• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.64-72
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• 2002

Purpose : To introduce and demonstrate the advantages of the new hybrid two-dimensional (2D) proton spectroscopic imaging (SI) over the single voxel spectroscopy (SVS) and conventional 2D SI in the clinical application of spectroscopy for pediatric cerebral disease. Materials and Methods : Eighty-one hybrid 2D proton spectroscopic imaging was performed in 79 children (36 normal infants and children, 10 with hypoxic-ischemic injury, 20 with toxic-metabolic encephalopathy, seven with brain tumor, three with meningoencephalitis, one with neurofibromatosis, one with Sturge-Weber syndrome and one with lissencephaly) ranging in age from the third day of life to 15 years. In adult volunteers (n=5), all three techniques including hybrid 2D proton SI, SVS using PRESS sequence, and conventional 2D proton SI were performed. Both hybrid 2D proton SI and SVS using PRESS sequence were performed in clinical cases (n=). All measurements were performed with a 1.5-T scanner using standard head quadrature coil. The 16$\times$16 phase encoding steps were set on variable field of view (FOV) depending on the size of the brain. The hybrid volume of interest inside FOV was set as $75{\times}75{\times}15{\;}\textrm{mm}^3$ or smaller to get rid of unwanted fat signal. Point-resolved spectroscopy (TR/TE=1,500 msec/135 or 270msec) was employed with standard chemical shift selective saturation (CHESSI pulses for water suppression. The acquisition time and spectral quality of hybrid 2D proton SI were compared with those of SVS and conventional 2D proton SI. Results : The hybrid 2D proton SI was successfully conducted upon all patients.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.124-131
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• 2015

Radiation exposure to humans can be caused by the gamma rays emitted from natural radioactive elements(such as uranium, thorium and potassium and any of their decay products) of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials(NORM) or Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials(TENORM) added consumer products. In this study, assume that activity of radioactive elements is $^{238}U$, $^{235}U$, $^{232}Th$ $1Bq{\cdot}g^{-1}$, $^{40}K$ $10Bq{\cdot}g^{-1}$ and the gamma rays emitted from these natural radioactive elements radioactive equilibrium state. In this study, reflected End-User circumstances and evaluated annual exposure dose for products based on ICRP reference voxel phantoms and ICRP Recommendation 103 using the Monte Carlo Method. The consumer products classified according to the adhere to the skin(bracelet, necklace, belt-wrist, belt-ankle, belt-knee, moxa stone) or not(gypsum board, anion wallpaper, anion paint), and Geometric Modeling was reflected in Republic of Korea "Residential Living Trend-distributions and Design Guidelines For Common Types of Household.", was designed the Room model($3m{\times}4m{\times}2.8m$, a closed room, conservatively) and the ICRP reference phantom's 3D segmentation and modeling. The end-user's usage time assume that "Development and Application of Korean Exposure Factors." or conservatively 24 hours; in case of unknown. In this study, the results of the effective dose were 0.00003 ~ 0.47636 mSv per year and were confirmed the meaning of necessary for geometric modeling to ICRP reference phantoms through the equivalent dose rate of belt products.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.35 no.6 s.113
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• pp.475-484
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• 2005

This study was performed to investigate the reproducibility of the horizontal and midsagittal planes, and to suggest a stable coordinate system for three-dimensional (3D) cephalometric analysis. Eighteen CT scans were taken and the coordinate system was established using 7 reference points marked by a volume model, with no more than 4 points on the same plane. The 3D landmarks were selected on V works (Cybermed Inc., Seoul, Korea), then exported to V surgery (Cybermed Inc., Seoul, Korea) to calculate the coordinate values. All the landmarks were taken twice with a lapse of 2 weeks. The horizontal and midsagittal planes were constructed and its reproducibility was evaluated. There was no significant difference in the reproducibility of the horizontal reference planes, But, FH planes were more reproducible than other horizontal planes. FH planes showed no difference between the planes constructed with 3 out of 4 points. The angle of intersection made by 2 FH planes, composed of both Po and one Or showed less than $1^{\circ}$ difference. This was identical when 2 FH planes were composed of both Or and one Po. But, the latter cases showed a significantly smaller error. The reproducibility of the midsagittal plane was reliable with an error range of 0.61 to $1.93^{\circ}$ except for 5 establishments (FMS-Nc, Na-Rh, Na-ANS, Rh-ANS, and FR-PNS). The 3D coordinate system may be constructed with 3 planes; the horizontal plane constructed by both Po and right Or; the midsagittal plane perpendicular to the horizontal plane, including the midpoint of the Foramen Spinosum and Nc; and the coronal plane perpendicular to the horizontal and midsagittal planes, including point clinoidale, or sella, or PNS.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.126-133
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• 2010

