• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권4호
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• pp.776-780
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• 2017

To avoid imaging artifacts and interpretation mistakes, an improvement of the uniformity in gamma camera systems is a very important point. We can expect excellent uniformity using cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) photon counting detector (PCD) because of the direct conversion of the gamma rays energy into electrons. In addition, the uniformity performance such as integral uniformity (IU), differential uniformity (DU), scatter fraction (SF), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) varies according to the energy window setting. In this study, we compared a PCD and conventional scintillation detector with respect to the energy windows (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) using a $^{99m}Tc$ gamma source with a Geant4 Application for Tomography Emission simulation tool. The gamma camera systems used in this work are a CZT PCD and NaI(Tl) conventional scintillation detector with a 1-mm thickness. According to the results, although the IU and DU results were improved with the energy window, the SF and CNR results deteriorated with the energy window. In particular, the uniformity for the PCD was higher than that of the conventional scintillation detector in all cases. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that the uniformity of the CZT PCD was higher than that of the conventional scintillation detector.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제42권6호
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• pp.425-434
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• 2008

Dopamine transporter imaging is useful in the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and the most successful technique in the clinical use of neuroreceptor imaging. Recently, several radiopharmaceuticals including I-123 FP-CIT, Tc-99m TRODAT, and F-18 FP-CIT for dopamine transporter imaging have been approved for the routine clinical use in several European countries, Taiwan and Korea, respectively. This review summarized the practical issue for the routine clinical examination of dopamine transporter imaging.

• 대한핵의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한핵의학회 2005년도 제44차 추계학술대회 및 총회
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• pp.343.1-343.1
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• 2005

• 대한핵의학회지
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• 제34권3호
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• pp.159-168
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• 2000

In the 1980s, techniques to image the human subjects in a three-dimensional direction were developed. Two major techniques are SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) and PET (Positron Emission Tomography) which allow the detector to detect a single photon or annihilation photons emitted from the subjects injected with radiopharmaceuticals. Since the latter two techniques can measure the density of receptors, enzymes and transporters in living human, it may be very important project to develop selective methods of labeling with radionuclides and to develop new radiopharmaceuticals. There has been a considerable interest in developing new compounds which specifically bind to dopamine and serotonin receptor and transporters, and it will be thus very useful to label those compounds with radionuclides in order to gain a better understanding in biochemical and pharmacological interactions in living human. This review mentions the characteristics of radioligands for the imaging of dopamine and serotonin receptors and transporters. Although significant progress has been achieved in the development of new PET and SPECT ligands for in vivo imaging of those receptors and transporters, there are continuous needs of new diagnostic radioligands.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.604-611
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• 2021

Objective: The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the potential of early-phase single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) using technetium-99m methyl diphosphonate (^99mTc-MDP) for diagnosing osteomyelitis (OM). Materials and Methods: Twenty-one patients with suspected OM were enrolled retrospectively. Three-phase bone scan (TPBS), early-phase SPECT/CT (immediately after blood pool planar imaging), and delayed-phase SPECT/CT (immediately after delayed planar imaging) were performed. The final diagnoses were established through surgery or clinical follow-up for over 6 months. We compared three diagnostic criteria based on (I) TPBS alone, (II) combined TPBS and delayed-phase SPECT/CT, and (III) early-phase SPECT/CT alone. Results: OM was diagnosed in 11 of 21 patients (nine surgically and two clinically). Of the 11 OM patients, criterion-I, criterion-II, and criterion-III were positive in six, seven, and 10 patients, respectively. Of the 10 non-OM patients, criterion-I, criterion-II, and criterion-III were negative in five, five, and seven patients, respectively. The sensitivity/specificity/accuracy of criterion-I, criterion-II, and criterion-III for diagnosing OM were 54.5%/50.0%/55.0%, 63.6%/50.0%/57.1%, and 90.9%/70.0%/87.5%, respectively. Conclusion: This pilot study demonstrated the potential of using the early-phase SPECT/CT to diagnose OM. Based on the results, prospective studies with a larger sample size should be conducted to confirm the efficacy of early-phase SPECT/CT.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제35권8호
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• pp.2367-2370
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• 2014

"Cat's eye"-shaped $[^{57}Co]CoO@SiO_2$ core-shell nanostructure was prepared by the reverse microemulsion method combined with radioisotope technique to investigate a potential imaging agent for a single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in nuclear medicine. The core cobalt oxide nanorods were obtained by thermal decomposition of $Co-(oleate)_2$ precursor from radio isotope Co-57 containing cobalt chloride and sodium oleate. The $SiO_2$ coating on the surface of the core cobalt oxide nanorods was produced by hydrolysis and a condensation reaction of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) in the water phase of the reverse microemulsion system. In vivo test, micro SPECT image was acquired with nude mice after 30 min of intravenous injection of $[^{57}Co]CoO@SiO_2$ core-shell nanostructure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권10호
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• pp.3943-3948
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• 2022

