• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2003

In medical imaging, three-dimensional (3D) display using Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) as a portable file format can give intuitive information more efficiently on the World Wide Web (WWW). The web-based 3D visualization of functional images combined with anatomical images has not studied much in systematic ways. The goal of this study was to achieve a simultaneous observation of 3D anatomic and functional models with planar images on the WWW, providing their locational information in 3D space with a measuring implement using VRML. MRI and ictal-interictal SPECT images were obtained from one epileptic patient. Subtraction ictal SPECT co-registered to MRI (SISCOM) was performed to improve identification of a seizure focus. SISCOM image volumes were held by thresholds above one standard deviation (1-SD) and two standard deviations (2-SD). SISCOM foci and boundaries of gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the MRI volume were segmented and rendered to VRML polygonal surfaces by marching cube algorithm. Line profiles of x and y-axis that represent real lengths on an image were acquired and their maximum lengths were the same as 211.67 mm. The real size vs. the rendered VRML surface size was approximately the ratio of 1 to 605.9. A VRML measuring tool was made and merged with previous VRML surfaces. User interface tools were embedded with Java Script routines to display MRI planar images as cross sections of 3D surface models and to set transparencies of 3D surface models. When transparencies of 3D surface models were properly controlled, a fused display of the brain geometry with 3D distributions of focal activated regions provided intuitively spatial correlations among three 3D surface models. The epileptic seizure focus was in the right temporal lobe of the brain. The real position of the seizure focus could be verified by the VRML measuring tool and the anatomy corresponding to the seizure focus could be confirmed by MRI planar images crossing 3D surface models. The VRML application developed in this study may have several advantages. Firstly, 3D fused display and control of anatomic and functional image were achieved on the m. Secondly, the vector analysis of a 3D surface model was defined by the VRML measuring tool based on the real size. Finally, the anatomy corresponding to the seizure focus was intuitively detected by correlations with MRI images. Our web based visualization of 3-D fusion image and its localization will be a help to online research and education in diagnostic radiology, therapeutic radiology, and surgery applications.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.415-423
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• 2010

Pore network models are useful tools to investigate soil pore geometry. These models provide quantitative information of pore geometry from 3D images. This study presents a pore network model to quantify pore structure and hydraulic characteristics. The objectives of this work were to apply the pore network model to characterize pore structure from large images to quantify pore structure, calculate water retention and hydraulic conductivity properties from a three dimensional soil image, and to combine measured hydraulic properties from experiments with calculated hydraulic properties from image. Soil samples were taken from a site located at the Baltimore science center, which is located inside of the city. Undisturbed columns were taken from the site and scanned with a computer tomographer at resolutions of 22 ${\mu}m$. Pore networks were extracted by medial-axis transformation and were used to measure pore geometry from one of the scanned samples. Water retention and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity values were calculated from the soil image. Properties of soil bulk density, water retention and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity were measured from three replicates of scanned soil samples. 3D image analysis provided accurate detailed pore properties such as individual pore volumes, pore length, and tortuosity of all pores. These data made possible to calculate accurate estimations of water retention and hydraulic conductivity. Combination of the calculated and measured hydraulic properties gave more accurate information on pore sizes over wider range than measured or calculated data alone. We could conclude that the hydraulic property computed from soil images and laboratory measurements can describe a full structure of intra- and inter-aggregate pores in soil.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.38
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• pp.38.1-38.10
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• 2016

