• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2015

Intracrnial 3D TOF MR angiography was performed in 30 normal volunteers with both 1.5 and 3.0 T MRI system with high resolutions. Used Voxel sizes were $0.39{\times}0.39{\times}0.2$(1.5 T) and $0.19{\times}0.19{\times}0.35$(3.0 T), respectively. High image quality and depiction of small vessel branches were equality demonstrated with 1.5 T and 3.0 T HR TOF MRA(p<0.05). Intracranial high resolution TOF MRA with 1.5 T and 3.0 T provides high diagnostic information with having merits and demerits in depiction of vascular branches.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2001

Purpose : To describe the MRI findings in the bronchial anthracofibrosis mimicking lung cancer on CT examination. Materials and methods : Ten patients, who showed CT findings mimicking lung cancer, were selected among fifty patients of bronchial anthracofibrosis proven by bronchoscopic biopsy, consisting of two men and eight women, ranging in age from 58 to 79 years old faverage age, 68 years old). CT scan and MRI were performed in all patients (n=10). Percutaneous lung biopsy on mass was performed in one patient. MRI findings were analyzed with the emphasis on the signal intensity of the mass (n=4), collapsed lung (n=4) and Iymph node (n=10) on axial T1 and T2-weighted images by two radiologists in consensus. No contrast enhancement was used in all cases. Results : CT scan revealed mass (n=4), atelectasis with obstructive pneumonia(n=4) and bronchial wall thickening(n=2). All patients showed enlarged medistinal Iymph nodes(n=10). The mass showed low signal intensity on T1WI and T2WI (n =4). The collapsed lung in patients with atelectasis indicated intermediate signal intensity on T1WI and low signal intensity on T2WI (n= 4). Nine patients showed low sisnal intensity of Iymph node on T1WI and T2WI, except one patient who showed central high signal intensity with peripheral rim of low signal intensity in right lower paratracheal llmph node on T2WI. Conclusion : Low signal intensity of a mass, collapsed lung, and lymph nodes on T2WI in anthracofibrosis patients may be helpful in differentiation of the lesion from lung cancer.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.339-346
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• 2000

Medical image is analyzed to get an anatomical information for diagnostics. Segmentation must be preceded to recognize and determine the lesion more accurately. In this paper, we propose automatic segmentation algorithm for MR brain images using T1-weighted, T2-weighted and PD images complementarily. The proposed segmentation algorithm is first, extracts cerebrum images from 3 input images using cerebrum mask which is made from PD image. And next, find 3D clusters corresponded to cerebrum tissues using scale filtering and 3D clustering in 3D space which is consisted of T1, T2, and PD axis. Cerebrum images are segmented using FCM algorithm with its initial centroid as the 3D cluster's centroid. The proposed algorithm improved segmentation results using accurate cluster centroid as initial value of FCM algorithm and also can get better segmentation results using multi spectral analysis than single spectral analysis.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.67-72
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• 1998

The mapping of the spin-spin relaxation time T2 in pixel-by-pixel was suggested as a quantitative diagnostic tool in medicine. although the CPMG pulse sequence has been known to be the best pulse sequence for T2 measurement in physics NMR, the supplied pulse sequence by the manufacture of MRI system was able to obtain the maximum of 4 CPMG images. Eight or more images with different echo time TEs are required to construct a reliable T2 map, so that two or more acquisitions were required, which easily took more than 10 minutes. 4-echo CPMG imaging pulse sequence was modified to generate the maximum of 8 MR images with evenly spaced echo time TEs. In human MR imaging, since patients tend to move at least several pixels between the different acquisitions, 8-echo CPMG imaging sequence reduces the acquisition time and may remove any mis-regitration of each pixels signal for the fitting of T2. The resultant T2 maps using the theoretically simulated images and using the MR images of the human brain suggested that 8 echo CPMG sequence with short echo spacing such as 17-20 msec can give the reliable T2 map.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.161-170
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• 2009

