• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.97-104
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• 2018

Objective : Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) has proven useful in the study of the natural history of ischemic stroke. However, the potential of DW-MRI for the evaluation of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) has not been established. In this study, we investigated DW-MRI findings of CSDH and evaluated the impact of the image findings on postoperative outcomes of CSDH. Methods : We studied 131 CSDH patients who had undergone single burr hole drainage surgery. The images of the subdural hematomas on preoperative DW-MRI and computed tomography (CT) were divided into three groups based on their signal intensity and density : 1) homogeneous (iso or low) density on CT and homogeneous low signal intensity on DW-MRI; 2) homogeneous (iso or low) density on CT and mixed signal intensity on DW-MRI; and 3) heterogeneous density on CT and mixed signal intensity on DW-MRI. On the basis of postoperative CT, we also divided the patients into 3 groups of surgical outcomes according to residual hematoma and mass effect. Results : Analysis showed statistically significant differences in surgical (A to B : p<0.001, A to C : p<0.001, B to C : p=0.129) and functional (A to B : p=0.039, A to C : p<0.001, B to C : p=0.108) outcomes and treatment failure rates (A to B : p=0.037, A to C : p=0.03, B to C : p=1) between the study groups. In particular, group B and group C showed worse outcomes and higher treatment failure rates than group A. Conclusion : CSDH with homogeneous density on CT was characterized by signal intensity on DW-MRI. In CSDH patients, performing DW-MRI as well as CT helps to predict postoperative treatment failure or complications.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.275-280
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• 2003

The method of simultaneous data acquisition of arteries and veins(SAAV) was suggested to obtain MR angiography of arteries and veins at 0.3T low filed MRI system (Magfinder, AlLab. Korea). Two separated artery- and vein-images were put together using AVCM(Artery-Vein Color Mapping) algorithm and presented in the same image. In this study, artery- and vein-separated angiograms of volunteer's neck were obtained. Two dimensioal blood-enhanced images wre sequentially obtained using SAAV pulse sequence based on time-of-flight(TOF) method with flow compensation. Imaging parameters were TR/TE=70/12msec. FOV=230mm, slice thickness = 3mm, flip angle=90$^{\circ}$, matrix size=256${\times}$256${\times}$64mm. TSat TH/SPA=15/20mm, Ts_v=10msec and Ts_a=40ms. 3D MRA images were reconstructed using the maximum intensity projection(MIP) and the artery-vein color mapping(AVCM) algorithm. This study showed good possibility of clinical applications of MRA in 0.3T which provides valuable diagnostic information of clinical vascular diseases.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.57-62
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• 2013

Despite the many advantages of magnetic resonance imaging in orthopedic prosthetic body image distortion to the differences in the magnetic susceptibility occurs. Attached to the phantom and pork produced by the same $65{\times}15{\times}2mm$ stainless steel and titanium specimen examined the relationship between magnetic resonance imaging and phantom images, the signal intensity changes of the subcutaneous tissue, fat-suppressed quantitative assessment of the degree through the length of image distortion and pig bones. Stainless steel to titanium to 2.8 times 4.4 times in the longitudinal direction than in the direction of the height of large image distortion, signal strength is relatively low 58.5%. Normal 56.2% compared to the subcutaneous tissue, fat-suppressed, were stainless steel 16.04%, 54.53% titanium. Experimental results than the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images of stainless steel with a titanium metal if better could see.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.215-223
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• 2016

Purpose: The management of metal-induced field inhomogeneities is one of the major concerns of distortion-free magnetic resonance images near metallic implants. The recently proposed method called "Slice Encoding for Metal Artifact Correction (SEMAC)" is an effective spin echo pulse sequence of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) near metallic implants. However, as SEMAC uses the noisy resolved data elements, SEMAC images can have a major problem for improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) without compromising the correction of metal artifacts. To address that issue, this paper presents a novel reconstruction technique for providing an improvement of the SNR in SEMAC images without sacrificing the correction of metal artifacts. Materials and Methods: Low-rank approximation in each coil image is first performed to suppress the noise in the slice direction, because the signal is highly correlated between SEMAC-encoded slices. Secondly, SEMAC images are reconstructed by the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE), also known as Gauss-Markov or weighted least squares. Noise levels and correlation in the receiver channels are considered for the sake of SNR optimization. To this end, since distorted excitation profiles are sparse, $l_1$ minimization performs well in recovering the sparse distorted excitation profiles and the sparse modeling of our approach offers excellent correction of metal-induced distortions. Results: Three images reconstructed using SEMAC, SEMAC with the conventional two-step noise reduction, and the proposed image denoising for metal MRI exploiting sparsity and low rank approximation algorithm were compared. The proposed algorithm outperformed two methods and produced 119% SNR better than SEMAC and 89% SNR better than SEMAC with the conventional two-step noise reduction. Conclusion: We successfully demonstrated that the proposed, novel algorithm for SEMAC, if compared with conventional de-noising methods, substantially improves SNR and reduces artifacts.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.227-232
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• 2019

