• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.67-76
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• 2006

We evaluated the accuracy of a patient setup error correction due to reference image quality for a 2D-2D matching process. Digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) generated by use of the Pinnacle3 and the Eclipse for various regions of a humanoid phantom and a patient for different CT slice thickness were employed as a reference images and kV X-ray Images from the On-Board Imager were registered to the reference DRRs. In comparison of the DRRs and profiles, DRR image quality was getting worse with an increase of CT image slice thickness. However there were only slight differences of setup errors evaluation between matching results for good and poor reference DRRs. Although DRR image quality did not strongly affect to the 2D-2D matching accuracy, there are still potential errors for matching procedure, therefore we recommend that DRR images are needed to be generated with less than 3mm slice thickness for 2D-2D matching.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.84 no.1
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• pp.240-252
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• 2023

Purpose To assess the effect of deep learning image reconstruction (DLIR) for head CT in pediatric patients. Materials and Methods We collected 126 pediatric head CT images, which were reconstructed using filtered back projection, iterative reconstruction using adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASiR)-V, and all three levels of DLIR (TrueFidelity; GE Healthcare). Each image set group was divided into four subgroups according to the patients' ages. Clinical and dose-related data were reviewed. Quantitative parameters, including the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and qualitative parameters, including noise, gray matter-white matter (GM-WM) differentiation, sharpness, artifact, acceptability, and unfamiliar texture change were evaluated and compared. Results The SNR and CNR of each level in each age group increased among strength levels of DLIR. High-level DLIR showed a significantly improved SNR and CNR (p < 0.05). Sequential reduction of noise, improvement of GM-WM differentiation, and improvement of sharpness was noted among strength levels of DLIR. Those of high-level DLIR showed a similar value as that with ASiR-V. Artifact and acceptability did not show a significant difference among the adapted levels of DLIR. Conclusion Adaptation of high-level DLIR for the pediatric head CT can significantly reduce image noise. Modification is needed while processing artifacts.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.382-384
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• 2002

Filtered-Back-Projection technique is used in X-ray CT image reconstruction. This requires X-ray transmission data from all directions. As the transverse cross-section of the body is approximately 50 cm, transmitted X-rays in this direction are strongly attenuated. If X-ray transmission data in this direction is avoided, exposure to the patients seems to be reduced one 20th of usual value. Some alternative method has to be found for clinically sufficient image quality. New methods are under development and tentative results are reported that utilizes the principle of superposition.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.293-299
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• 2021

In order to reduce the irresistible radiation exposure of patients who perform periodic examinations using a CT among various scan parameters a method to reduce patient dose was investigated through changes in the tube voltage close to X-ray penetrating power. As a result of the experiment 100 kVp was applied instead of 120 kVp which is commonly used in clinical practice and CTDI decreased by about 41% during scan. In addition the degree of change in image quality was measured as 1046.1±3.7 HU for CT value and 71.4±7.9 for Pixel value and statistical analysis showed no significant difference (0.05

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.33-38
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• 2014

