• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2007

Purpose : To determine the diagnostic accuracy of four different sequences : moderately T2 weighted, two heavily T2-weighted single shot turbo spin-echo sequence and breath-hold axial-2D balanced turbo field-echo sequence(bFFE) for characterization of focal lesions. Materials and Methods : During the 3-month period between June and August 2005, seventy-six patients were proved to have ninety-three focal hepatic lesions on MR imaging. The patients consisted of 49 men and 27 women (age range, 15-75 years; mean age, 56.23 years). All MR images were acquired on a 1.5-T MR using the following sequences: 1. A breath-hold axial T2-weighted single shot turbo spin-echo sequence, 2. a breath-hold axial-2D balanced turbo field-echo sequence. Two radiologists performed quantitative analysis. Another radiologist measured the lesion-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratio at the region-of-interest in the four sequences. Results : There was no significant difference in inter-observer variability between the four sequences. The accuracy for both cyst and malignancy of moderate T2 weighted MRI (echo time: 80 msec) was also highest. There was significant difference for lesion characterization between moderate T2 weighted MRI and balanced steady state procession (p-value: 0.004) in the second reader. For longer echo time, the CNR of cystic lesions were markedly increased in comparison to lesions of other component. Conclusion : The accuracy and inter-observer variability of single shot turbo spin echo T2 weighted sequence was higher than bFFE. Although there was no statically significant difference, moderate T2 weighted MRI (echo time: 80 msec) was more accurate than heavily T2 weighted sequence (echo time: 300 msec). If the results for lesion characterization is equivocal in TE 80, the addition of heavily T2 weighted MRI (echo time: 180 msec) can be helpful.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.231-240
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• 2014

The purpose of this study were to analyze that the Seoul neuropsychological screening battery (SNSB) for the evaluating cognitive assessment of the Parkinson's disease patients with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) and the changes of the cerebral ventricle volume in the brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and we has been bring forward the guideline to determine the diagnostic criteria for the PD-MCI. To achieve this, we was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease patients (PD-MCI group: 34 patients; Parkinson's disease with normal cognition, PD-NC group: 34 patients) to perform the SNSB test for the attention, language, memory, visuospatial, and frontal/executive functions and the brain MRI. Additionally, to compared the change of the cerebral ventricle volume, we performed the brain MRI for the 32 normal control (NC) group. The volumetric analysis for a specific cerebral ventricle performed by using Freesurfer Ver. 5.1 (Massachusetts general Hospital, Boston MA, USA). As a results, compared to the PD-NC group, the PD-MCI group were statistically significant reduction in the ability to perform the memory and the visuospatial function (p<0.05). The volumetric changes for a specific cerebral ventricle were statistically significant variation in the left and right lateral ventricle, left and right inferior lateral ventricle, and 3rd ventricle. Although, in order to compared the objectification, the normalized percentage applied to the volumetric changes showed to extend the PD-MCI group than the PD-NC group. Specially, the left and right ventricle extension for the PD-MCI patients conspicuously had showed a quantitative linear relationship between the memory and the visuospatial function for the SNSB (r>0.5, p<0.05). Therefore, we were able to judge the diagnostic criteria of the PD-MCI through that can observe the volumetric variation of the specific cerebral ventricle by using Freesurfer in brain MRI, and to analyze the correlation between the SNSB.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.73-73
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• 2003

Purpose: To determine the motor cortex dysfunction in hemiparetic patients due to deep intracerebral hematoma, authors performed proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (lH MRS) for the evaluation of biochemical changes in the cortex on affected hemisphere according to axonal injury at the level of internal capsule. Methods: Ten control subjects and 14 patients with documentable hemiparesis of varying severity hemiparesis were included. All the hemiparesis was caused by deep intracerebral hematoma (putaminal and thalamic hemorrhage). In vivo 1H MRS study was performed on a 3T MRI/MRS system using STEAM sequence. As a single-voxel technique, Spectral parameters were: 20 ms TE, 2000 ms TR, 128 averages, 2500 Hz spectral width, and 2048 data points. Results: We found that the mean N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/phosphocreatine (Cr) and NAA/choline (Cho) ratios were significantly decreased in the motor cortex of the hemiparesis patients compared with control subjects. Conclusions: 1H MRS examinations of the motor cortex might help to differentiate distinct clinical entities of hemiparesis and to monitor pharmacological effects in therapeutic trials, providing a quantitative biological marker for motor neuron dysfunction. Acknowledgement: This study was supported by a grant of the Center for Functional and Metabolic Imaging Technology, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea. (02-PJ3-PG6-EV07-000).