Background: The aims of this study are to evaluate the lip morphology and change of lip commissure after mandibular setback surgery (MSS) for class III patients and analyze association between the amount of mandibular setback and change of lip morphology. Methods: The samples consisted of 14 class III patients treated with MSS using bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy. Lateral cephalogram and cone-beam CT were taken before and about 6 months after MSS. Changes in landmarks and variables were measured with 3D software program $Ondemand^{TM}$. Paired and independent t tests were performed for statistical analysis. Results: Landmarks in the mouth corner (cheilion, Ch) moved backward and downward (p < .005, p < .01). However, cheilion width was not statistically significantly changed. Landmark in labrale superius (Ls) was not altered significantly. Upper lip prominence angle (ChRt-Ls-$ChLt^{\circ}$) became acute. Landmarks in stomion (Stm), labrale inferius (Li) moved backward (p < .005, p < .001). Lower lip prominence angle (ChRt-Li-$ChLt^{\circ}$) became obtuse (p < .001). Height of the upper and lower lips was not altered significantly. Length of the upper lip vermilion was increased (p =< 0.01), and length of the lower lip vermilion was decreased (p < .05). Lip area on frontal view was not statistically significantly changed, but the upper lip area on lateral view was increased and change of the lower lip area decreased (p > .05, p < .005). On lateral view, upper lip prominent point (UP) moved downward and stomion moved backward and upward and the angle of Ls-UP-Stm ($^{\circ}$) was decreased. Lower lip prominent point (LP) moved backward and downward, and the angle of Stm-LP-Li ($^{\circ}$) was increased. Li moved backward. Finally, landmarks in the lower incisor tip (L1) moved backward and upward, but stomion moved downward. After surgery, lower incisor tip (L1) was positioned more superiorly than stomion (p < .05). There were significant associations between horizontal soft tissue and corresponding hard tissue. The posterior movement of L1 was related to statistically significantly about backward and downward movement of cheilion. Conclusions: The lip morphology of patients with dento-skeletal class III malocclusion shows a significant improvement after orthognathic surgery. Three-dimensional lip morphology changes in class III patients after MSS exhibited that cheilion moved backward and downward, upper lip projection angle became acute, lower lip projection angle became obtuse, change of upper lip area on lateral view was increased, change of lower lip area decreased, and morphology of lower lip was protruding. L1 was concerned with the lip tissue change in statistically significant way.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.389-399
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• 2008

Corrections of attenuation, scatter and resolution are important in order to improve the accuracy of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) image reconstruction. Especially, the heart movement by respiration and beating cause the errors in the corrections. Myocardial phantom is used to verify the correction methods, but there are many different parts in the current phantoms in actual human body. Therefore the results using a phantom are often considered apart from the clinical data. We developed a new phantom that implements the human body structure around the thorax more faithfully. The new phantom has the small mediastinum which can simulate the structure in which the lung adjoins anterior, lateral and apex of myocardium. The container was made of acrylic and water-equivalent material was used for mediastinum. In addition, solidified polyurethane foam in epoxy resin was used for lung. Five different sizes of myocardium were developed for the quantitative gated SPECT (QGS). The septa of all different cardiac phantoms were designed so that they can be located at the same position. The proposed phantom was attached with liver and gallbladder, the adjustment was respectively possible for the height of them. The volumes of five cardiac ventricles were 150.0, 137.3, 83.1, 42.7 and 38.6ml respectively. The SPECT were performed for the new phantom, and the differences between the images were examined after the correction methods were applied. The three-dimensional tomography of myocardium was well reconstructed, and the subjective evaluations were done to show the difference among the various corrections. We developed the new cardiac and torso phantom, and the difference of various corrections was shown on SPECT images and QGS results.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.13
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• pp.5259-5264
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• 2014

Background: CT based brachytherapy allows 3-dimensional (3D) assessment of organs at risk (OAR) doses with dose volume histograms (DVHs). The purpose of this study was to compare computed tomography (CT) based volumetric calculations and International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) reference-point estimates of radiation doses to the bladder and rectum in patients with carcinoma of the cervix treated with high-dose-rate (HDR) intracavitary brachytherapy (ICBT). Materials and Methods: Between March 2011 and May 2012, 20 patients were treated with 55 fractions of brachytherapy using tandem and ovoids and underwent post-implant CT scans. The external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) dose was 48.6Gy in 27 fractions. HDR brachytherapy was delivered to a dose of 21 Gy in three fractions. The ICRU bladder and rectum point doses along with 4 additional rectal points were recorded. The maximum dose ($D_{Max}$) to rectum was the highest recorded dose at one of these five points. Using the HDRplus 2.6 brachyhtherapy treatment planning system, the bladder and rectum were retrospectively contoured on the 55 CT datasets. The DVHs for rectum and bladder were calculated and the minimum doses to the highest irradiated 2cc area of rectum and bladder were recorded ($D_{2cc}$) for all individual fractions. The mean $D_{2cc}$ of rectum was compared to the means of ICRU rectal point and rectal $D_{Max}$ using the Student's t-test. The mean $D_{2cc}$ of bladder was compared with the mean ICRU bladder point using the same statistical test. The total dose, combining EBRT and HDR brachytherapy, were biologically normalized to the conventional 2 Gy/fraction using the linear-quadratic model. (${\alpha}/{\beta}$ value of 10 Gy for target, 3 Gy for organs at risk). Results: The total prescribed dose was $77.5Gy{\alpha}/{\beta}10$. The mean dose to the rectum was $4.58{\pm}1.22Gy$ for $D_{2cc}$, $3.76{\pm}0.65Gy$ at $D_{ICRU}$ and $4.75{\pm}1.01Gy$ at $D_{Max}$. The mean rectal $D_{2cc}$ dose differed significantly from the mean dose calculated at the ICRU reference point (p<0.005); the mean difference was 0.82 Gy (0.48-1.19Gy). The mean EQD2 was $68.52{\pm}7.24Gy_{{\alpha}/{\beta}3}$ for $D_{2cc}$, $61.71{\pm}2.77Gy_{{\alpha}/{\beta}3}$ at $D_{ICRU}$ and $69.24{\pm}6.02Gy_{{\alpha}/{\beta}3}$ at $D_{Max}$. The mean ratio of $D_{2cc}$ rectum to $D_{ICRU}$ rectum was 1.25 and the mean ratio of $D_{2cc}$ rectum to $D_{Max}$ rectum was 0.98 for all individual fractions. The mean dose to the bladder was $6.00{\pm}1.90Gy$ for $D_{2cc}$ and $5.10{\pm}2.03Gy$ at $D_{ICRU}$. However, the mean $D_{2cc}$ dose did not differ significantly from the mean dose calculated at the ICRU reference point (p=0.307); the mean difference was 0.90 Gy (0.49-1.25Gy). The mean EQD2 was $81.85{\pm}13.03Gy_{{\alpha}/{\beta}3}$ for $D_{2cc}$ and $74.11{\pm}19.39Gy_{{\alpha}/{\beta}3}$ at $D_{ICRU}$. The mean ratio of $D_{2cc}$ bladder to $D_{ICRU}$ bladder was 1.24. In the majority of applications, the maximum dose point was not the ICRU point. On average, the rectum received 77% and bladder received 92% of the prescribed dose. Conclusions: OARs doses assessed by DVH criteria were higher than ICRU point doses. Our data suggest that the estimated dose to the ICRU bladder point may be a reasonable surrogate for the $D_{2cc}$ and rectal $D_{Max}$ for $D_{2cc}$. However, the dose to the ICRU rectal point does not appear to be a reasonable surrogate for the $D_{2cc}$.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.163-173
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• 1998

