• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.23-40
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• 2002

This study is to examine brain regions that are involved in picture encoding in normal adults using fMRI methods. In Scan 1, the picture encoding was studied during a semantic categorization task in comparison with word. In Scan 2 task type effects were studied both during a picture naming task and during a semantic categorization task with pictures. Subjects were asked to make decision either by pressing a mouse button (Scan 1) or by responding subvocally (naming or saying yes/no) (Scan 2). Regardless of stimulus type, left prefrontal, bilateral occipital, and parietal activations were observed during semantic processing in comparison with fixation baseline. Processing of word stimulus relative to picture resulted in activations in prefrontal and parieto-temporal regions in the left side while that of picture stimulus relative to word resultd in activations in bilateral extrastriatal visual cortices and parahippocampal regions. In spite of the same task demands, stimulus-specific information processings were involved and mediated by different neural substrates; the word encoding was associated with more semantic/lexical processings than pictures and the picture processing associated with more perceptual and novelty related information processings than word. Activations of dorsal part of inferior prefrontal region, i.e., Broca's areas were found both during the picture naming and during the semantic tasks subvocally performed Especially, during the picture naming task, greater occipital activations were found bilaterally relative to the semantic categorization task. indicating a possibility that greater and higher visual processing was involved in retrieving the name referred by picture stimuli.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.464-471
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• 2010

Compressed sensing can be used to reduce scan time or to enhance spatial resolution in MRI. It is now recognized that compressed sensing works well in reconstructing magnitude images if the sampling mask and the sparsifying transform are well chosen. Phase images also play important roles in MRI particularly in chemical shift imaging and magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT). We reconstruct MRI phase images using the compressed sensing technique. Through computer simulation and real MRI experiments, we reconstructed phase images using the compressed sensing technique and we compared them with the ones reconstructed by conventional Fourier reconstruction technique. As compared to conventional Fourier reconstruction with the same number of phase encoding steps, compressed sensing shows better performance in terms of mean squared phase error and edge preservation. We expect compressed sensing can be used to reduce the scan time or to enhance spatial resolution of MREIT.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.1138-1143
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• 2020

MRI scans in the abdominal area are difficult to achieve optimal images due to artificial respiration. Among 45 patients (male:female = 30:15) who underwent abdominal MRI examination, a metronome-based examination method was studied for patients whose breathing is difficult and difficult to examine. The images examined without using a metronome were divided into group A, and the images examined using a metronome were divided into group B. Image quality improvement (30%) and inspection time (approximately 50 seconds) were reduced in images using metronome. During abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (ABD MRI), the images examined using a metronome had differences in quality and examination time compared to the unused images. It is more effective to use a metronome brace that controls the patient's respiratory rate during abdominal magnetic resonance imaging under respiratory induction in patients with difficulty in respiratory-gated.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.332-336
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• 1990

Pheochromocytoma occurs at all ages but is most common in young to midadult life. In adults 10 percent of pheochronocytoma are bilateral. And bilateral lesions are common in the familial syndromes; within Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia (MEN) kindreds over half with pheochromocytomas have bilateral lesions. We report a case of bilateral pheochromocytoma firstly detected by ultrasonogram. This 24-year-old male was normotensive and had symptoms of dilated cardiomyopathy and elevated VMA level. CT and MRI were performed to evaluate the tissue nature and associated abnormalities. $^{131}I-MIBG$ scan seems to be the imaging of choice in patients with suspected multicentric/bilateral or recurrent or metastatic pheochromocytomas.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.48-53
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• 2000

In this paper, we develop a TMS320C31 (60MHz) digital signal processor (DSP) board to synthesize gradient waveforms for Spiral Scan Imaging (SSI), which is one of the ultra fast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods widely used. In SSI, accurate gradient waveforms are very essential to high quality magnetic resonance images. For this purpose, sampling rate for synthesizing the gradient waveforms is set twice as high as the data sampling rate. With the developed DSP boards accurate gradient waveforms are obtained. Ultra fast spiral scan imaging with the developed with the developed DSP board is currently under development.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2007