Purpose : A parallel imaging method provides us to improve temporal resolution to obtain three-dimensional (3D) MR images. The objective of this study was to optimize three 3D MRI techniques by adjusting 2D SESNE factors of the parallel imaging method in phantom and human brain. Materials and Methods : With a 3 Tesla MRI system and an 8-channel phase-array sensitivity-encoding (SENSE) coil, three 3D MRI techniques of 3D T1-weighted imaging (3D T1WI), 3D T2-weighted imaging (3D T2WI) and 3D fluid attenuated inversion recovery (3D FLAIR) imaging were optimized with adjusting SESNE factors in a water phantom and three human brains. The 2D SENSE factor was applied on the phase-encoding and the slice-encoding directions. Signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), percent signal reduction rate(%R), and contrast-to-noise ratio(CNR) were calculated by using signal intensities obtained in specific regions-of-interest (ROI). Results : In the phantom study, SENSE factor = 3 was provided in 0.2% reduction of signals against without using SENSE with imaging within 5 minutes for 3D T1WI. SENSE factor = 2 was provided in 0.98% signal reduction against without using SENSE with imaging within 5 minutes for 3D T2WI. SENSE factor = 4 was provided in 0.2% signal reduction against without using SENSE with imaging around 6 minutes for 3D FLAIR. In the human brain study, SNR and CNR were higher with SENSE factors = 3 than 4 for all three imaging techniques. Conclusion : This study was performed to optimize 2D SENSE factors in the three 3D MRI techniques that can be scanned in clinical time limitations with minimizing SNR reductions. Without compromising SNR and CNR, the optimum 2D SENSE factors were 3 and 4, yielding the scan time of about 5 to 6 minutes. Further studies are necessary to optimize 3D MRI techniques in other areas in human body.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.405-408
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• 2003

영상의 구성물질에 따른 정확한 분할은 질병의 유무를 판단하는데 매우 중요하다. 그러나 영상에서 구성물질들을 정확하게 분할하기란 쉬운 문제가 아니다. 그리고 많은 연구들이 뇌의 실질적인 량을 고려하지 못한 상태서 분할이 이루어지고 있다. 따라서 뇌의 실질적인 량과 비교할 때 가장 근접한 방법 의 개발이 필요하다고 볼 수 있다. 본 논문은 fat을 소거한 T2 영상과 T1 영상을 이용하여 조직에 따르는 명암 분포가 각각 다르게 분포되어 있는 것을 이용하여 평활화한 후 두 영상의 차로 백질, 회백질, 뇌척수액을 분리하는 방법을 제안한다. 이 방법을 이용하여 정상이의 뇌 MR 영상 이용하여 (19 Slice) 백질, 회백질, 뇌척수액을 분리하는 방법을 제시하였다.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.700-704
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose a method for combining MR image with histopathology image of the prostate using image correction and multi-stage registration. Our method consists of four steps. First, the intensity of prostate bleeding area on T2-weighted MR image is substituted for that on T1-weighted MR image. And two or four tissue sections of the prostate in histopathology image are combined to produce a single prostate image by manual stitching. Second, rigid registration is performed to find the affine transformations that to optimize mutual information between MR and histopathology images. Third, the result of affine registration is deformed by the TPS warping. Finally, aligned images are visualized by the intensity intermixing. Experimental results show that the prostate tumor lesion can be properly located and clearly visualized within MR images for tissue characterization comparison and that the registration error between T2-weighted MR and histopathology image was 0.0815mm.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.167-172
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• 1999

Purpose : To evaluate the detection rate of hyperacute intracerebral hemorrhage in echo planar imaging (EPI) and other MR sequences. materials and Methods : Intracerebral hemorrhage was experimentally induced in ten rats. EPI, fast spin-echo (FSE) T2 weighted images, fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), spin-echo (SE) T1 weighted images and gradient echo (GE) T1 weight ed images of rat's brains were obtained 2 hours after onset of intracerebral hemorrhage. EPI and FSE T2 images were additionally obtained 30 min and 1 hour after onset of hemorrhage in 3 and 6 rat, repeatedly, For objective visual assessment, discrimination between the lesion and normal brain parenchyma was evaluated on various MR sequences by three radiologists. For quantitative assessment, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) was calculated fro hemorrhage-normal brain parenchyma. Statistical analysis was performed usning the Wilcoxon-Ranks test. Results : EPI, FLAIR, and FSE T2 images showed high signal intensity lesions. The lesion discrimination was easier on EPI than on other sequences, and also EPI showed higher signal intensity for the subjective visual assessment. In quantitative evaluation, CNR of the hemorrhagic lesion versus normal brain parenchyma were higher on EPI and FLAIR images (p<0.01). There was no difference in CNR between EPI and FLAIR (p>0.10). On MR images obtained 30 minutes and 1 hour after the onset of intracerebral hemorrhage, the lesion detection was feasible on both EPI and FSE T2 images showing high signal intensity. Conclusion : EPI showed higher detection rate as compared with other MR sequences and could be useful in early detection and evaluation of intracerebral hemorrhage.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.8-16
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• 2014

