• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.53-63
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• 2014

The objective of this study is to investigate the difference of ITV lengths and ITVs between 4DCT and Slow-CT images according to respiratory patterns using a respiratory motion phantom. The respiratory periods 1~4 s and target motion 1~3 cm were applied on each respiratory pattern. 4DCT and Slow-CT images were acquired for 3 times. 4DCT and Slow-CT ITVs were measured with contouring the target in the Eclipse RTP system. The measured ITV lenghts and ITVs in 4DCT and Slow-CT images were compared to the known values. For the ITV lengths and ITVs in the 4DCT, the difference of them were reduced as the respiratory period is longer and target motion is shorter. For the Slow-CT, there was same tendency with change in 4DCT ITV lengths and ITVs about target motion. However, the difference of ITV lengths and ITVs for the respiratory periods were the lowest in respiratory period 1 second and different slightly within respiratory period 2-4 seconds. According to the respiratory patterns, pattern A had the highest reproducibility. Pattern B, C and D were showed the difference similar to each other. However, for pattern E, the reproducibility was the lowest compared with other four patterns. The difference of ITV lengths and ITVs between Slow-CT and 4DCT was increased by increasing the respiratory periods and target motion for all respiratory patterns. When the difference of Slow-CT ITV lengths and ITVs were compared with that of 4DCT ITV lengths and ITVs, Slow-CT ITV lengths and ITVs were approximately 22 % smaller than 4DCT, and the representations of target were different in each pattern. In case of pattern A, B and C, length difference was 3 mm at S (superior) and I (inferior) direction, and the length difference of pattern D was 1.45 cm at only "I" direction whereas the length difference of pattern E was 5 mm longer in "S" direction than "I" direction. Therefore, the margin in SI directions should be determined by considering the respiratory patterns when the margin of Slow-CT is compensated for 4DCT ITV lengths. Afterward, we think that the result of this study will be useful to analyze the ITV lengths and ITVs from the CT images on the basis of the patient respiratory signals.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.115-121
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• 2008

Purpose: Aortic Dissection is very dangerous, prognostic disease, which the bloodstream flow out of the true lumen of the aorta by the bursting of aortic intima resulting in a rapid dissociation of inner and outer layer from the media. It is difficult to diagnose aortic dissection clinically by normal X-ray. This study was to investigate the occurrence frequency by age and number of patients who are identified to be aortic dissection by CT (Computed Tomography) scan. Materials and methods: We investigated the trend of yearly fluctuation, gender, age, and department of clinical research of the 112 patients who conducted CT scan in C- University Hospital for two years from January 2005 to December 2006. The MIP and SSD which reconstructed CT image and the VRT image were obtained for the accurate observation. The result was investigated by comparing normal X-ray and CT scan. Results and Conclusion: 1. The yearly check of 112 patients conducted CT scan showed 37 people (41.9%) in 2005, and it was increased to 65 (58.1%) in 2006 by 1.4 times. 2. The gender distribution of patients given a CT scan showed 45 males (40.1%), and female 67 (59.9 %). The aortic dissection patients were 9 (20%) out of 45 males, 21 (31.3%) out of 67 females and women were 1.6 times more than men. Women are also 1.5 times more than men in the number of examinee. 3. The age distribution of patient's who conducted CT scan revealed that there was no patient under 30 years old while 88.3% of all patients were through 41 to 80 years old. The higher the age was, the higher the occurrence of aortic dissection was. The difference in the occurrence frequency of age was statistically significant (p<0.01). 4. The departments that requested CT scan were the emergency department 46 (41.1%), circulatory internal medicine 37 (33.0%), chest surgery 13 (11.6%), and others 6 (14.3%). The combined ratio of emergency medicine and circulatory internal medicine was 74.1% of all. The results show that the aortic dissection is a very dangerous disease whose patients visit mainly via the emergency room. 5. The aortic dissection patients had normal X-ray readings in 22 (73.3%) out of 30, and only 8 (26.7 percent) are abnormal in the X-ray diagnosis. Therefore, the CT scan needs to be enforced in order to assess accurately the disease of aortic dissection.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.103-107
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• 2012