Purpose: To acquire high-resolution spiral-scan images at higher magnetic field, high homogeneous magnetic field is needed. Field inhomogeneity mapping and in-vivo shimming are important for rapid imaging such as spiral-scan imaging. The rapid scanning sequences are very susceptible to inhomogeneity. In this paper, we proposed a higher-order shimming method to obtain homogeneous magnetic field. Materials and Methods: To reduce measurement time for field inhomogeneity mapping, simultaneous axial/ sagittal, and coronal acquisitions are done using multi-slice based Fast Spin echo sequence. Acquired field inhomogeneity map is analyzed using the spherical harmonic functions, and shim currents are obtained by the multiplication of the pseudo-inverse of the field pattern with the inhomogeneity map. Results: Since the field inhomogeneity is increasing in proportion to the magnetic field, higher order shimming to reduce the inhomogeneity becomes more important in high field imaging. The shimming technique in which axial, sagittal, and coronal section inhomogeneity maps are obtained in one scan is developed, and the shimming method based on the analysis of spherical harmonics of the imhomogenity map is applied. The proposed technique is applicable to a localized shimming as well. High resolution spiral-scan imaging was successfully obtained with the proposed higher order shimming. Conclusion: Proposed pulse sequence for rapid measurement of inhomogeneity map and higher order shimming based on the inhomogeneity map work very well at 3 Tesla MRI system. With the proposed higher order shimming and localized higher order shimming techniques, high resolution spiral-scan images are successfully obtained at 3 T MRI system.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.159-168
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• 2020

The demand for drug-induced sedation for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans have substantially increased in response to increases in MRI utilization and growing interest in anxiety in children. Understanding the pharmacologic options for deep sedation and general anesthesia in an MRI environment is essential to achieve immobility for the successful completion of the procedure and ensure rapid and safe discharge of children undergoing ambulatory MRI. For painless diagnostic MRI, a single sedative/anesthetic agent without analgesia is safer than a combination of multiple sedatives. The traditional drugs, such as chloral hydrate, pentobarbital, midazolam, and ketamine, are still used due to the ease of administration despite low sedation success rate, prolonged recovery, and significant adverse events. Currently, dexmedetomidine, with respiratory drive preservation, and propofol, with high effectiveness and rapid recovery, are preferred for children undergoing ambulatory MRI. General anesthesia using propofol or sevoflurane can also provide predictable rapid time to readiness and scan times in infants or children with comorbidities. The selection of appropriate drugs as well as sufficient monitoring equipment are vital for effective and safe sedation and anesthesia for ambulatory pediatric MRI.

• Journal of the Korean Burn Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.43-45
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• 2021

Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) has been used as a safe, conventional and harmless diagnostic tool. However, thermal injuries have frequently been reported during MRI scanning due to the heat generated by the reaction with the magnetic field. It is recommended that metal-containing monitoring devices such as pulse oximetry and ECG monitoring leads should be removed prior to the start of the MRI scan, but these monitoring devices are inevitably placed in children or patients in the intensive care unit who have low compliance with the scan. Since the interaction between the metal probe or wire loop of pulse oximetry and the magnetic field can result in high thermal conduction, full-thickness burn can occur over the entire body surface during the MRI examination. Several cases of thermal burns from pulse oximetry on the fingers have been reported. However, we present a case of a full-thickness burn arising left earlobe in a 2-month-old child caused by the high conduction heat from pulse oximetry metal probe.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.2197-2204
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• 2015

In recent years, medical image diagnosis has growing significant momentous in the medicinal field. Brain and lung image of patient are distorted with salt and pepper noise is caused by moving the head and chest during scanning process of patients. Reconstruction of these images is a most significant field of diagnostic evaluation and is produced clearly through techniques such as linear or non-linear filtering. However, restored images are produced with smaller amount of noise reduction in the presence of huge magnitude of salt and pepper noises. To eliminate the high density of salt and pepper noises from the reproduction of images, a new efficient fuzzy based median filtering algorithm with a moderate elapsed time is proposed in this paper. Reproduction image results show enhanced performance for the proposed algorithm over other available noise reduction filtering techniques in terms of peak signal -to -noise ratio (PSNR), mean square error (MSE), root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), image enhancement factor (IMF) and structural similarity (SSIM) value when tested on different medical images like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computer tomography (CT) scan brain image and CT scan lung image. The introduced algorithm is switching filter that recognize the noise pixels and then corrects them by using median filter with fuzzy two-sided π- membership function for extracting the local information.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.179-184
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect according to the NEX, VENC, targeted cardiac phases on the velocity measurement of 4D phase-contrast MRI. Materials and Methods: The abdominal aortic phantom was made to experiment. The working fluid was mixed with water and glycerin to mimic the density and viscosity of human blood. The inlet velocity was Reynolds number 2000. The experimental conditions were NEX 1 and 4, VENC 102 cm/s and 200 cm/s, and 10 and 15 targeted cardiac phases, respectively. The average flow rate, average velocity, maximum velocity, and cross-section area were measured. Results: As a result of the case-by-case comparison, the error rate was less than 5%. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05). Conclusion: It is expected that this result will be useful for acquiring blood flow information in clinical practice.