• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.356-358
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• 2002

MRI, particularly diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), plays vital roles in detection of the acute brain infarction$\^$1-4/ and others metabolic changes of biological tissues. In general, every molecule in biological tissues may diffuse and move randomly in three-dimensional space. However, in clinical diagnosis, only 2D-DWI is used. The authors have developed a new method for rapid three-dimensional DWI (3D-DWI). In this method, by refocusing of the magnetized spin with the applied gradient field, direction of which is opposite to phase encoding field. Magnetized spin of $^1$H is kept under the SSFP (steady state free precession)$\^$5-6/. Under SSFP, in addition of FID, spin echo and stimulated echo are also generated, so the acquired signal is increased. The signal intensity is increased depending on flip angle (FA) of magnetized spin. This phenomenon is confirmed by human brain and phantom studies. The performance of this method is quantitatively analyzed by using both of conventional spin echo DWI and 3D-DWI. From experimental results, three dimensional diffusion weighted images are obtained correctly for liquid phantoms (water, acetone and oil), diffusion coefficient is enhanced in each image. Therefore, this method will provide useful information for clinical diagnosis.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.123-127
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• 2015

Recently, new gamma camera systems enabling low radiation dose imaging have been developed. We reviewed the recent development of these low dose gamma camera systems including high sensitivity detectors, device structures, noise reduction filters, efficient image reconstruction algorithms, low dose protocols, and so on. It is expected that further technological advances reduce both radiation dose and imaging time in gamma camera imaging especially for radiation-sensitive patients such as pediatric patients.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.91-100
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• 1998

In magnetic resonance imaging, the fast spin echo imaging technique is a widely used clinical imaging method. since its scanning time is much shorter than the conventional spin echo imaging and it gives the almost same image quality. However, the fast spin echo technique has two times longer imaging time for the dual echo acquisition which can obtain a spin density image and a T-give the same qulity images at the single echo imaging time. T he proposed technique reduces the imaging time by overlapping most of were obtained at the 0.3T permanent MRI system are presented.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.107-113
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• 2008

We introduce a rotating-gantry-based x-ray micro-tomography system to be used for small animal imaging studies. It has the zoom-in imaging capability for high resolution imaging of a local region inside the animal subject without any contrast anomalies arising from truncation of the projection data. With the sliding mechanism mounted on the rotating gantry holding the x-ray source and the x-ray detector, we can control the magnification ratio of the x-ray projection data. By combining the projection data from the large field of view (FOV) scan of the whole animal subject and the projection data from the small FOV scan of the region of interest, we can obtain artifact-free zoomed-in images of the region of interest. For the acquisition of x-ray projection data, we use a $1248{\times}1248$ flat-panel x-ray detector with the pixel pitch of 100 mm. It has been experimentally found that the developed system has the spatial resolution of up to 121p/mm when the highest magnification ratio of 5:1 is applied to the zoom-in imaging. We present some in vivo rat femur images to demonstrate utility of the developed system for small animal imaging.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 1997

A pixel profile in the conventional DANTE sequence is so poor that the excited area by DANTE sequence is a small portion of a pixel. This causes poor signal to noise ratio in DANTE image. In this paper, a frequency modulated(FM) DANTE imaging sequence is proposed to improve pixel profile in DANTE image. A DANTE pulse train is shaped by an FM function so that all the spins within a pixel are excited, thereby improving the signal to noise ratio. It also shows that the pixel profiles are dependent on the sweep in FM signal. Computer simulations and experimental result obtained using a 7.0 T NMR imaging system are presented.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.471-476
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• 2007

Various active microwave imaging techniques have been developed for cancer detection for past several decades. Both the microwave tomography and the UWB radar techniques, constituting functional microwave imaging systems, use the electrical property contrast between normal tissues and malignancies to detect the latter in an early development stage. Even though promising simulation results have been reported, the understanding of the functional microwave imaging diagnostics has been relied heavily on the complicated numerical results. We present a computationally efficient and physically instructive analytical electromagnetic wave channel models developed for functional microwave imaging system in order to detect especially the breast tumors as early as possible. The channel model covers the propagation factors that have been examined in the previous 2-D models, such as the radial spreading, path loss, partial reflection and transmission of the backscattered electromagnetic waves from the tumor cell. The effects of the system noise and the noise from the inhomogeneity of the tissue to the reconstruction algorithm are modeled as well. The characteristics of the reconstructed images of the tumor using the proposed model are compared with those from the confocal microwave imaging.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.165-172
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• 1999

An enhancement technique for phase dependent image contrast in MRI(Manetic Resonance Imaging) is proposed. Because the method can enhance inherent phase contrast it is suited for susceptibility imaging and flow imaging where intravoxel phase is a source of image contrast. In this paper, applying external phase in the voxel enhances phase contrast. The external phase is generated by a tailored RF pulse so that one can control the phase contrast and even produces phase only contrast. Signal intensity due to both inherent phase and external phase is analyzed and the proposed technique is applied to a susceptibility effect only imaging and a flow effect only imaging. To verify the proposed technique, computer simulations are performed and their results are given.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.5-8
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• 1984

As the ensemble averaged dz/dt signal during exercise gets smoothed, it is difficult to find the distinctive marks for estimation of stroke volume. The cross correlation function was made use of estmating these marks for automatic calculation by computer from the ensemble averaged dz/dt signal. LVET(Left Ventricular Ejection Time) and stroke volume were estimated based on the calculated parameters from the characteristic points. LVET, stroke volume calculated by hand, by the ensemble average and the cross correlation were compared for accuracy validation.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.46-53
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• 2008

Posterior cortical atrophy(PCA) is a presenile dementia that presents primarily with signs and symptoms of cortical visual dysfunction, while memory is relatively preserved until the late stage of the disease. We report a patient with PCA, confirmed by brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and $F^{18}$-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography(FDG PET). A 58-year-old right-handed woman presented initially with visual dimness and difficulty finding things around her. She had partial Balint's syndrome, partial Gerstmann syndrome, and idiomotor apraxia. She also had a mild memory disturbance, but preserved insight of her disease. Neuropsychological evaluation showed decreased parietal and left temporal functions bilaterally. Brain MRI and $F^{18}$-FDG PET revealed typical bilateral occipitoparietal atrophy and hypometabolism, which were slightly worse on the right side. Cholinesterase inhibitor administration for 6 months improved the memory impairment slightly, but not the cortical visual dysfunction. This is a typical case of PCA, confirmed by neurologic signs and imaging findings.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2007

Elasticity is an important physical property of biological tissues. Differences in elasticity can help facilitate the diagnosis of tumors and their extent. Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) tries to visualize images of tissue elasticity by externally applying shear stress on the surface of an imaging object. Applied shear stress induces internal displacements that can be measured from MR phase images. In order to conduct MRE imaging experiments, we need to first develop a vibrator. We found that there does not exist enough technical information to design the MRE vibrator. In this paper, we describe the theory, design and construction of an MRE vibrator. We report the performance of the developed vibrator using two different test methods. We found that the vibrator successfully induces enough internal displacements that can be imaged using an MRI scanner. We suggest future studies of numerous MRE imaging experiments using the vibrator.