• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.142-147
• /
• 1997

Purpose: To compare the effectiveness of the in-phase (IP) sequence and the opposed-phase (Op) sequence in the detection of focal hepatic lesions in the single breath-hold hepatic MR imaging with fast gradient T1-weighted pulse sequences. Materials and Methods: IP and OP T1-weighted breath-hold imaging was performed using fast gradient echo sequences in 45 patients referred for known focal hepatic lesions, in which 78 lesions were detected. Three blind readers independently reviewed the images for lesion detectability. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the liver, the lesion-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and the liver-to-spleen CNR were also compared. A consensus was reached by three readers to determine which sequence is better in image quality. Results: On OP images, 61(78%), 61(78%), and 63(89%) lesions were correctly identified for reader 1, 2 and 3, respectively. On IP images, 66(85%), 65(83%), and 65(93%) lesions were detected for each reader, respectively. When two image sets were combined, 71(91 %), 69(88 %), and 76(97%) lesions respectively were detected for each reader. In cases of hepatocellular carcinoma, liver-to-Iesion CNR was greater on the OP images(p (0.05), but in other lesions significant difference was not demonstrated. Liver-to-spleen CNR was higher on OP images(p ( 0.1), but the SNR of the liver was higher on the IP images. Conclusion: Use of both IP and OP imaging can be helpful to avoid erroneous missing of some focal hepatic lesions.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.333-340
• /
• 2009

MR compatible coaxial-slot antenna for microwave hyperthermia was developed while its structure and size of each part were determined by computer simulation using finite element method(FEM). Its local heating performance was evaluated using tissue-mimic phantom and swine muscles. 2% agarose gel mixed with 6mM/$\ell$ $MnCl_2$ as a biological tissue-mimic phantom was heated by the proposed antenna driven by a 2.45GHz microwave generator. The temperature changes of the phantom were monitored using multi-channel digital thermometer at the distance of 0mm, 5mm, 10mm and 20mm from the tip center of the antenna. Also muscle tissue of swine was heated for 2 and 5minutes with 50W and 30W of microwave generator powers, respectively, to evaluate the local heating performance of the antenna. MRI compatibility was also verified by acquiring MR images and MR temperature map. MR signals were acquired from the agarose gel phantom using $T2^*$ GRE sequence with 1.5T clinical MRI scanner(Signa Echospeed, GE, Milwaukee, WI, U.S.A.) at Pusan Paik Hospital and were transferred to PC in order to reconstruct MR images and temperature map using proton resonance frequency(PRF) method and laboratory-developed phase unwrapping algorithm. Authors found that it has no severe distortion due to the antenna inserted into the phantom. Finally, we can conclude that the suggested coaxial-slot antenna has an excellent local heating performance for both of tissue-mimic phantom and swine muscle, and it is compatible to 1.5T MRI scanner.

• Proceedings of the Korean Information Science Society Conference
• /
• 2001.10b
• /
• pp.469-471
• /
• 2001

뇌 MR 영상의 분석을 통해 질환을 자동적으로 진단하고 판별을 하기 위한 전처리 단계에서 정상인의 MR 영상 모델과 현재 고려되어지는 대상 영상과의 비교 작업이 요구된다. 이를 통해 보다 정확한 질병에 대한 근거를 제시함으로서 진단이 가능하게 된다. 이러한 비교 작업을 위해 우선적으로 해결해야 하는 것이 현재 대상 영상이 정상인의 MR 영상 시리즈 중 어느 위치의 영상과 일치하는 지를 판별해야 한다. 실질적으로 뇌 MR 시리즈는 영상의 특징에 따라 크게 몇 개의 그룹으로 분류된다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 매핑을 위한 각 구성 요소의 특징을 추출해 자동으로 뇌 영상의 그룹핑을 함으로써 매핑시 고려되어지는 슬라이드의 범위를 좁혀줄 뿐만 아니라 영상의 질에 따라 부분적인 손실이 있다 하더라도 전후 관계 정보를 이용하여 유추가 가능한 방법을 제시한다. 800여개의 T2 MR 강조 영상에 대해서 실험을 행하여 비교적 정확한 그룹핑 결과를 유도할 수 있었음을 확인하였다.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.414-424
• /
• 1998

Purpose: Cross-modality coregistration of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MR) could enhance the clinical information. In this study we propose a refined technique to improve the robustness of registration, and to implement more realistic visualization of the coregistered images. Materials and Methods: Using the sinogram of PET emission scan, we extracted the robust head boundary and used boundary-enhanced PET to coregister PET with MR. The pixels having 10% of maximum pixel value were considered as the boundary of sinogram. Boundary pixel values were exchanged with maximum value of sinogram. One hundred eighty boundary points were extracted at intervals of about 2 degree using simple threshold method from each slice of MR images. Best affined transformation between the two point sets was performed using least square fitting which should minimize the sum of Euclidean distance between the point sets. We reduced calculation time using pre-defined distance map. Finally we developed an automatic coregistration program using this boundary detection and surface matching technique. We designed a new weighted normalization technique to display the coregistered PET and MR images simultaneously. Results: Using our newly developed method, robust extraction of head boundary was possible and spatial registration was successfully performed. Mean displacement error was less than 2.0 mm. In visualization of coregistered images using weighted normalization method, structures shown in MR image could be realistically represented. Conclusion: Our refined technique could practically enhance the performance of automated three dimensional coregistration.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.81-86
• /
• 2012