MRI examination for patients with metal objects has in poor image quality. Metallic implants can result in poor image because magnetic susceptibility causes signal loss and distortion and makes poor imaging, which is called magnetic susceptibility artifact or metal artifact. There are several approaches to reduce metal artifacts. In this study, we study the reduction of metal artifact by VAT and SEMAC techniques. A metal implant used for orthopedic surgery was attached to the phatom and the distortion caused by the artifact was measured under T1WI and T2WI protocols. Several techniques of VAT only and VAT and SEMAC for the reduction of metal artifact were compared. The metal artifact showed a reduction of at least 8% to a maximum of 26% in the VAT-SEMAC. The VAT-SEMAC technique can be applied to patients with orthopedic implants to improve image quality. If scan time and image quality are simultaneously considered in VAT-SEMAC technique, metal artifact will be reduced in clinical practice.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.599-606
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to know a clinical usefulness for delineation of articular cartilage compared with 2D TSE-SPIR and 3D FFE-PROSET technique. From January 2013 to september 2013, a total of 30 normal volunteers(12 men and 18 women aged between 35 and 55 years; mean 49.48 years) were studied on a philips 3.0T MRI scanner. As a quantitative analysis, SNRs and CNRs were evaluated by using two methods for delineation of articular cartilage. As a qualitative analysis, image quality was evaluated by special radiological technologist of MRI for image delineation on a three grade. As a results, SNRs and CNRs for articular cartilage were significantly greater for the 3D FFE-PROSET(SNRs: 8.40, 114.02, 9.53, CNRs: 104.49, 139.49) technique compared to 2D TSE-SPIR(SNRs: 4.41, 71.63, 7.34, CNRs: 64.30, 58.41) technique, image quality also was higher for evaluation of 3D FFE-PROSET(2.40) technique(p=0.0021). In conclusion, this study showed that a 3D FFE-PROSET MRI has improved SNRs and CNRs for evaluating of the articular cartilage, these conclusions in the future will be provided useful information in diagnosis of articular cartilage.

• Proceedings of the Korea Multimedia Society Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.6-9
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• 2012

In this study, we compare two image denoising methods which are the Rudin-Osher-Fatemi total variation (TV) model and the nonlocal means (NLM) algorithm on medical images. To evaluate those methods, we used two well known measuring metrics. The methods are tested with a CT image, one X-Ray image, and three MRI images. Experimental result shows that the NML algorithm can give better results than the ROF TV model, but computational complexity is high.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.31-35
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• 2012

To test the real image quality of a spectral attenuated inversion-recovery (SPAIR) fat-suppression (FS) techniquein clinical abdominal MRI by comparison to turbo spin echo inversion-recovery (TSEIR) fat-suppression (FS) technique. 3.0T MRI studies of the abdomen were performed in 30 patients with liver lesions (hemangiomas n: 15; HCC n: 15). T2W sequences were acquired using SPAIR TSEIR. Measurements included retroperitoneal and mesenteric fat signal-to-noise (SNR) to evaluate FS; liver lesion contrast-to-noise (CNR) to evaluate bulk water signal recovery effects; and bowel wall delineation to evaluate susceptibility and physiological motion effects. SPAIR-TSEIR images produce significantly improved FS and liver lesion CNR. The mean SNR of the retroperitoneal and mesenteric fat for SPAIR were 20.5, 10.2 and TSEIR were 43.2, 24.1 (P<0.05). SPAIR-TSEIR images produced higher CNR for both hemangiomas CNR 164.88 vs 126.83 (P<0.05) and metastasis CNR 75.27 vs 53.19 (P<0.05). Bowel wall visualization was significantly improved using in both SPAIR-TSEIR (P< 0.05). The real image quality of SPAIR was better than over conventional TSEIR FS on clinical abdominal MRI scans.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.176-181
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• 2008

Fluid accumulation within the tympanic bulla is an important diagnostic indicator of canine otitis media although its identification can be a challenge using currently available imaging techniques. The purpose of this study was to compare radiography, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the identification of fluid accumulation within canine tympanic bulla. Unilateral tympanic bulla in 10 beagles were experimentally filled with blood or saline. Quantitative analysis of CT images were obtained by using Hounsfield unit (HU). MR signal intensity was obtained by using region of interesting (ROI) and compared with those of gray matter. On the CT image, the presence of blood or saline produced a fluid opacity occupying the tympanic bulla. On the MR image, the appearance of blood in the tympanic bulla was isointense in T1-weighted images and hyperintense in T2-weighted images. However, the appearance of saline in the tympanic bulla was hypointense in T1-weighted images and hyperintense in T2-weighted images. This study suggest that CT and MR imaging are useful methods for detection and differentiation of fluid in canine tympanic bulla.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.302-307
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• 2015

The purpose of the study was to identify how isotope and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast media impact on noise to computed tomography (CT) examination. For the study, divide the phantoms to two groups: 1) saline, saline + different kinds of contrast agent without $^{99m}Tc$ administration; 2) $^{99m}Tc$ administration: saline, saline + different kinds of contrast agent with $^{99m}Tc$ administration. CT contrast agent was used for Iopamidol$^{(R)}$ and Dotarem. And MRI contrast agent was used for Primovist$^{(R)}$ and Gadovist$^{(R)}$. To obtain an image, we used CT scanner. With an obtained image, we set the $1cm^2$ region of interest in the middle of bottle to measure the noise and CT number. As a result, there was no difference in CT number before and after inserting $^{99m}Tc$ into all contrast media including Normal Saline. However, when it comes to Noise, there was a difference before and after inserting $^{99m}Tc$ into every contrast media except MRI contrast media such as Primovist$^{(R)}$ and Gadovist$^{(R)}$.