• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 2012

Diverse designs of collimator have been applied to Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) according to the purpose of acquisition; thus, it is necessary to reflect geometric characteristic of each collimator for successive image reconstruction. This study carry out reconstruction algorithm for imaging system in nuclear medicine with pinhole collimator. Especially, we study to solve sampling problem which caused in the system model of pinhole collimator. System model for a maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) was developed based on the geometry of the collimator. The projector and back-projector were separately implemented based on the ray-driven and voxel-driven methods, respectively, to overcome sparse sampling problem. We perform phantom study for pinhole collimator by using geant4 application for tomographic emission(GATE) simulation tool. The reconstructed images show promising results. Designed iterative reconstruction algorithm with unmatched system model effective to remove sampling problem artefact. Proposed algorithm can be used not only for pinhole collimator but also for various collimator system of imaging system in nuclear medicine.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.91-100
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• 2001

Objective : The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the osteoporosis in low back pain(LBP). Methods : We use method of projection with Quantitative computed tomography(QCT) to estimate Bone mineral density(BMD) of lumbar spine more precisely. From January 1999 to August 2000 we studied lumbar BMD of 46 women with LBP and 53 women with non-LBP, musculoskeletal symptoms who visited Dong-Guk University Bundang Hospital by QCT. Results : 1. Lumbar BMDs in women with LBP and women with non-LBP, musculoskeletal symptom were lower than in normal women and BMDs in women with LBP was higher than in women with non-LBP, musculoskeletal symptom but the significant difference was not revealed between two group in statistics(p<0.05).. 2. Radiological study shows that the number of degenerative spondylosis was 19, compression fracture was 11, non-radiological study was 10, normal was 5 in women with LBP. 3. Radiological study shows that the number of degenerative change was 7, compression fracture was zero, non-radiological study was 33, normal was 5 in women with non-LBP, musculoskeletal symptom. Conclusion : BMDs in women with LBP was higher than in women with non-LBP, musculoskeletat symptom but the significant difference was not revealed between two group in statistics(p<0.05).

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.83-89
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• 2010

Purpose: The goal of this study was to investigate the feasibility for the early diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis by the reconstruction of three-dimensional photoacoustic imaging with a tissue phantom. Methods: Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (l = 532 nm) was applied to a tissue phantom to generate photoacoustic waves, and the acquired photoacoustic signals at different positions around the sample were used to recombine the distribution of the optical absorption and the images were subsequently generated through a reconstruction algorithm. Results: From the acquired photoacoustic signals, the surface andinner core of the phantom was clearly distinguished. Furthermore, the back-projection algorithm was able to reconstruct two-dimensional and three-dimensional photoacoustic images that contained the optical absorption property information of the tissue phantom. Conclusion: The results indicate that the photoacoustic imaging technique has many advantages such as high optical contrast and high acoustic resolution. The acquired images can be used for the early diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis by the structural information obtained from the region of interest.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.246-258
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• 2024

In aerospace and energy engineering, the reconstruction of three-dimensional (3D) temperature distributions is crucial. Traditional methods like algebraic iterative reconstruction and filtered back-projection depend on voxel division for resolution. Our algorithm, blending deep learning with computer graphics rendering, converts 2D projections into light rays for uniform sampling, using a fully connected neural network to depict the 3D temperature field. Although effective in capturing internal details, it demands multiple cameras for varied angle projections, increasing cost and computational needs. We assess the impact of camera number on reconstruction accuracy and efficiency, conducting butane-flame simulations with different camera setups (6 to 18 cameras). The results show improved accuracy with more cameras, with 12 cameras achieving optimal computational efficiency (1.263) and low error rates. Verification experiments with 9, 12, and 15 cameras, using thermocouples, confirm that the 12-camera setup as the best, balancing efficiency and accuracy. This offers a feasible, cost-effective solution for real-world applications like engine testing and environmental monitoring, improving accuracy and resource management in temperature measurement.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.122-127
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• 2010