Purpose Auto exposure control (AEC) in SPECT/CT automatically controls the exposure dose (mA) according to patient's shape and size. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of AEC in SPECT/CT on exposure dose reduction and image quality. Materials and Methods The model of SPECT/CT used in this study was Discovery 670 (GE, USA), Smart mA for AEC; and $^{99m}Tc$ as a radioisotope. To compare SPECT and CT images by CT exposure dose variation, we used a standard technique set at 80, 100, 120, 140 kVp, 10, 30, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 mA, and AEC at 80, 100, 120, 140 kVp, 10-250 mA. To evaluate resolution and contrast of SPECT images, triple line phantom and flangeless Esser PET phantom were used. For CT images, noise and uniformity were checked by anthropomrphic chest phantom. For dose evaluation to find DLP value, anthropomorphic chest phantom was used and the CT protocol of torso was applied by standard technique (120 kVp, 100 mA) and AEC (120 kVp, 10-250 mA). Results When standard and AEC were applied, the resolutions at SPECT images with attenuation correction (AC) were the same as FWHM by center 3.65 mm, left 3.48 mm, right 3.61 mm. Contrasts of standard and AEC showed no significant difference: standard 53.5, 29.8, 22.5, 15.8, 6.0, AEC 53.5, 29.6, 22.4, 15.7, 6.1 In CT images, noise values at standard and AEC were 15.4 and 18.5 respectively. The application of AEC increases noise but the value of coefficient variation were 33.8, 24.9 respectively, obtaining uniform noise image. The values of DLP at standard and AEC were 426.78 and 352.09 each, which shows that the application of AEC decreases exposure dose more than standard by approximately 18%. Conclusion The results of our study show that there was no difference of AC in SPECT images based on the CT exposure dose variation at SPECT/CT images. It was found that the increased CT exposure dose leads to the improvement of CT image quality but also increases the exposure dose. Thus, the use of AEC in SPECT/CT contributes to obtaining equal AC SPECT images, and uniform noise in CT images while reducing exposure dose.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.105-110
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• 2016

Sparse angular sampling has been studied recently owing to its potential to decrease the radiation exposure from computed tomography (CT). In this study, we investigated the analytic reconstruction algorithm in sparse angular sampling using the sinogram interpolation method for improving image quality and computation speed. A prototype of the spectral CT system, which has a 64-pixel Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT)-based photon-counting detector, was used. The source-to-detector distance and the source-to-center of rotation distance were 1,200 and 1,015 mm, respectively. Two energy bins (23~33 keV and 34~44 keV) were set to obtain two reconstruction images. We used a PMMA phantom with height and radius of 50.0 mm and 17.5 mm, respectively. The phantom contained iodine, gadolinium, calcification, and lipid. The Feld-kamp-Davis-Kress (FDK) with the sinogram interpolation method and Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization (MLEM) algorithm were used to reconstruct the images. We evaluated the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the materials. The SNRs of iodine, calcification, and liquid lipid were increased by 167.03%, 157.93%, and 41.77%, respectively, with the 23~33 keV energy bin using the sinogram interpolation method. The SNRs of iodine, calcification, and liquid state lipid were also increased by 107.01%, 13.58%, and 27.39%, respectively, with the 34~44 keV energy bin using the sinogram interpolation method. Although the FDK algorithm with the sinogram interpolation did not produce better results than the MLEM algorithm, it did result in comparable image quality to that of the MLEM algorithm. We believe that the sinogram interpolation method can be applied in various reconstruction studies using the analytic reconstruction algorithm. Therefore, the sinogram interpolation method can improve the image quality in sparse-angular sampling and be applied to CT applications.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.941-946
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• 2019

Computed tomography (CT) has been increasing in frequency and indications for use in clinical diagnosis and treatment decisions. Multidetector CT has the advantage of shortening the inspection time and obtaining a high resolution image compared to a single detector CT, but has been pointed out the disadvantage of increasing the radiation exposure. In addition, when the low tube voltage is used to reduce the exposure dose in the CT, noise increases relatively. In the existing method, the method of finding the optimal image quality using the method of adjusting the parameters of the image reconstruction method is not a fundamental measure. In this study, we applied a double-tree complex wavelet algorithm and analyzed the results to maintain the normal signal and remove only noise. Experimental results show that the noise is reduced from 8.53 to 4.51 when using a complex oriented 2D method with 100kVp and 0.5sec rotation time. Through this study, it was possible to remove the noise and reduce the patient dose by using the optimal noise reduction algorithm. The results of this study can be used to reduce the exposure of patients due to the low dose of CT.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.951-958
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• 2021

