• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.10
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• pp.1727-1730
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• 2016

Magnetic resonance imaging has a potential to produce clear anatomical as well as functional images of human body. However, the ability to diagnose is limited by signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the resolution of current medical systems. To remove the challenges prevalent due to the use of high field scanners, dedicated radio frequency coils are used. Transverse electromagnetic coils have an advantage of providing homogeneous magnetic field throughout the region but with low signal to noise ratio while surface coils have an advantage of providing higher signal to noise ratio but with low homogeneity. This research combines both the advantage into one by utilizing transmit only transverse electromagnetic radio frequency coils (8 channel) along with receive only surface coils (by varying the number) for better imaging of brain. A 7 Tesla 32-channel close fitting helmet shaped phased-array surface coils along with the combination of 8 channel transmit only transverse electromagnetic coils provided good homogeneity as well as significant SNR improvements throughout the human brain.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5860-5866
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• 2012

BOLD technique in functional MRI has to apply multiple stimulations. However as the stimulation time increases failure rates rise. In this study we are proposing proper number of stimulations through our experiments. Ten normal people underwent functional MRI hand motor sanning and the paradigms were designed from first to seventh stimulation. Under Philips Intera Achieva 3.0T MR system and Invivo cop's Eloquence equipment, activation periods and rest periods were repeated ten times each, using BOLD EPI technique. Primary hand motor area stimulation and number of clusters, activation rates and number of activated clusters in and outside the region of interest were compared to each other. Number of clusters in region of interest was lower than others at second stimulation and became static from third stimulation. The stimulated ratios were elevated as the number of stimulations were increased but it was not proportional. Number of clusters outside the ROI became static from the third stimulation and started increasing from sixth stimulation. As results, given the activation ratios of ROI and out side the ROI, three times stimulation was the most appropriate because it does not affect accuracy, also decreasing the fatigue of patients by with the decreased scanning time.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.751-758
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate brain activation pattern and functional connectivity network during classification on the biological phenomena. Twenty six right-handed healthy science teachers volunteered to be in the present study. To investigate participants' brain activities during the tasks, 3.0T fMRI system with the block experimental-design was used to measure BOLD signals of their brain. According to the analyzed data, superior, middle and inferior frontal gyrus, superior and inferior parietal lobule, fusiform gyrus, lingual gyrus, and bilateral cerebellum were significantly activated during participants' carrying-out classification. The network model was consisting of six nodes (ROIs) and its fourteen connections. These results suggested the notion that the activation and connections of these regions mean that classification is consist of two sub-network systems (top-down and bottom-up related) and it functioning reciprocally. These results enable the examination of the scientific classification process from the cognitive neuroscience perspective, and may be used as basic materials for developing a teaching-learning program for scientific classification such as brain-based science education curriculum in the science classrooms.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.4962-4969
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• 2013

The purpose of this experiment is to evaluate of optimized FS techniques for T2 weighted abdominal MRI compared of TSE-SPIR fat suppression and GE-PROSET fat suppression. All MR examinations were performed on a 1.5 T(Philips, Medical System, Achieva) scanner using 16 channel mult-coils. All images were performed in the axial plane using TSE-SPIR and GE-PROSET. The mean SNRs of the retroperitoneal and mesenteric fat for TSE-SPIR and GE-PROSET were 31.50, 4.15 and 32.39, 7.03. The mean CNRs of the bowel and retroperitoneal, mesenteric fat for TSE-SPIR and GE-PROSET were 52.69, 74.54 and 26.12, 68.78). The delineation of bowel wall margins with TSE-SPIR(2.4) and GE-PROSET(1.8) were significantly improved using TSE-SPIR. The delineation of pancreas wall with TSE-SPIR(1.90), GE-PROSET(2.80) were significantly improved using GE-PROSET. In conclusion, TSE-SPIR fat suppression was superior to GE-PROSET fat suppression in T2 WI FS abdominal MRI.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.126-140
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• 2006

Purpose: Contrary to the human study, it has rarely investigated metabolic alterations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of depressed rats versus age and sex-matched controls using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Thus, the purpose of this research was to verify the feasibility of metabolic differences between the normal rat and the depression model rat. Materials and Methods: A homogeneous group of 20 SD male rats was used for MRI and in vivo 1H MRS. To induce a depressed status in SD rats, we performed the forced swimming test (FST). Using image-guide, water suppressed in vivo 1H MRS with 4.7 T MRI/MRS system, NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios were mainly measured between depressed rats and normal subjects. Results: In depressed rats, increased Cho/Cr ratio was measured versus control subjects. However, no significant group effect for NAA/Cr was observed between case-control pairs. Discussion and Conclusions: The present 1H MRS study shows significant brain metabolic alterations of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with experimental depressed status of SD rat induced by FST compared to normal subjects. This result provides new evidence that in vivo 1 H MRS may be a useful modality for detecting localized functional neurochemical markers alterations in left DLPFC in SD rats.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.965-973
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively correlate the change of flow velocity and signal voiding in TOF-MRA. We made our phantom to control the flow velocity, and changed the flow velocity in 16 steps from 8.0 to 127.3 mc/s. The TOF-MRA test was performed using a 3.0T MRI system and the signal intensity was measured by classifying the signal voiding length and image into the In flow, Mid flow, and Out flow. The length of signal voiding was the longest when the flow velocity was 127.3 cm/s and the signal intensity decreased with increasing flow velocity(p<0.05). In flow(-.547) and Mid flow(-.643) were negatively correlated with flow velocitys(p<0.05). In conclusion, it was confirmed that the increase in flow velocity was a major factor causing signal voiding in TOF-MRA. In the future, this study will provide basic data when studying sequences and parameters to reduce signal voiding in models with a high flow velocity.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.95-122
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• 2020