Purpose: The Xpress3.$cardiac^{TM}$ which is a kind of wide beam reconstruction (WBR) method developed by UltraSPECT (Haifa, Israel) enables the acquisition of at quarter time while maintaining image quality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the usefulness of WBR method for decreasing scan times and to compare to it with filtered back projection (FBP), which is the method routinely used. Materials and Methods: Phantom and clinical studies were performed. The anthropomorphic torso phantom was made on an equality with counts from patient's body. The Tl-201 concentrations in the compartments were 74 kBq (2 ${\mu}Ci$)/cc in myocardium, 11.1 kBq (0.3 ${\mu}Ci$)/cc in soft tissue, and 2.59 kBq (0.07 ${\mu}Ci$)/cc in lung. The non-gated Tl-201 myocardial perfusion SPECT data were acquired with the phantom. The former study was scanned for 50 seconds per frame with FBP method, and the latter study was acquired for 13 seconds per frame with WBR method. Using the Xeleris ver. 2.0551, full width at half maximum (FWHM) and average image contrast were compared. In clinical studies, we analyzed the 30 patients who were examined by Tl-201 gated myocardial perfusion SPECT in department of nuclear medicine at Asan Medical Center from January to April 2010. The patients were imaged at full time (50 second per frame) with FBP algorithm and again quarter-time (13 second per frame) with the WBR algorithm. Using the 4D MSPECT (4DM), Quantitative Perfusion SPECT (QPS), and Quantitative Gated SPECT (QGS) software, the summed stress score (SSS), summed rest score (SRS), summed difference score, end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV) and ejection fraction (EF) were analyzed for their correlations and statistical comparison by paired t-test. Results: As a result of the phantom study, the WBR method improved FWHM more than about 30% compared with FBP method (WBR data 5.47 mm, FBP data 7.07 mm). And the WBR method's average image contrast was also higher than FBP method's. However, in result of quantitative indices, SSS, SDS, SRS, EDV, ESV, EF, there were statistically significant differences from WBR and FBP(p<0.01). In the correlation of SSS, SDS, SRS, there were significant differences for WBR and FBP (0.18, 0.34, 0.08). But EDV, ESV, EF showed good correlation with WBR and FBP (0.88, 0.89, 0.71). Conclusion: From phantom study results, we confirmed that the WBR method reduces an acquisition time while improving an image quality compared with FBP method. However, we should consider significant differences in quantitative indices. And it needs to take an evaluation test to apply clinical study to find a cause of differences out between phantom and clinical results.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.83 no.3
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• pp.669-679
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• 2022

Purpose To evaluate the feasibility of pediatric low-dose facial CT reconstructed with filtered back projection (FBP) using adequate kernels. Materials and Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and imaging data of children aged < 10 years who underwent facial CT at our emergency department. The patients were divided into two groups: low-dose CT (LDCT; Group A, n = 73) with a fixed 80-kVp tube potential and automatic tube current modulation (ATCM) and standard-dose CT (SDCT; Group B, n = 40) with a fixed 120-kVp tube potential and ATCM. All images were reconstructed with FBP using bone and soft tissue kernels in Group A and only bone kernel in Group B. The groups were compared in terms of image noise, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Two radiologists subjectively scored the overall image quality of bony and soft tissue structures. The CT dose index volume and dose-length product were recorded. Results Image noise was higher in Group A than in Group B in bone kernel images (p < 0.001). Group A using a soft tissue kernel showed the highest SNR and CNR for all soft tissue structures (all p < 0.001). In the qualitative analysis of bony structures, Group A scores were found to be similar to or higher than Group B scores on comparing bone kernel images. In the qualitative analysis of soft tissue structures, there was no significant difference between Group A using a soft tissue kernel and Group B using a bone kernel with a soft tissue window setting (p > 0.05). Group A showed a 76.9% reduction in radiation dose compared to Group B (3.2 ± 0.2 mGy vs. 13.9 ± 1.5 mGy; p < 0.001). Conclusion The addition of a soft tissue kernel image to conventional CT reconstructed with FBP enables the use of pediatric low-dose facial CT protocol while maintaining image quality.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.520-529
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• 2007

An efficient method for implementing image reconstruction algorithms for Compton cameras is presented. Since Compton scattering formula establishes a cone surface from which the incident photon must have originated, it is crucial to implement a computationally efficient cone-surface integration method for image reconstruction. In this paper we assume that a cone is made up of a series of ellipses (or circles) stacked up one on top of the other. In order to reduce computational burden for tracing ellipses formed by the intersection of a cone and an image plane, we propose a new method using a series of imaginary planes perpendicular to the cone axis so that each plane contains a circle, not an ellipse. In this case the cone surface integral can be performed by simply accumulating the circles along the cone axis. To reduce the computational cost of tracing circles, only one of the circles in the cone is traced and the rest are determined by using simple trigonometric ratios. For our experiments, we used the three different schemes for tracing ellipses; (i) using the samples generated by the ellipse equation, (ii) using the fixed number of samples along a circle on the imaginary plane, and (iii) using the fixed sampling interval along a circle on the imaginary plane. We then compared performance of the above three methods by applying them to the two reconstruction algorithms - the simple back-projection method and the expectation-maximization algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed methods (ii) and (iii) using imaginary planes significantly improve reconstruction accuracy as well as computational efficiency.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.558-568
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• 2019