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of virtual monochromatic images (VMIs) obtained using dual-layer dual-energy CT (DL-DECT) for evaluating brain tumors. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 32 patients with brain tumors who had undergone non-contrast head CT using DL-DECT. Among them, 15 had glioblastoma (GBM), 7 had malignant lymphoma, 5 had high-grade glioma other than GBM, 3 had low-grade glioma, and 2 had metastatic tumors. Conventional polychromatic images and VMIs (40-200 keV at 10 keV intervals) were generated. We compared CT attenuation, image noise, contrast, and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between tumor and white matter (WM) or grey matter (GM) between VMIs showing the highest CNR (optimized VMI) and conventional CT images using the paired t test. Two radiologists subjectively assessed the contrast, margin, noise, artifact, and diagnostic confidence of optimized VMIs and conventional images on a 4-point scale. Results: The image noise of VMIs at all energy levels tested was significantly lower than that of conventional CT images (p < 0.05). The 40-keV VMIs yielded the best CNR. Furthermore, both contrast and CNR between the tumor and WM were significantly higher in the 40 keV images than in the conventional CT images (p < 0.001); however, the contrast and CNR between tumor and GM were not significantly different (p = 0.47 and p = 0.31, respectively). The subjective scores assigned to contrast, margin, and diagnostic confidence were significantly higher for 40 keV images than for conventional CT images (p < 0.01). Conclusion: In head CT for patients with brain tumors, compared with conventional CT images, 40 keV VMIs from DL-DECT yielded superior tumor contrast and diagnostic confidence, especially for brain tumors located in the WM.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.39-42
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• 2013

Objective : Obtaining real-time image is essential for neurosurgeons to minimize invasion of normal brain tissue and to prompt diagnosis of intracranial event. The aim of this study was to report our three-year experience with a mobile computed tomography (mCT) for intraoperative and bedside scanning. Methods : A total of 357 mCT (297 patients) scans from January 2009 to December 2011 in single institution were reviewed. After excluding postoperative routine follow-up, 202 mCT were included for analysis. Their medical records such as diagnosis, clinical application, impact on decision making, times, image quality and radiologic findings were assessed. Results : Two-hundred-two mCT scans were performed in the operation room (n=192, 95%) or intensive care unit (ICU) (n=10, 5%). Regarding intraoperative images, extent of resection of tumor (n=55, 27.2%), degree of hematoma removal (n=42, 20.8%), confirmation of catheter placement (n=91, 45.0%) and monitoring unexpected complications (n=4, 2.0%) were evaluated. A total of 14 additional procedures were introduced after confirmation of residual tumor (n=7, 50%), hematoma (n=2, 14.3%), malpositioned catheter (n=3, 21.4%) and newly developed intracranial events (n=2, 14.3%). Every image was obtained within 15 minutes and image quality was sufficient for interpretation. Conclusion : mCT is feasible for prompt intraoperative and ICU monitoring with enhanced diagnostic certainty, safety and efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.373-375
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• 2002

4D CT is a dynamic volume imaging system of moving organs with an image quality comparable to conventional CT, and is realized with continuous and high-speed cone-beam CT. In order to realize 4D CT, we have developed a novel 2D detector on the basis of the present CT technology, and mounted it on the gantry frame of the state-of-the-art CT-scanner. In the present report we describe the design of the first model of 4D CT-scanner as well as the early results of performance test. The x-ray detector for the 4D CT-scanner is a discrete pixel detector in which pixel data are measured by an independent detector element. The numbers of elements are 912 (channels) ${\times}$ 256 (segments) and the element size is approximately 1mm ${\times}$ 1mm. Data sampling rate is 900views(frames)/sec, and dynamic range of A/D converter is 16bits. The rotation speed of the gantry is l.0sec/rotation. Data transfer system between rotating and stationary parts in the gantry consists of laser diode and photodiode pairs, and achieves net transfer speed of 5Gbps. Volume data of 512${\times}$512${\times}$256 voxels are reconstructed with FDK algorithm by parallel use of 128 microprocessors. Normal volunteers and several phantoms were scanned with the scanner to demonstrate high image quality.