This paper analyzes changes in the external radiation dose rate of PET-CT test patients as a part of providing basic materials for reduction of radiation exposure to PET-CT test patients. In theory the measurement of external radiation dose rate of PET-CT test patients shows that the further the distance from the patient injected with radioactive pharmaceutical and a longer time elapsement from the injection leads to a smaller amount of radiation. Particularly, the amount of radiation marked the highest in the chest was at 4.17 minutes immediately after the intravenous injection and in the head after 77.47 minutes after urination in advance to the PET-CT test. As in the generalized information, it is desired to keep distance between the patient and caretakers or professionals to reduce the amount of radiation exposure from PET-CT test patients and to resume contact the patient after the time when the radiation has reduced. If contact is unavoidable, it is desired to keep at least 200cm from the patient. In addition, the amount of radiation reached the highest in the chest at first and then in the head from 77 minutes after injection. Accordingly, it would be helpful in achieving the optimization if contact is made based on the patient's physical characteristics. This study is significant as it measures changes in radiation the dose rate by; distance from the PET-CT test patient, time elapsed, and specific parts of body. Further studies based on the findings in this paper are required to analyze changes in radiation dose rate in accordance with individual characteristics unique to PET-CT patients and to utilize the results to reduce the amount of radiation patient, caretakers and professions are exposed.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.129-133
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• 2016

$MnO_2$ was added to the $0.95(Na_{0.5}K_{0.5})NbO_3-0.05CaTiO_3$ (NKN-CT) ceramics in order to promote the densification and improve the poling efficiency by increasing the resistance of the specimens. Densification and abnormal grain growth occurred in the $MnO_2$-added NKN-CT ceramics sintered at $1020^{\circ}C$, indicating that $MnO_2$ assisted the liquid-phase sintering of these materials. $Mn^{3+}$ ions were considered to enter the A-site of the matrix, thereby producing the free electrons, which interacted with the holes resulting from the evaporation of alkali ions. This interaction results in an increase in the resistance of the specimens. The increased resistance improved the poling efficiency and, hence, the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of the NKN-CT ceramics. A few of the $Mn^{3+}$ ions that entered the B-site of the NKN-CT matrix led to a slight increase in the mechanical quality factor.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.337-344
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the radiolucency for the phantom output to the 3D printing technology. The 3D printing technology was applied for FDM (fused deposition modeling) method and was used the material of ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) resin. The phantom was designed in cylindrical uniformity. An image uniformity was measured by a cross-sectional images of the 3D printed phantom obtained from the CT equipment. The evaluation of radiolucency was measured exposure dose by the inserted ion-chamber from the 3D printed phantom. As a results, the average of uniformity in the cross-sectional CT image was 2.70 HU and the correlation of radiolucency between PMMA CT phantom and 3D printed ABS phantom is found to have a high correlation to 0.976. In the future, this results will be expected to be used as the basis for the phantom production of the radiation quality control by used 3D printing technology.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.9-13
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• 2016

Purpose PET-CT examinations using $^{18}F-FDG$ to treat urinary system cancer are limited in terms of anatomical structure and excretion route of $^{18}F-FDG$. But one of the ongoing examinations utilizing $^{11}C-Acetate$ can compensate for such defects. We would like to introduce a clinical application of $^{11}C-Acetate$ PET-CT in urinary cancer patients. Materials and Methods We conducted a clinical survey of 22 patients diagnosed with urinary cancer at our hospital, 10 prostate cancer patients, 10 renal cell carcinoma patients, and 2 bladder cancer patients. All patients were performed $^{18}F-FDG$ PET-CT examinations, $^{11}C-Acetate$ examinations were performed after two weeks on average. The equipment used to D-710 PET-CT in GE Company and we performed PET-CT procedures 15 minutes after injecting $^{11}C-Acetate$, and a medical doctor from the department of nuclear medicine appraised and compared images between $^{18}F-FDG$ and $^{11}C-Acetate$. Results According to our survey, prostate cancer patients generally had lower uptake of $^{18}F-FDG$ than other cancer patients did. In 2 out of 10 prostate cancer patients, metastasized cancer showed greater uptake in $^{11}C-Acetate$ than $^{18}F-FDG$. In renal cell carcinoma cases, 8 out of 10 patients displayed evidently greater uptake in $^{11}C-Acetate$ than $^{18}F-FDG$. We excluded bladder cancer cases in this study because uptake of $^{18}F-FDG$ in the bladder was too hot, the number of patients was insufficient, and the cases did not meet criteria such as the use of diuretics. Conclusion It is too premature to draw solid conclusions from the survey, since it involved only a small number of participants. However, there are a number of studies conducted abroad that prove the effectiveness of the $^{11}C-Acetate$ PET-CT examinations in treating urinary system cancer, and this study is still ongoing at our hospital. If the tests were to be conducted on a larger number of participants, this study could lead to numerous other potential research topics, such as the correlation between Prostatic specific antigen (PSA) values and $^{11}C-Acetate$ PET-CT, Gleason sum values from biopsy before surgery, Specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) between $^{18}F-FDG$ PET-CT examinations and $^{11}C-Acetate$ PET-CT examinations in other urinary system cancers.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.553-560
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• 2018