Purpose : The study was to evaluate the localization of the abnormal gyral and sulcal patterns obtained by means of brain surface rendering imaging. Materials and Methods : Nineteen patients with cortical dysplasia who underwent brain surface rendering MR imaging were included in this study. We acquired MP-RAGE sequence and created the 3-D surface rendering MR images by using $VoxelPlus^{(R)}$. Anatomical locations and configurations of abnormal gyri and sulci were reviewed. Results : Abnormal gyral and sulcal patterns were seen 18 in 19 patients. The configuration and orientation of affected gyri and sulci were clearly evaluated in the brain surface rendering images. In a lissencephaly, the a cortex was not delineated and showed markedly thick and smooth gyral pattern. In a schizencephaly, there were wheel shaped broad gyral pattern around the cleft. In a hemimegalencephaly, an affected hemisphere were enlarged and displayed thick and wide gyral pattern. In CBPS, the insular cortex was exposed and the gyri of the lesion were thickened. In focal cortical dysplasia, there were irregular serrated or thick and enlarged gyri. Conclusion : Brain surface rendering MR imaging is useful for the evaluation of a detailed gyral pattern and accurate involvement site of abnormal gyri.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.386-396
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• 2020

Objective : To generate synthetic spine magnetic resonance (MR) images from spine computed tomography (CT) using generative adversarial networks (GANs), as well as to determine the similarities between synthesized and real MR images. Methods : GANs were trained to transform spine CT image slices into spine magnetic resonance T2 weighted (MRT2) axial image slices by combining adversarial loss and voxel-wise loss. Experiments were performed using 280 pairs of lumbar spine CT scans and MRT2 images. The MRT2 images were then synthesized from 15 other spine CT scans. To evaluate whether the synthetic MR images were realistic, two radiologists, two spine surgeons, and two residents blindly classified the real and synthetic MRT2 images. Two experienced radiologists then evaluated the similarities between subdivisions of the real and synthetic MRT2 images. Quantitative analysis of the synthetic MRT2 images was performed using the mean absolute error (MAE) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). Results : The mean overall similarity of the synthetic MRT2 images evaluated by radiologists was 80.2%. In the blind classification of the real MRT2 images, the failure rate ranged from 0% to 40%. The MAE value of each image ranged from 13.75 to 34.24 pixels (mean, 21.19 pixels), and the PSNR of each image ranged from 61.96 to 68.16 dB (mean, 64.92 dB). Conclusion : This was the first study to apply GANs to synthesize spine MR images from CT images. Despite the small dataset of 280 pairs, the synthetic MR images were relatively well implemented. Synthesis of medical images using GANs is a new paradigm of artificial intelligence application in medical imaging. We expect that synthesis of MR images from spine CT images using GANs will improve the diagnostic usefulness of CT. To better inform the clinical applications of this technique, further studies are needed involving a large dataset, a variety of pathologies, and other MR sequence of the lumbar spine.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2014

Purpose : $T_2{^*}$ relaxation time which includes susceptibility information represents unique feature of tissue. The objective of this study was to investigate $T_2{^*}$ relaxation times of the normal glandular tissue and fat of breast using a 3T MRI system. Materials and Methods: Seven-echo MR Images were acquired from 52 female subjects (age $49{\pm}12 $years; range, 25 to 75) using a three-dimensional (3D) gradient-echo sequence. Echo times were between 2.28 ms to 25.72 ms in 3.91 ms steps. Voxel-based $T_2{^*}$ relaxation times and $R_2{^*}$ relaxation rate maps were calculated by using the linear curve fitting for each subject. The 3D regions-of-interest (ROI) of the normal glandular tissue and fat were drawn on the longest echo-time image to obtain $T_2{^*}$ and $R_2{^*}$ values. Mean values of those parameters were calculated over all subjects. Results: The 3D ROI sizes were $4818{\pm}4679$ voxels and $1455{\pm}785$ voxels for the normal glandular tissue and fat, respectively. The mean $T_2{^*}$ values were $22.40{\pm}5.61ms$ and $36.36{\pm}8.77ms$ for normal glandular tissue and fat, respectively. The mean $R_2{^*}$ values were $0.0524{\pm}0.0134/ms$ and $0.0297{\pm}0.0069/ms$ for the normal glandular tissue and fat, respectively. Conclusion: $T_2{^*}$ and $R_2{^*}$ values were measured from human breast tissues. $T_2{^*}$ of the normal glandular tissue was shorter than that of fat. Measurement of $T_2{^*}$ relaxation time could be important to understand susceptibility effects in the breast cancer and the normal tissue.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.172-180
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• 2007

