• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.67-71
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• 2013

Purpose: The Change of CT exposure condition have a effect on image quality and patient exposure dose. In this study, we evaluated effect CT image quality and SUV when CT parameters (Pitch, Rotation time) were changed. Materials and Methods: Discovery Ste (GE, USA) was used as a PET/CT scanner. Using GE QA Phantom and AAPM CT Performance Phantom for evaluate Noise of CT image. Images are acquired by using 24 combinations that four stages pitch (0.562, 0.938, 1.375, 1.75:1) and six stages X-ray tube rotation time (0.5s-1.0s). PET images are acquired using 1994 NEMA PET Phantom ($^{18}F-FDG$ 5.3 kBq/mL, 2.5 min/frame). For noise test, noise are evaluated by standard deviation of each image's CT numbers. And then we used expectation noise according to change of DLP (Dose Length Product) to experimental noise ratio for index of effectiveness. For spatial resolution test, we confirmed that it is possible to identify to 1.0 mm size of the holes at the AAPM CT Performance Phantom. Finally we evaluated each 24 image's SUV. Results: Noise efficiency were 1.00, 1.03, 1.01, 0.96 and 1.00, 1.04, 1.02, 0.97 when pitch changes at the QA Phantom and AAPM Phantom. In case of X-ray tube rotation time changes, 0.99, 1.02, 1.00, 1.00, 0.99, 0.99 and 1.01, 1.01, 0.99, 1.01, 1.01, 1.01 at the QA Phantom and AAPM Phantom. We could identify 1.0 mm size of the holes all 24 images. Also, there were no significant change of SUV and all image's average SUV were 1.1. Conclusion: 1.75:1 pitch is the most effective value at the CT image evaluation according to pitch change and It doesn't affect to the spatial resolution and SUV. However, the change of rotation time doesn't affect anything. So, we recommend to use the effective pitch like 1.75:1 and adequate X-ray tube rotation time according to patient size.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.113-117
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• 2010

This research attempts to qualitatively evaluate the intensity change by radiopharmaceuticals and obtain computed tomography using phantom injected with various nuclide. Cylindrical phantom is used for comparing and analysing the effect on diagnosis image during radiopharmaceuticals inspection. Inside of the phantom, water is injected and computed tomography image is scanned. During nuclear medicine invitro, frequently used radiopharmaceuticals, $^{99m}TcO_4$ 20 mCi and $^{18}F$ 14 mCi, is diluted in the water phantom and scanned in the same method. Traverse image obtained by CT scan is divided into six traverse image in the same slice of each scanned image. CT-number(HU) value of 10 measuring point is measured in 2 cm interval based on the center of the phantom. Measured HU value, based on the water phantom, is compared with the image after injecting $^{99m}TcO_4$ and $^{18}F$. Average scale of water is 2.8~1.6 HU, $^{99m}TcO_4$ is 3.0~1.6 HU and $^{18}F$ is 1.2~0 HU. Average of water is $2.3{\pm}0.17$ HU, $^{99m}TcO_4$ is $2.2{\pm}0.85$ HU and F-18 is $0.7{\pm}0.95$ HU. Based on water, reduced value of about 0.1 HU and about 0.5 HU is acquired from $^{99m}TcO_4$ and F-18. Radionuclide used in nuclear medicine inspection utilizes 100~200 KeV energy and obtains image through scintillation camera and PET-CT utilizes 511 KeV positron annihilation energy to obtain image. What we learned from this research is that gamma rays from these energies used in CT scan for diagnosis purpose or radioactive therapy plan can change the intensity of the image. The nuclear medicine inspection for reducing the effect of emitted gamma ray diagnosis image should be obtained after a period of time considering half-life which would be reduced distortion or changed in image.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.81-86
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• 2007

The cone-beam CT (CBCT) which is acquired using on-board imager (OBI) attached to a linear accelerator is widely used for the image guided radiation therapy. In this study, the effect of respiratory motion on the quality of CBCT image was evaluated. A phantom system was constructed in order to simulate respiratory motion. One part of the system is composed of a moving plate and a motor driving component which can control the motional cycle and motional range. The other part is solid water phantom containing a small cubic phantom ($2{\times}2{\times}2cm^3$) surrounded by air which simulate a small tumor volume in the lung air cavity CBCT images of the phantom were acquired in 20 different cases and compared with the image in the static status. The 20 different cases are constituted with 4 different motional ranges (0.7 cm, 1.6 cm, 2.4 cm, 3.1 cm) and 5 different motional cycles (2, 3, 4, 5, 6 sec). The difference of CT number in the coronal image was evaluated as a deformation degree of image quality. The relative average pixel intensity values as a compared CT number of static CBCT image were 71.07% at 0.7 cm motional range, 48.88% at 1.6 cm motional range, 30.60% at 2.4 cm motional range, 17.38% at 3.1 cm motional range The tumor phantom sizes which were defined as the length with different CT number compared with air were increased as the increase of motional range (2.1 cm: no motion, 2.66 cm: 0.7 cm motion, 3.06 cm: 1.6 cm motion, 3.62 cm: 2.4 cm motion, 4.04 cm: 3.1 cm motion). This study shows that respiratory motion in the region of inhomogeneous structures can degrade the image quality of CBCT and it must be considered in the process of setup error correction using CBCT images.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.2958-2965
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• 2013