PET-CT and PET-MRI which integrates CT using ionized radiation and MRI using phenomena of magnetic resonance are determined to have the limitation to apply the semi-quantitative index, standardized uptake value (SUV), with the same level due to the fundamental differences of image capturing principle and reorganization, hence, their correlations were analyzed to provide their clinical information. To 30 study subjects maintaining pre-treatment, $^{18}F-FDG$ (5.18 MBq/㎏) was injected and they were scanned continuously without delaying time using $Biograph^{TM}$ mMR 3T (Siemens, Munich) and Biograph mCT 64 (Siemens, Germany), which is an integral type, under the optimized condition except the structural differences of both scanners. Upon the measurement results of $SUV_{max}$ setting volume region of interest with evenly distributed radioactive pharmaceuticals by captured images, $SUV_{max}$ mean values of PET-CT and PET-MRI were $2.94{\pm}0.55$ and $2.45{\pm}0.52$, respectively, and the value of PET-MRI was measured lower by $-20.85{\pm}7.26%$ than that of PET-CT. Also, there was a statistically significant difference in SUVs between two scanners (P<0.001), hence, SUV of PET-CT and PET-MRI cannot express the clinical meanings in the same level. Therefore, in case of the patients who undergo cross follow-up tests with PET-CT and PET-MRI, diagnostic information should be analyzed considering the conditions of SUV differences in both scanners.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.71-81
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• 2008

Our objective was to evaluate the image of spatial domain filtering as an alternative to additional image reconstruction using different kernels in MDCT. Derived from thin collimated source images were generated using water phantom and abdomen B10(very smooth), B20(smooth), B30(medium smooth), B40 (medium), B50(medium sharp), B60(sharp), B70(very sharp) and B80(ultra sharp) kernels. MTF and spatial resolution measured with various convolution kernels. Quantitative CT attenuation coefficient and noise measurements provided comparable HU(Hounsfield) units in this respect. CT attenuation coefficient(mean HU) values in the water were values in the water were $1.1{\sim}1.8\;HU$, air($-998{\sim}-1000\;HU$) and noise in the water($5.4{\sim}44.8\;HU$), air($3.6{\sim}31.4\;HU$). In the abdominal fat a CT attenuation coefficient($-2.2{\sim}0.8\;HU$) and noise($10.1{\sim}82.4\;HU$) was measured. In the abdominal was CT attenuation coefficient($53.3{\sim}54.3\;HU$) and noise($10.4{\sim}70.7\;HU$) in the muscle and in the liver parenchyma of CT attenuation coefficient($60.4{\sim}62.2\;HU$) and noise ($7.6{\sim}63.8\;HU$) in the liver parenchyma. Image reconstructed with a convolution kernel led to an increase in noise, whereas the results for CT attenuation coefficient were comparable. Image scanned with a high convolution kernel(B80) led to an increase in noise, whereas the results for CT attenuation coefficient were comparable. Image medications of image sharpness and noise eliminate the need for reconstruction using different kernels in the future. Adjusting CT various kernels, which should be adjusted to take into account the kernels of the CT undergoing the examination, may control CT images increase the diagnostic accuracy.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.193-198
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• 2016

In clinical computed tomography (CT), regular quality assurance (QA) has been required. This study is to evaluate the MTF for analyzing the spatial resolution using AAPM phantom in CT exam. The dual source somatom definition flash (siemens healthcare, forchheim, Germany), the brilliance 64 (philips medical system Netherlands) and aquilion 64 (toshiba medical system, Japan) were used in this study. The quantitative evaluation was performed using the image J (wayne rasband national institutes of health, USA) and chart method which is measurement of modulation transfer function (MTF). In MTF evaluation, the spatial frequencies corresponding to the 50% MTF for the CT systems were 0.58, 0.28, and $0.59mm^{-1}$, respectively and the 10% MTF for the CT systems were 1.63, 0.89, and $1.21mm^{-1}$, respectively. This study could evaluate the characteristic of spatial resolution of MTF using chart method, suggesting the quantitative evaluation method using the data.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.234-242
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• 2010

3D CAD technology has been extended to a medical area including dental clinic beyond industrial design. The 2D images obtained by CT(Computerized Tomography) and MRI(Magnetic Resonance Imaging) are not intuitive, and thus the volume rendering technique, which transforms 2D data into 3D anatomic information, has been in practical use. This paper has focused on a method and its implementation for forming 3D geometric surface model from laminated CT images of the pubis. The implemented system could support a dental clinic to observe and examine the status of a patient's pubis before implant surgery. The supplement of 3D implant model would help dental surgeons settle operation plans more safely and confidently. It also would be utilized with teaching materials for a practice and training.