Among the nuclear medicine imaging methods available today, $H_2^{15}O-PET$ is most widely used by cognitive neuroscientists to examine regional brain function via the measurement of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). The short half-life of the radioactively labeled probe, $^{15}O$, often allows repeated measures from the same subjects in many different task conditions. $H_2^{15}O-$ PET, however, has technical limitations relative to other methods of functional neuroimaging, e.g., fMRI, including relatively poor time and spatial resolutions, and, frequently, insufficient statistical power for analysis of individual subjects. However, recent technical developments, such as the 3-D acquisition method provide relatively good image quality with a smaller radioactive dosage, which in turn results in more PET scans from each individual, thus providing sufficient statistical power for the analysis of individual subject's data. Furthermore, the noise free scanner environment $H_2^{15}O$ PET, along with discrete acquisition of data for each task condition, are important advantages of PET over other functional imaging methods regarding studying state-dependent changes in brain activity. This review presents both the limitations and advantages of $^{15}O-PET$, and outlines the design of efficient PET protocols, using examples of recent PET studies both in the normal healthy population, and in the clinical population.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
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• v.11A no.7 s.91
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• pp.555-562
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• 2004

Both global volume reduction and local shape changes of hippocampus within the brain indicate their abnormal neurological states. Hippocampal shape analysis consists of two main steps. First, construct a hippocampal shape representation model ; second, compute a shape similarity from this representation. This paper proposes a novel method for the analysis of hippocampal shape using integrated Octree-based representation, containing meshes, voxels, and skeletons. First of all, we create multi-level meshes by applying the Marching Cube algorithm to the hippocampal region segmented from MR images. This model is converted to intermediate binary voxel representation. And we extract the 3D skeleton from these voxels using the slice-based skeletonization method. Then, in order to acquire multiresolutional shape representation, we store hierarchically the meshes, voxels, skeletons comprised in nodes of the Octree, and we extract the sample meshes using the ray-tracing based mesh sampling technique. Finally, as a similarity measure between the shapes, we compute $L_2$ Norm and Hausdorff distance for each sam-pled mesh pair by shooting the rays fired from the extracted skeleton. As we use a mouse picking interface for analyzing a local shape inter-actively, we provide an interaction and multiresolution based analysis for the local shape changes. In this paper, our experiment shows that our approach is robust to the rotation and the scale, especially effective to discriminate the changes between local shapes of hippocampus and more-over to increase the speed of analysis without degrading accuracy by using a hierarchical level-of-detail approach.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.108-123
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the contribution of $^{18}$ F-FDG brain PET in the differentiating Idiopathic parkinson's diesease (IPD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and multiple system atrophy (MSA). We studied 24 patients with parkinsonism : 8 patients (mean age 67.9$\pm$10.7 y: M/F : 3/5) with IPD, 9 patients (57.9$\pm$9.2 y : M/F : 4/5) with MSA and 7 patients (67.6$\pm$4.8 y : M/F 3/4) with PSP. All patients with parkinsonism and 22 age-matched normal controls underwent $^{18}$ F FDG PET in 3D mode after the injection of 370 MBq $^{118}$ F FDG. The patients with IPD, MSh and PSP were compared with a normal control group by a two-sided t-test of SPM99 (uncorrected P<0.001, extent threshold>100 voxel). All three parkinsonism groups, showed significant hypometabolism in the cerebral neocortex compared to the normal control group. However, the three groups displayed different metabolism in the subcortical structure, brain stem, and cerebellum. In IPD, there was no significant hypometabolism in the putamen, brain stem and cerebellum. However, MSA patients showed significant hypometabolism in the striatum, pons, and cerebellum compared to the normal controls and IPD patients. In addition, PSP showed significant hypometabolism in the caudate nuclei, the thalamus, midbrain, and the cingulate gyrus compared to the normal controls, the IPD, and MSA groups (IPD vs Normal sensitivity/specificity : 75%/l00%, MSA vs Normal sensitivity/specificity :100%/87%, PSP vs Normal sensitivity/specificity : 86%/94%). Our results show that the regional metabolism of IPD, MSA, and PSP is different mainly in the striatum, thalamus, brain stem and cerebellum. An assessment of the $^{18}$ F-FDG PET scan images using SPM may be a useful adjunct to a clinical examination in making a differential diagnosis of Parkinsonism.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.294-307
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• 2013

Purpose : To investigate the correlations between Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery (SNSB) scores and the gray matter volumes (GMV) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cognitively normal (CN) elderly subjects with correcting the genotypes. Materials and Methods: Total 75 subjects were enrolled with 25 subjects for each group. The apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon genotypes, SNSB scores, and the 3D T1-weighted images were obtained from all subjects. Correlations between SNSB scores and GMV were investigated with the multiple regression method for each subject group using both voxel-based and region-of-interest-based analyses with covariates of age, gender, and the genotype. Results: In the AD group, Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT) delayed recall scores were positively correlated with GMV. In the MCI group, Seoul Verbal Learning Test (SVLT) scores were positively correlated with GMV. In the CN group, GMV negatively correlated with Boston Naming Test (K-BNT) scores and Mini-Mental State Examimation (K-MMSE) scores, but positively correlated with RCFT scores. Conclusion: When we used covariates of age, gender, and the genotype, we found statistically significant correlations between some SNSB scores and GMV at some brain regions. It may be necessary to further investigate a longitudinal study to understand the correlation.