Purpose The quantitative analysis of gallbladder emptying is very important in diagnosis of motility disorder of gallbladder and in biliary physiology. The GBEF obtain the statics aquisition method or the dynamic acquisition method in two ways. The purpose of this study is to compare the GBEF value of statics acquisition method and the dynamic acquisition method. And we find the best way for calculate GBEF. Materials and Methods The quantitative hepatobiliary scan with $^{99m}Tc$-mebrofenin was performed of 27 patients. Initial images were acquired statically, for 60 min after injection of the radioactive tracer. And if the gallbladder is visualized to 60 min, performed stimulation of gallbladder (1egg, 200 mL milk). After that, started acquisition of dynamic image for 30 min. After that, image of after fatty meal of the statics method were acquired on equal terms with 60 min image. The statics GBEF was calculated using the images of before fatty meal and post fatty meal by the statics method. The dynamic GBEF was calculated using the images of time of maximum bile juice uptake ($T_{max}$) and time of minimum bile juice uptake ($T_{min}$) images from the gallbladder time-activity curve. A bile juice is secreted from gallbladder while eating a fatty meal. that is named early GBEF and that was calculated using before fatty meal image of the statics method and 1 min image of the dynamic method. Results The result saw very big difference between two according to $T_{max}$. The result, were as follows. 1) In case of less than 1 min, the dynamic mean GBEF was $40.1{\pm}21.7%$, the statics mean GBEF was $51.5{\pm}23.6%$ in 16 cases. The early mean GBEF was $14.0{\pm}29.1%$. The GBEF of statics method was higher because that include secreted bile juice while performed stimulation of gallbladder. A difference of GB counts according to acquisition method and the early bile juice counts was $17.6{\pm}14.8%$ and $13.5{\pm}15.3%$. 2) In case of exceed than 1 min, the dynamic mean GBEF was $31.0{\pm}19.7%$, the statics mean GBEF was $21.3{\pm}19.4%$ in 7 cases. The early GBEF was $-6.9{\pm}4.9%$. The GBEF of dynamic method was higher because that include concentrated bile juice to $T_{max}$. A difference of GB counts according to acquisition method and the early bile juice counts was $14.3{\pm}7.3%$ and $5.9{\pm}3.9%$. Conclusion The statics method is very easy and simple, but in case of $T_{max}$ delay, the GBEF can be lower. The dynamic method is able to calculate accurately in case of $T_{max}$ delay, but in case of $T_{max}$ is less than 1 min, the GBEF can be lower because dynamic GBEF exclude secreted bile juice while performed stimulation of gallbladder. The best way to calculate GBEF is to scan with dynamic method preferentially and to choose suitable method between the two way after conform $T_{max}$ on the T-A curve of the dynamic method.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.83-92
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• 1995

The T1 mapping of an human anatomy may give a characteristic contrast among the various tissues and the normal/abnormal tissues. Here, the methodology of constructing T1 map out of several images with different TRs, will be described using non-linear curve fitting. The general curve fitting algorithm requires the initial trial values T1t and Mot for the variables to be fitted. Three different methods of suppling the trial T1t and Mot are suggested and compared for the efficiency and the accuracy. The curve-fitting routine was written in ANSI C and excuted on a SUN workstation. Several distilled-water phantoms with various concentrations of Gd-DTPA were prepared to examine the accuracy of the curve-fitting program. An MR image was used as the true proton density image without any random noise, and several images with different TRs were generated with the theoretical T1 relaxation times 250, 500, and 1000msec. The random noise of 1, 5, and 10％ were embedded into the simulated images. These images were used to generate the T1 map, and the resultant T1 maps for each T1 were analyzed to study the effect of the random noise on the T1 map.