• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2009

Digital Mammography is an efficient imaging technique for the detection and diagnosis of breast pathological disorders. Six mammographic criteria such as number of cluster, number, size, extent and morphologic shape of microcalcification, and presence of mass, were reviewed and correlation with pathologic diagnosis were evaluated. It is very important to find breast cancer early when treatment can reduce deaths from breast cancer and breast incision. In screening breast cancer, mammography is typically used to view the internal organization. Clusterig microcalcifications on mammography represent an important feature of breast mass, especially that of intraductal carcinoma. Because microcalcification has high correlation with breast cancer, a cluster of a microcalcification can be very helpful for the clinical doctor to predict breast cancer. For this study, three steps of quantitative evaluation are proposed : DoG filter, adaptive thresholding, Expectation maximization. Through the proposed algorithm, each cluster in the distribution of microcalcification was able to measure the number calcification and length of cluster also can be used to automatically diagnose breast cancer as indicators of the primary diagnosis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Radiological Science
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• 1993.05a
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• pp.25-26
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• 1993

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.78-90
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• 2013

Recently, the interest on exposure to radiation is rising. The radiation exposure of mammography is higher in absorbed dose than of X-ray, therefore unnecessary exposure needs to be reduced, and higher image quality is needed. Generally, ray quality of the radiation imaging is an important factor that determines image quality and the amount of ray exposure, and they are affected by tube voltage and added filter. The X-ray energy that is exposed from mammography device is generally a continuous spectrum, which includes low energy that has minute influence on the image quality, and high energy that hinders contrast on image. Currently, molybdenum (Mo) and rhodium (Rh) are the most used added filters for mammography device, and they are used differently according to the energy region of X-ray. This study aims to find out the degree of reduction in exposure dose according to the thickness of aluminum (Al), and to study the changes in image quality and dose when the added filter plates that are made with niobium (Nb) or zirconium (Zr) are used, other than molybdenum (Mo) and rhodium (Rh), the two most used added filters that have similar atomic number and K-absorption regions as Nb and Zr. In this study, single-added filters of molybdenum (Mo), niobium (Nb), and zirconium (Zr) are used, and in some cases, Aluminum (Al) is combined with the single filters. In this case, image quality is considered to be improved depending on the type of added filters, and by using Aluminum (Al) filter together with the others, unnecessary X-ray of low energy would be absorbed, therefore the dose is expected to decrease without any influence when the concentration level becomes identical.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2006

The breast cancer has the highest occurrence rate among the female cancers, and as the living style changes, the occurrence is increasing gradually. For the breast cancer test among women, who comprises up to 50% of the total population, the mammography is mainly used as the screening test, and the accuracy control is the most important aspect of the testing. Therefore this research divided the northern part of Kyeongsangbuk-do into 4 regions and investigated the accordance ratio of examination field and light examination field, the total focus using the optical density and compression rate, and the overall maintenance of mammography within the regions. The equipments of 11 hospitals were investigated, and the 7 hospitals passed the standard level of the accordance ratio of examination field. 6 hospitals passed the standard optical density, and 7 hospitals had the passing performance in the compression rate. Fibers, group of specks, and masses within the Mammographic Accreditation Phantom scored 10, being within the standard range. However, only 3 hospitals were equipped with private development processor and illumination. The result reflects the fact that the image quality of breast is not correctly being maintained. Moreover, only 27.27% satisfied all the three categories of compression fitting, accordance ratio of examination field, and phantom image evaluation at the same time. The accuracy control must be maintained more precisely for the accurate diagnosis of breast cancer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.253-259
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• 2020

Mammography has the advantage of being economical, simple and effective in detecting microcalcification, but breast is a highly sensitive organ and is accompanied by the risk of an over-exposure. While accurate dose assessments are important to prevent this, current breast dose assessments are limited to breast implant patients. This purpose of this study was to identify dose variations due to tube voltages by forming a mock-up with breast implants for an accurate dosimetric assessment on breast implant patients. As a result, doses from the presence of breast implants were smaller than those from the absence of the mammal. As the result of the change of the voltage to 26, 28, 30, and 32 kV, the imcreased tube voltage included larger dose regardless of the presence of Breast implant. Therefore, it is believed that diagnosis recommendations for breast implants will be possible if further studies on internal and external bioretical imaging and quality assessment are carried out as the basis for this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2012

Of this study, it was found that there were 250 mammographic units in total installed and used in the areas for this study, and 36 units were used in general hospitals, 53 units in hospitals and 116 units in clinics. That is, the units in clinics accounted for 50% out of the whole units. As for the image acquisition method, it was found there were 131 units using F/S, 67 units using CR and 7 units using DR respectively. At present, F/S system was mainly used in the areas. As for the materials of target/filter, it was found that Mo/Mo was mostly used (66%), followed by Mo/Rh (25%). As for the size of focus, both 0.1 mm for small focus and 0.3 mm for large focus were mainly used for the units.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2006