Purpose : Combined MR/PET scanners that use the MRI for PET AC face the challenge of absent surface coils in MR images and thus cannot directly account for attenuation in the coils. To make up for the weak point of MR attenuation correction, Three Modality System (PET/CT +MR) were used in Severance hospital. The goal of this work was to investigate the effects of MR Torso Coil on CT attenuation correction for PET. Materials and Methods : PET artifacts were evaluated when the MR Torso Coil was present of CTAC data with changing various kV and mA in uniformity water phantom and 1994 NEMA cylinderical phantom. They evaluated and compared the following two scenarios: (1) The uniform cylinder phantom and the MR Torso Coil scanned and reconstructed using CT-AC; (2) 1994 NEMA cylinderical phantom and the MR Torso Coil scanned and reconstructed using CT-AC. Results : Streak artifacts were present in CT images containing the MR Torso Coil due to metal components. These artifacts persisted after the CT images were converted for PET-AC. CT scans tended to over-estimate the linear attenuation coefficient when the kV and mA is increasing of the metal components when using conventional methods for converting from CT number. Conclusion : The presence of MR coils during PET/CT scanning can cause subtle artifacts and potentially important quantification errors. Alternative CT techniques that mitigate artifacts should be used to improve AC accuracy. When possible, removing segments of an MR coil prior to the PET/CT exam is recommended. Further, MR coils could be redesigned to reduce artifacts by rearranging placement of the most attenuating materials.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.119-129
• /
• 2012

In the medical field, the hardening of tissues is one of important informations used in diagnosis or understanding progress of disease, a quantitative measuring method of hardening is important for objective diagnosis. It has been proposed MRE(Magnetic Resonance Elastography) method that measures an index of hardening, viscoelastic properties in a noninvasive. Because the S/N ratio of MRE images go down when measuring viscoelastic properties from local wavelength and local damping factor of a propagating wave in MRE method, methods using multiple phase MRE images have been examined to decrease the effect of noise. We propose a method measuring viscoelastic properties after Fitting a function for multiple phase MRE images in this research. This proposed method has a advantage to set up arbitrarily the variation rate of a space direction of viscoelastic properties or the spatial resolution of measuring values according to changing of the noise included in images, though it applies viscoelastic wave for multiple phase MRE images. We confirmed the effectiveness of a proposed method by experiment using simulation images and experiment using silicone-gel phantom.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.305-311
• /
• 2012

This study compares the TE and UTE is to evaluate. We was programming by DWT of Matlab Tool-box for evaluation. M-program used feature value extract between TE Images and UTE Images. Two images using the extracted feature values were compared. Comparison of similar features two images phase was found to have value.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.105-114
• /
• 2006

Purpose: We achieved high resolution MR imaging and spectra of human skin in vitro with using a 14.1 T MRI/MRS system, and evaluated the hydration effect of various cosmetic products by measuring the skin's. moisture concentration. Materials and Methods: We used the Bruker 14.1 T MRI/MRS system with a vertical standard bore that was equipped with a DMX spectrometer gradient system (200 G/cm at a maximum 40 A), RF resonators (2, 5 and 10 mm) and Para Vision software. Spin echo and fast spin echo pulse sequences were employed for obtaining the high resolution MR images. The 3D-localized point resolved spectroscopy (PRESS) method was used to acquire the MR spectra. Results: The high resolution MR images and spectra of human skin in vitro were successfully obtained on a 14.1 T system. The water concentration of human skin after applying a moisturizer was higher than that before applying a moisturizer. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that the high-resolution MR images and spectra of human skin from a high field NMR instrument could be applicable to evaluating the hydration state of the stratum corneum.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.44 no.3
• /
• pp.225-229
• /
• 2021

The digital image such as medical X-ray and nuclear medicine field mainly contains noise distribution. The noise degree in image degrades image quality. That is why, the noise reduction algorithm is efficient for medical image field. In this study, we confirmed effectiveness of application for median modified Wiener filter (MMWF) algorithm for noise reduction in PET/MR image compared with median filter image, which is used as conventional noise redcution algorithm. The Jaszczak PET phantom was used by using 18F solution and filled with NaCl+NiSO4 fluids. In addition, the radioactivity ratio between background and six spheres in the phantom is maintained to 1:8. In order to mimic noise distribution in the image, we applied Gaussian noise using MATLAB software. To evlauate image quality, the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) and coefficient of variation (COV) were used. According to the results, compared with noise image and images with MMWF algorithm, the image with MMWF algorithm is increased approximately 33.2% for CNR result, decreased approximately 79.3% for COV result. In conclusion, we proved usefulness of MMWF algorithm in the PET/MR images.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.210-215
• /
• 2001

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of gadobenate dimeglumine (GdBOPTA) enhanced MR imaging for the detection of liver lesions in patients with primary malignant hepatic neoplasms. Materials and Methods: Thirty-one patients with histologically proven primary malignancy of the liver were evaluated before and after administration of GdBOPTA at dose 0.05 or 0.10 mmol/kg. T1-weighted spin echo (T1W-SE) and gradient echo (T1W-GRE) images were evaluated for lesion number, location, size and confidence by three off-site independent reviewers and the findings were compared to reference standard imaging (intraoperative ultrasound, computed tomography during arterial portography or lipiodol computed tomography). Results were analyzed for significance using a two-sided McNemar's test. Results: More lesions were identified on Gd-BOPTA enhanced images than on unenhanced images and there was no significant difference in lesion detection between either concentration. The largest benefit was in detection of lesions under 1 cm in size (7 to 21, 9 to 15, 16 to 18 for reviewers A, B, C respectively). In 68% of the patients with more than one lesion, Gd-BOPTA increased the number of lesions detected. Conclusion: Liver MR imaging after Gd-BOPTA increases the detection of liver lesions in patients with primary malignant hepatic neoplasm.