, 3 hr). However, the carrier-free preparation showed low labeling efficiency (59% at pH 5) and low stability (43%, 3 hr). The carrier-added preparation showed high uptake in bone and low uptake in stomach and kidneys. However, the carrier-free preparation showed lower uptake in bone and higher uptake in both stomach and kidneys, which is supposed to be due to released perrhenate. The carrier-added preparation also showed better images with higher skeletal accumulation, lower uptake in other organs and lower soft tissue uptake than the carrier-free preparation. Conclusion: The results of these studies clearly demonstrate that addition of carrier perrhenate is required for high labeling efficiency, stability, bone uptake and good image quality of Re-188-HEDP.