Purpose : To evaluate the degree of malignancy of incident thyroid lesion found in 18F-FDG PET/CT findings and the usefulness of the method suggested in this study, we applicate the Delay Scan Method that differentiate a false positive benign tumor, inflammation and malignancy, as well as make the criteria of SUV. Materials and Methods : A retrograde study was conducted of 25 patients(1 exception) who were admitted in E hospital to receive 18F-FDG PET/CT examination until Janaary and April of 2008. 18F-FDG PET/CT image photographing was taken in Biograph-Duo made by SIEMENS, after taking normal 18F-FDG PET/CT image(1hr) and then 1hr later we took the thyroid 1 bed-delayed image for the patients who showed abnormal thyroid 18F-FDG uptake and above 2.0 SUV for 2 minutes every 1 bed. For the patients who showed abnormal thyroid uptake and above 2.0 SUV, 1hr later, we took a 1 bed-delayed image and then made a comparative study between measured maxSUV of 1hr-abnormal uptake image and that of 2hr-delayed image. Results : In this 18F-FDG PET/CT study among the patients who showed incidental 18F-FDG thyroidal uptake the number of thyroid cancer was 5(20.8%), all of then showed benign findings. a comparison of results for 18F-FDG PET/CT. the benign patient measured maxSUV in the PET/CT. image(1hr) mean value 5.06maxSUV and delay image(2hr) mean value 5.23maxSUV differences of two value is 0.19maxSUV and the malignantIt patient measured maxSUV in the PET/CT. image(1hr) mean value 9.63maxSUV and delay image(2hr) mean value 10.65maxSUV differences of two value is 10.65maxSUV in Thyroid abnormal uptake patients. Conclusion : in the case of incidental 18F-FDG uptake in thyroid, max SUV of focal thyroid lesion is above 5.0 if 18F-FDG PET/CT examine the delayed images to add, You could see that reasonable diagnostic method useful. to differentiate whether lesions of malignant.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 2010

Purpose: The X-ray attenuation coefficient based on CT images is used for attenuation correction in PET/CT. The polychromatic X-ray beam can introduce beam-hardening artifact on CT images. The aims of the study were to evaluate the effect of dental metal prostheses in phantom and patients on apparent tracer activity measured with PET/CT when using CT attenuation correction. Materials and Methods: 40 normal patients (mean age $54{\pm}12$) was scanned between Jan and Feb 2010. NEMA(National Electrical Manufactures Association) PET $Phantom^{TM}$ (NU2-1994) was filled with $^{18}F$-FDG injected into the water that insert implant and metal prostheses dental cast. Region of interest were drawn in non-artifact region, bright steak artifact region and dark streak artifact region on the same transaxial CT and PET slices. Patients and phantom with dental metal prostheses and dental implant were evaluated the change rate of CT Number and $SUV_{mean}$ in PET/CT. A paired t-test was performed to compare the ratio and the difference of the calculated values. Results: In patients with dental metal prostheses, $SUV_{mean}$ was reduced 19.64% (p<0.05) in the non-steak artifact region than the brightstreak artifact region whereas was increased 90.1% (p>0.05) in the non-steak artifact region than the dark streak artifact region. In phantom with dental metal prostheses, $SUV_{mean}$ was reduced 18.1% (p<0.05) in the non-steak artifact region than the bright streak artifact region whereas was increased 18.0% (p>0.05) in the non-steak artifact region than the dark streak artifact region. In patients with dental implant, $SUV_{mean}$ was increased 19.1% (p<0.05) in the non-steak artifact region than the bright streak artifact region whereas was increased 96.62% (p>0.05) in the non-steak artifact region than the dark streak artifact region. In phantom with dental implant, $SUV_{mean}$ was increased 14.4% (p<0.05) in the non-steak artifact region than the bright streak artifact region whereas was increased 7.0% (p>0.05) in the non-steak artifact region than the dark streak artifact region. Conclusion: When CT is used for attenuation correction in patients with dental metal prostheses, 19.1% reduced $SUV_{mean}$ is anticipated in the dark streak artifact region on CT images. The dark streak artifacts of CT by dental metal prostheses may cause false negative finding in PET/CT. We recommend that the non-attenuation corrected PET images also be evaluated for clinical use.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.879-886
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• 2018