Single-photon emission computed tomography is one of the reliable pin-by-pin verification techniques for spent-fuel assemblies. One of the challenges with this technique is to increase the total fuel assembly verification speed while maintaining high verification accuracy. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm-based tomographic image analysis technique for partial-defect verification of fuel assemblies. With the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique, a tomographic image dataset consisting of 511 fuel-rod patterns of a 3 × 3 fuel assembly was generated, and with these images, the VGG16, GoogLeNet, and ResNet models were trained. According to an evaluation of these models for different training dataset sizes, the ResNet model showed 100% pattern estimation accuracy. And, based on the different tomographic image qualities, all of the models showed almost 100% pattern estimation accuracy, even for low-quality images with unrecognizable fuel patterns. This study verified that an AI model can be effectively employed for accurate and fast partial-defect verification of fuel assemblies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권5호
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• pp.1527-1532
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• 2023

The noise reduction algorithm using the non-local means (NLM) approach is very efficient in nuclear medicine imaging. In this study, the applicability of the NLM noise reduction algorithm in single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images with a brain phantom and the optimization of the NLM algorithm by changing the smoothing factors according to various reconstruction methods are investigated. Brain phantom images were reconstructed using filtered back projection (FBP) and ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM). The smoothing factor of the NLM noise reduction algorithm determined the optimal coefficient of variation (COV) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) results at a value of 0.020 in the FBP and OSEM reconstruction methods. We confirmed that the FBP- and OSEM-based SPECT images using the algorithm applied with the optimal smoothing factor improved the COV and CNR by 66.94% and 8.00% on average, respectively, compared to those of the original image. In conclusion, an optimized smoothing factor was derived from the NLM approach-based algorithm in brain SPECT images and may be applicable to various nuclear medicine imaging techniques in the future.

• 대한디지털의료영상학회논문지
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.110-118
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• 1997

Recently, to make a diagnosis of the patient different X-Ray examinations are used. To name a few, Computed Tomography(CT). Magnetic Resonance Image(MRI) Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography(SPET) and Positron Emission Tomography(PET). But diagnosticians face difficulties sometimes when they make a diagnosis with images from those examinations. One of the problem is whether the Lesions of the patient is captured in the image correctly. Another one is whether the images are taken with same angle. in this paper, a study 9 on the method to obtain the hybrid image from the different images to different examinations. The procedure done in this paper is described as future study. Although small errors in position between images would occurred, this method more useful as it does not make patients in convenient. To reconstruct a image, some images are scanned by scanner and stored to personal computer for further image processing with Aldus photostyler program. The method to generate a sharpened image are also described.

• 대한정형외과학회지
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• 제54권6호
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• pp.509-518
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• 2019

목적: 악성 종양 환자에서 림프절 전이를 발견하는 것은 초기에 정확한 병기 및 예후와 관련된 정보를 알 수 있고 수술 후 보조치료(adjuvant therapy)의 필요성을 평가해서 조기에 치료를 할 수 있도록 해주기 때문에 중요하다. 본 연구를 통해 정형외과 영역의 악성 종양 환자를 평가함에 있어 양전자 방출 컴퓨터 단층 촬영기(positron emission tomography/computed tomography, PET/CT)가 sentinel lymph node biopsy와 비교하여 유용한지를 알아보고자 한다. 대상 및 방법: 2008년부터 2018년까지 악성 근골격계 종양으로 진단받고 PET/CT를 촬영한 환자 251명 중 72명의 환자를 선별하여 후향적 분석을 시행하였다. 림프절 전이가 의심되는 환자군은 조직검사를 시행하였다. 분석은 의무기록, 임상정보, PET/CT 영상 및 판독 소견, 병리 결과를 통해 시행하였으며, 임상경과 및 병리검사 결과를 PET/CT 결과와 비교하여 PET/CT의 정확도를 평가하였다. 결과: 환자의 나이는 14세에서 88세까지 분포하였고, 평균 추시 기간은 2.4년이었으며, 22명에서 림프절의 전이가 확인되었다. 육종 및 비육종 종양에서 PET/CT 영상의 민감도, 특이도, 양성예측도, 음성예측도는 전문가의 소견을 함께 고려할 경우 상당히 상승하는 것을 확인하였다. 결론: 본 연구를 통하여 전문가의 소견을 함께 고려한다면, 림프절의 전이를 발견하는 데 PET/CT의 유용성은 증가할 것으로 생각된다.