In this article, we evaluated the performance of radiofrequency (RF) coils in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) and homogeneity of magnetic resonance images when used for ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) 7T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). High-quality MRI can be obtained when these two basic requirements are met. However, because of the dielectric effect, 7T magnetic resonance imaging still produces essentially a non-uniform magnetic flux (|B₁|) density distribution. In general, heterogeneous and homogeneous RF coils may be designed using electromagnetic (EM) modeling. Heterogeneous coils, which are surface coils, are used in consideration of scalability in the |B₁| region with a high S/N as multichannel loop coils rather than selecting a single loop. Loop coils are considered state of the art for their simplicity yet effective |B₁|-field distribution and intensity. In addition, combining multiple loop coils allows phase arrays (PA). PA coils have gained great interest for use in receiving signals because of parallel imaging (PI) techniques, such as sensitivity encoding (SENSE) and generalized autocalibrating partial parallel acquisition (GRAPPA), which drastically reduce the acquisition time. With the introduction of a parallel transmit coil (pTx) system, a form of transceiver loop arrays has also been proposed. In this article, we discussed the applications and proposed designs of loop coils. RF homogeneous coils for volume imaging include Alderman-Grant resonators, birdcage coils, saddle coils, traveling wave coils, transmission line arrays, composite right-/left-handed arrays, and fusion coils. In this article, we also discussed the basic operation, design, and applications of these coils.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.138-148
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• 2001

Purpose : Within a clinically acceptable time frame, we obtained the high resolution MR images of the human brain, knee, foot and wrist from 3T whole-body MRI system which was equipped with the world first 37 active shield magnet. Materials and Methods : Spin echo (SE) and Fast Spin Echo (FSE) images were obtained from the human brain, knee, foot and wrist of normal subjects using a homemade birdcage and transverse electromagnetic (TEM) resonators operating in quadrature and tuned to 128 MHz. For acquisition of MR images of knee, foot and wrist, we employed a homemade saddle shaped RF coil. Topical common acquisition parameters were as follows: matrix=$512{\times}512$, field of view (FOV) =20 cm, slice thickness = 3 mm, number of excitations (NEX)=1. For T1-weighted MR images, we used TR = 500 ms, TE = 10 or 17.4 ms. For T2-weighted MR images, we used TR=4000 ms, TE = 108 ms. Results : Signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 3T system was measured 2.7 times greater than that of prevalent 1.5T system. MR images obtained from 3T system revealed numerous small venous structures throughout the image plane and provided reasonable delineation between gray and white matter. Conclusion The present results demonstrate that the MR images from 3T system could provide better diagnostic quali\ulcorner of resolution and sensitivity than those of 1.5T system. The elevated SNR observed in the 3T high field magnetic resonance imaging can be utilized to acquire images with a level of resolution approaching the microscopic structural level under in vivo conditions. These images represent a significant advance in our ability to examine small anatomical features with noninvasive imaging methods.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.37-52
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• 1996

Image-guided localized, water-suppressed in vivo $^1$H MR spectroscopic studies were performed on the patients with brain tumors, acute cerebral infarction and schizophrenia, and dogs. GE Signa 1.5 T whole-body MRI/MRS system using STEAM pulse sequence was used. Proton metabolite ratios relative to creatine (Cr) were obtained using a Marquart algorithm. In vivo $^1$H MR spectra in brain neoplastic tissues revealed the changes of signal intensities of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline (Cho) and lactate (Lac) resonances. The present results suggest that the observed metabolite alterations from localized, water-suppressed in vivo $^1$H MR spectroscopy can be useful as an index of brain tumors, cerebral infarction and schizophrenia, and provide good quality metabolic information of cerebral tissue in the field of thanato-chronology.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.867-879
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• 2021

Objective: To compare the screening performance of diffusion-weighted (DW) MRI and combined mammography and ultrasound (US) in detecting clinically occult contralateral breast cancer in women with newly diagnosed breast cancer. Materials and Methods: Between January 2017 and July 2018, 1148 women (mean age ± standard deviation, 53.2 ± 10.8 years) with unilateral breast cancer and no clinical abnormalities in the contralateral breast underwent 3T MRI, digital mammography, and radiologist-performed whole-breast US. In this retrospective study, three radiologists independently and blindly reviewed all DW MR images (b = 1000 s/mm² and apparent diffusion coefficient map) of the contralateral breast and assigned a Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System category. For combined mammography and US evaluation, prospectively assessed results were used. Using histopathology or 1-year follow-up as the reference standard, cancer detection rate and the patient percentage with cancers detected among all women recommended for tissue diagnosis (positive predictive value; PPV2) were compared. Results: Of the 30 cases of clinically occult contralateral cancers (13 invasive and 17 ductal carcinoma in situ [DCIS]), DW MRI detected 23 (76.7%) cases (11 invasive and 12 DCIS), whereas combined mammography and US detected 12 (40.0%, five invasive and seven DCIS) cases. All cancers detected by combined mammography and US, except two DCIS cases, were detected by DW MRI. The cancer detection rate of DW MRI (2.0%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3%, 3.0%) was higher than that of combined mammography and US (1.0%; 95% CI: 0.5%, 1.8%; p = 0.009). DW MRI showed higher PPV2 (42.1%; 95% CI: 26.3%, 59.2%) than combined mammography and US (18.5%; 95% CI: 9.9%, 30.0%; p = 0.001). Conclusion: In women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, DW MRI detected significantly more contralateral breast cancers with fewer biopsy recommendations than combined mammography and US.