A 3-dimensional (D) printer is a device capable of outputting a three-dimensional solid object based on data modeled in a computer. These features are utilized in the bone model X - ray phantom production etc using CT data by fusing with the radiation science field. A bone model phantom was made using data obtained by CT scan of an existing Pelvis phantom, using PLA, Wood, XT-CF20, Glow fill, Steel filaments which are materials of Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printer.Measure Hounsfield Unit (HU) with images obtained by CT scan of the existing Pelvis phantom and five material phantoms made with 3D printer under the same conditions,SI and SNR were measured using a diagnostic X-ray generator, and each phantom was compared and analyzed.As a result, the X - ray phantom in the X - ray examination condition of the limb was found to be most suitable for the glow fill filament.The characteristics of the filament can be known to the base of this research and the practicality of X - ray phantom fabrication was confirmed.

• Communications of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.843-849
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• 2012

Let G = (V, E) be a graph with chromatic number ${\chi}(G)$. dominating set D of G is called a chromatic transversal dominating set (ctd-set) if D intersects every color class of every ${\chi}$-partition of G. The minimum cardinality of a ctd-set of G is called the chromatic transversal domination number of G and is denoted by ${\gamma}_{ct}$(G). In this paper we characterize the class of trees, unicyclic graphs and cubic graphs for which the chromatic transversal domination number is equal to the connected domination number.

• Journal of International Society for Simulation Surgery
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.37-40
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• 2014

Purpose For living donor liver transplantation, liver segmentation is difficult due to the variability of its shape across patients and similarity of the density of neighbor organs such as heart, stomach, kidney, and spleen. In this paper, we propose an automatic segmentation of the liver using multi-planar anatomy and deformable surface model in portal phase of abdominal contrast-enhanced CT images. Method Our method is composed of four main steps. First, the optimal liver volume is extracted by positional information of pelvis and rib and by separating lungs and heart from CT images. Second, anisotropic diffusing filtering and adaptive thresholding are used to segment the initial liver volume. Third, morphological opening and connected component labeling are applied to multiple planes for removing neighbor organs. Finally, deformable surface model and probability summation map are performed to refine a posterior liver surface and missing left robe in previous step. Results All experimental datasets were acquired on ten living donors using a SIEMENS CT system. Each image had a matrix size of $512{\times}512$ pixels with in-plane resolutions ranging from 0.54 to 0.70 mm. The slice spacing was 2.0 mm and the number of images per scan ranged from 136 to 229. For accuracy evaluation, the average symmetric surface distance (ASD) and the volume overlap error (VE) between automatic segmentation and manual segmentation by two radiologists are calculated. The ASD was $0.26{\pm}0.12mm$ for manual1 versus automatic and $0.24{\pm}0.09mm$ for manual2 versus automatic while that of inter-radiologists was $0.23{\pm}0.05mm$. The VE was $0.86{\pm}0.45%$ for manual1 versus automatic and $0.73{\pm}0.33%$ for manaual2 versus automatic while that of inter-radiologist was $0.76{\pm}0.21%$. Conclusion Our method can be used for the liver volumetry for the pre-surgery planning of living donor liver transplantation.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.211-217
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• 2010

A micro-focus X-ray computed tomography (CT) was employed to determine quantitative phase analysis of skarn Zn-Pb-Cu ore by nondestructive visualization of the internal mineral distribution of a skarn ore. The micro CT images of the ore were calibrated to remove beam hardening artifacts, and compared with its scanning electron microscope (SEM) images to set the threshold of CT number range covering sulfide ore minerals. The volume ratio of sulfide and gangue minerals was calculated 20.5% and 79.5%, respectively. The quantitative 3D X-ray CT could be applied to analyse the distribution of economic minerals and their recovery.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.503-509
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• 2020

This study aims to develop a patient-specific radiation exposure dose prediction model based on anthropometric data that can be easily measurable during CT examination, and to be used as basic data for DRL setting and radiation dose management system in the future. In addition, among the machine learning algorithms, the most suitable model for predicting exposure doses is presented. The data used in this study were chest CT scan data, and a data set was constructed based on the data including the patient's anthropometric data. In the pre-processing and sample selection of the data, out of the total number of samples of 250 samples, only chest CT scans were performed without using a contrast agent, and 110 samples including height and weight variables were extracted. Of the 110 samples extracted, 66% was used as a training set, and the remaining 44% were used as a test set for verification. The exposure dose was predicted through random forest, linear regression analysis, and SVM algorithm using Orange version 3.26.0, an open software as a machine learning algorithm. Results Algorithm model prediction accuracy was R^2 0.840 for random forest, R^2 0.969 for linear regression analysis, and R^2 0.189 for SVM. As a result of verifying the prediction rate of the algorithm model, the random forest is the highest with R^2 0.986 of the random forest, R^2 0.973 of the linear regression analysis, and R^2 of 0.204 of the SVM, indicating that the model has the best predictive power.