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.82-88
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• 2017

Enlargement of the lateral ventricles have been identified as a surrogate marker of neurological disorders. Quantitative measure of the lateral ventricle from MRI would enable earlier and more accurate clinical diagnosis in monitoring disease progression. Even though it requires an automated or semi-automated segmentation method for objective quantification, it is difficult to define lateral ventricles due to insufficient contrast and brightness of structural imaging. In this study, we proposed a fully automated lateral ventricle segmentation method based on a graph cuts algorithm combined with atlas-based segmentation and connected component labeling. Initially, initial seeds for graph cuts were defined by atlas-based segmentation (ATS). They were adjusted by partial volume images in order to provide accurate a priori information on graph cuts. A graph cuts algorithm is to finds a global minimum of energy with minimum cut/maximum flow algorithm function on graph. In addition, connected component labeling used to remove false ventricle regions. The proposed method was validated with the well-known tools using the dice similarity index, recall and precision values. The proposed method was significantly higher dice similarity index ($0.860{\pm}0.036$, p < 0.001) and recall ($0.833{\pm}0.037$, p < 0.001) compared with other tools. Therefore, the proposed method yielded a robust and reliable segmentation result.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.81-92
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• 2018

It is widely accepted that altered metabolism contributes to cancer growth and has been described as a hallmark of cancer. Our view and understanding of cancer metabolism has expanded at a rapid pace, however, there remains a need to study metabolic dependencies of human cancer in vivo. Recent studies have sought to utilize multi-modality imaging (MMI) techniques in order to build a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of cancer metabolism. MMI combines several in vivo techniques that can provide complementary information related to cancer metabolism. We describe several non-invasive imaging techniques that provide both anatomical and functional information related to tumor metabolism. These imaging modalities include: positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) that uses hyperpolarized probes and optical imaging utilizing bioluminescence and quantification of light emitted. We describe how these imaging modalities can be combined with mass spectrometry and quantitative immunochemistry to obtain more complete picture of cancer metabolism. In vivo studies of tumor metabolism are emerging in the field and represent an important component to our understanding of how metabolism shapes and defines cancer initiation, progression and response to treatment. In this review we describe in vivo based studies of cancer metabolism that have taken advantage of MMI in both pre-clinical and clinical studies. MMI promises to advance our understanding of cancer metabolism in both basic research and clinical settings with the ultimate goal of improving detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.238-248
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• 2015

Sleep related breathing disorders(SRBDs) are a group of diseases accompanied by difficulties in respiration and ventilation during sleep. Central sleep apnea, obstructive sleep apnea(OSA), sleep-related hypoventilation, and hypoxemia disorder are included in this disease entity. OSA is known to be the most common SRBDs and studies show its significant correlation with general health problems including hypertension, arrhythmia, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. The diagnostic process of OSA is composed of physical examinations of the head and neck area and also the oral cavity. Radiologic studies including cephalography, CT, MRI, and fluoroscopy assist in identifying the site of obstruction. However, polysomnography(PSG) is still considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of OSA since it offers both qualitative and quantitative recording of the events during a whole night's sleep. The dentist who is trained in sleep medicine can easily identify patients with the risk of OSA starting from simple questions and screening questionnaires. Diagnosis is the first step to treatment and considering the high rate of under-diagnosis for OSA the dentist may play a substantial role in the diagnosis and treatment of OSA which will eventually lead to the well-being of the patient as a whole person. So the objective of this article is to assist dental professionals in gaining knowledge and insight of the diagnostic measures for OSA including PSG.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.26-49
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to analyze the equity of health care utilization by income groups in terms of both quantity and quality of care, which is measured by expenditure, type of care, and type of health care institutions. Equity in health care utilization is measured by HIwv index, based on the survey of 1,480 Gwangju-Jeonnam residents. Health care utilization in terms of the probability and quantity of outpatient and inpatient care show equitable or pro-poor inequitable distribution, whereas the distribution of health care expenditure, which can account for the quality of care, is pro-rich inequitable, implying that the better off tend to use more expensive medical care. In terms of the types of care, simple visits for basic care show equitable distribution, whereas the distribution of the utilization of traditional tonic medicine, comprehensive health examination, CT, MRI, and ultrasound is pro-rich inequitable. Utilization of general hospitals and traditional health institutions show pro-rich inequitable distribution, hospitals and dental care institutions equitable, and physician clinics and public health centers pro-poor inequitable.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.846-854
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• 2000