Purpose: A various find of radiotherapy treatment plans have been made to determine appropriate doses for breasts, chest walls and loco-regional lymphatics in the radiotherapy of breast cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the optimum radiotherapy plan technique method by analyzing dose distributions qualitatively and quantitatively. Materials and Methods: To evaluate the optimum breast cancer radiotherapy plan technique, the traditional method(two dimensional method) and computed tomography image are adopted to get breast volume, and they are compared with the three-dimensional conformal radiography (3DCRT) and the intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). For this, the regions of interest (ROI) such as breasts, chest walls, loco-regional lymphatics and lungs were marked on the humanoid phantom, and the computed tomography(Volume, Siemens, USA) was conducted. Using the computed tomography image obtained, radiotherapy treatment plans (XiO 5.2.1, FOCUS, USA) were made and compared with the traditional methods by applying 3DCRT and IMRT. The comparison and analysis were made by analyzing and conducting radiation dose distribution and dose-volume histogram (DVH) based upon radiotherapy techniques (2D, 3DCRT, IMRT) and point doses for the regions of interest. Again, treatment efficiency was evaluated based upon time-labor. Results: It was found that the case of using 3DCRT plan techniques by getting breast volume is more useful than the traditional methods in terms of tumor delineation, beam direction and confirmation of field boundary. Conclusion: It was possible to present the optimum radiotherapy plan techniques through qualitative and quantitative analyses based upon radiotherapy plan techniques in case of breast cancer radiotherapy. However, further studies are required for the problems with patient setup reproducibility arising from the difficulties of planning target volume (PVT) and breast immobilization in case of three-dimensional radiotherapy planning.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.743-749
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• 2023

Breast ductal carcinoma in situ(DCIS) refers to cases in which breast epithelial cells have become malignant but are still limited to normal ducts, and has been increasing rapidly in recent years. In this case, a two-year follow-up revealed findings on mammography and ultrasonography that indicated a small mass classified as BI-RADS Category 3, However far from typical malignant tumor these findings were. In the second year of follow-up, a hypoechoic mass with an indistinct boundary of the right breast in the 6 o'clock direction, on mammography appeared to be about 2.1×1.3 cm in size, and biopsy diagnosed it as ductal carcinoma. Since ductal endothelial cancer has no characteristic clinical findings and can show positive clinical and imaging findings in the early stages, regular follow-up is considered important for early diagnosis, and detection of ductal endothelial cancer through mammography and ultrasound is important for improving the prognosis of all breast cancer patients. During the initial examination conducted four years ago, we reported cases of intra ductal cancer in which asymmetric shading, microcalcification, and branched mass, indicative of intra ductal cancer, were observed during follow-up. It is advisable to concurrently explore methods for reducing X-ray dosage to mitigate potential side effects of contrast medium.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.455-460
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• 2019

This study compared the radiation transmission and image quality of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polycarbonate (PC), and carbon, which are common components of the compression plates currently used during breast imaging. In addition to measuring the transmitted dose and the intensity without the use of a compression paddle, the four different compression paddles were evaluated according to the material and thickness of each paddle. Radiation transmittance, maximum intensity, and plot profile type w ere all evaluated for each material, and for each factor evaluated the follow ing order w as noted, from best to w orst: carbon 4 mm, PMMA 3 mm, PMMA 4 mm, and PC 4 mm. It is necessary to study a variety of materials and thicknesses in order to find the optimal combination of material and thickness, because not only does the material have a large influence in reducing the radiation exposure during mammography, but the thickness of the compression plate also has a great influence.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.293-299
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• 2005

In the present investigation, we analyzed the data of 1,318 patients (2,636 images) who underwent mammographic examinations and obtained the distribution of the patient age and compressed breast thickness. We measured also average glandular doses (AGD) as function of compressed breast thickness. In order to obtain the values of AGD, we measured half value layer (HVL) and tube output (mR/mAs) for each kVp and target/filter combination. Entrance surface air kerma (ESAK) was calculated from the tube output as measured for each voltage used under clinical conditions and from the tube loading (mAs). AGD per exposure were calculated by multiplying the ESAK values by the conversion factors tabulated by Dance. We obtained in this study the following conclusions. The mean value of compressed breast thickness for cranio-caudal (CC) view was 35.8mm and that for medio-lateral oblique (MLO) view was 43.3 mm. The mean value of AGD for CC view was 1.55 mGy and that for MLO view was 1.70 mGy. The AGD for MLO view was 0.15 mGy (10%) higher than that for CC view because the thickness for MLO view was on average 4.8 mm higher than that for CC view. The values of AGD increased with increasing compressed brest thickness. The increased AGD value was on average 0.34 mGy per 10 mm in the thickness ranges $10{\sim}80\;mm$, therefore differences between the AGD values of each thickness were relative large. Thus, it is considered to need limited doses for mammography with the upper end of exposure range at several different compressed brest thickness.