Objective: To evaluate whether computed tomography (CT) reconstruction algorithms affect the CT texture features of the liver parenchyma. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study comprised 58 patients (normal liver, n = 34; chronic liver disease [CLD], n = 24) who underwent liver CT scans using a single CT scanner. All CT images were reconstructed using filtered back projection (FBP), hybrid iterative reconstruction (IR) (iDOSE⁴), and model-based IR (IMR). On arterial phase (AP) and portal venous phase (PVP) CT imaging, quantitative texture analysis of the liver parenchyma using a single-slice region of interest was performed at the level of the hepatic hilum using a filtration-histogram statistic-based method with different filter values. Texture features were compared among the three reconstruction methods and between normal livers and those from CLD patients. Additionally, we evaluated the inter- and intra-observer reliability of the CT texture analysis by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Results: IR techniques affect various CT texture features of the liver parenchyma. In particular, model-based IR frequently showed significant differences compared to FBP or hybrid IR on both AP and PVP CT imaging. Significant variation in entropy was observed between the three reconstruction algorithms on PVP imaging (p < 0.05). Comparison between normal livers and those from CLD patients revealed that AP images depend more strongly on the reconstruction method used than PVP images. For both inter- and intra-observer reliability, ICCs were acceptable (> 0.75) for CT imaging without filtration. Conclusion: CT texture features of the liver parenchyma evaluated using the filtration-histogram method were significantly affected by the CT reconstruction algorithm used.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 2011

Purpose: Presently in the nuclear medicine field, the high-speed image reconstruction algorithm like the OSEM algorithm is widely used as the alternative of the filtered back projection method due to the rapid development and application of the digital computer. There is no to relate and if it applies the optimal parameter be clearly determined. In this research, the quality change of the Jaszczak phantom experiment and brain SPECT patient data according to the iteration times and subset number change try to be been put through and analyzed in 3D OSEM reconstruction method of applying 3D beam modeling. Materials and Methods: Patient data from August, 2010 studied and analyzed against 5 patients implementing the brain SPECT until september, 2010 in the nuclear medicine department of ASAN medical center. The phantom image used the mixed Jaszczak phantom equally and obtained the water and 99mTc (500 MBq) in the dual head gamma camera Symbia T2 of Siemens. When reconstructing each image altogether with patient data and phantom data, we changed iteration number as 1, 4, 8, 12, 24 and 30 times and subset number as 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 times. We reconstructed in reconstructed each image, the variation coefficient for guessing about noise of images and image contrast, FWHM were produced and compared. Results: In patients and phantom experiment data, a contrast and spatial resolution of an image showed the tendency to increase linearly altogether according to the increment of the iteration times and subset number but the variation coefficient did not show the tendency to be improved according to the increase of two parameters. In the comparison according to the scan time, the image contrast and FWHM showed altogether the result of being linearly improved according to the iteration times and subset number increase in projection per 10, 20 and 30 second image but the variation coefficient did not show the tendency to be improved. Conclusion: The linear relationship of the image contrast improved in 3D OSEM reconstruction method image of applying 3D beam modeling through this experiment like the existing 1D and 2D OSEM reconfiguration method according to the iteration times and subset number increase could be confirmed. However, this is simple phantom experiment and the result of obtaining by the some patients limited range and the various variables can be existed. So for generalizing this based on this results of this experiment, there is the excessiveness and the evaluation about 3D OSEM reconfiguration method should be additionally made through experiments after this.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.50-55
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• 2002

The standard approach of image resampling is to fit the original image with continuous model and resample the function at a desired rate. We used the B-spline function as the continuous model because it oscillates less than the others. The main purpose of this paper is the derivation of a nonuniform optimal resampling algorithm. To derive it, needing approximation can be computed in three steps: 1) determining the I-spline coefficients by matrix inverse process, 2) obtaining the transformed-spline coefficients by the optimal resampling algorithm derived from the orthogonal projection theorem, 3) converting of the result back into the signal domain by indirect B-spline transformation. With these methods, we can use B-spline in the non-uniform resampling, which is proved to be a good kernel in uniform resampling, and can also verify the applicability from our experiments.