In this paper, we propose effecient methods to extract the femoral head region in MR images. The femoral head area in MRI is approximated using Hough transform and the anatomical features of the femoral heads. Then, modified region growing method is applied to extract the femoral head region. We measured the parameters for the diagnosis of the avascular necrosis of the femoral heads from the segmented femoral head region. The proposed methods are proved very effective to extract the femoral head of healthy volunteer and of the patient having heavy avascular necrosis. The measured parameters can be used very efficiently for the quantitative analysis and the diagnosis of the avascular necrosis of the femoral heads.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.222-228
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• 2023

This study aimed to analyze the applicability of the improved median filter in positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance (MR) fusion images based on parallel imaging using generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisition (GRAPPA). In this study, a PET/MR fusion imaging system based on a 3.0T magnetic field and ¹⁸F radioisotope were used. An improved median filter that can set a mask of the median value more efficiently than before was modeled and applied to the acquired image. As quantitative evaluation parameters of the noise level, the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) and coefficient of variation (COV) were calculated. Additionally, no-reference-based evaluation parameters were used to analyze the overall image quality. We confirmed that the CNR and COV values of the PET/MR fusion images to which the improved median filter was applied improved by approximately 3.32 and 2.19 times on average, respectively, compared to the noisy image. In addition, the no-reference-based evaluation results showed a similar trend for the noise-level results. In conclusion, we demonstrated that it can be supplemented by using an improved median filter, which suggests the problem of image quality degradation of PET/MR fusion images that shortens scan time using GRAPPA.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.880-889
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• 2021

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the regional amyloid burden and myocardial deformation using T1 mapping and strain values in patients with cardiac amyloidosis (CA) according to late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) patterns. Materials and Methods: Forty patients with CA were divided into 2 groups per LGE pattern, and 15 healthy subjects were enrolled. Global and regional native T1 and T2 mapping, extracellular volume (ECV), and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)-feature tracking strain values were compared in an intergroup and interregional manner. Results: Of the patients with CA, 32 had diffuse global LGE (group 2), and 8 had focal patchy or no LGE (group 1). Global native T1, T2, and ECV were significantly higher in groups 1 and 2 than in the control group (native T1: 1384.4 ms vs. 1466.8 ms vs. 1230.5 ms; T2: 53.8 ms vs. 54.2 ms vs. 48.9 ms; and ECV: 36.9% vs. 51.4% vs. 26.0%, respectively; all, p < 0.001). Basal ECV (53.7%) was significantly higher than the mid and apical ECVs (50.1% and 50.0%, respectively; p < 0.001) in group 2. Basal and mid peak radial strains (PRSs) and peak circumferential strains (PCSs) were significantly lower than the apical PRS and PCS, respectively (PRS, 15.6% vs. 16.7% vs. 26.9%; and PCS, -9.7% vs. -10.9% vs. -15.0%; all, p < 0.001). Basal ECV and basal strain (2-dimensional PRS) in group 2 showed a significant negative correlation (r = -0.623, p < 0.001). Group 1 showed no regional ECV differences (basal, 37.0%; mid, 35.9%; and apical, 38.3%; p = 0.184). Conclusion: Quantitative T1 mapping parameters such as native T1 and ECV may help diagnose early CA. ECV, in particular, can reflect regional differences in the amyloid deposition in patients with advanced CA, and increased basal ECV is related to decreased basal strain. Therefore, quantitative CMR parameters may help diagnose CA and determine its severity in patients with or without LGE.