Nuclear medicine emission computed tomography(ECT) can be very useful to diagnose early stage of neuronal diseases and to measure theraputic results objectively, if we can quantitate energy metabolism, blood flow, biochemical processes, or dopamine receptor and transporter using ECT. However, physical factors including attenuation, scatter, partial volume effect, noise, and reconstruction algorithm make it very difficult to quantitate independent of type of SPECT. In this study, we quantitated the effects of attenuation and scatter using brain SPECT and three-dimensional brain phantom with and without applying their correction methods. Dual energy window method was applied for scatter correction. The photopeak energy window and scatter energy window were set to 140ke${\pm}$10% and 119ke${\pm}$6% and 100% of scatter window data were subtracted from the photopeak window prior to reconstruction. The projection data were reconstructed using Butterworth filter with cutoff frequency of 0.95cycles/cm and order of 10. Attenuation correction was done by Chang's method with attenuation coefficients of 0.12/cm and 0.15/cm for the reconstruction data without scatter correction and with scatter correction, respectively. For quantitation, regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn on the three slices selected at the level of the basal ganglia. Without scatter correction, the ratios of ROI average values between basal ganglia and background with attenuation correction and without attenuation correction were 2.2 and 2.1, respectively. However, the ratios between basal ganglia and background were very similar for with and without attenuation correction. With scatter correction, the ratios of ROI average values between basal ganglia and background with attenuation correction and without attenuation correction were 2.69 and 2.64, respectively. These results indicate that the attenuation correction is necessary for the quantitation. When true ratios between basal ganglia and background were 6.58, 4.68, 1.86, the measured ratios with scatter and attenuation correction were 76%, 80%, 82% of their true ratios, respectively. The approximate 20% underestimation could be partially due to the effect of partial volume and reconstruction algorithm which we have not investigated in this study, and partially due to imperfect scatter and attenuation correction methods that we have applied in consideration of clinical applications.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.391-399
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• 2007

Three-dimensional approaches for the diagnosis and analysis of the dentofacial area are becoming more popular in accordance with the development of cone-beam CT (CBCT). The purposes of this study were to evaluate the reliability of cephalometric measurements of lateral cephalograms generated from a CBCT image by making comparisons with the traditional digital lateral cephalogram, and to evaluate the possibility of the clinical application of CBCT generated cephalogram images. Methods: Twenty patients whose external auditory meatus could be identified in the CBCT image were selected, and both CBCT and digital cephalograms were taken. Differences between the measurements of both cephalograms were tested by paired t-test. Results: Among the 22 measurements used, only U1-FH, Mx6 to PTV, and maxillomandibular difference showed statistically significant differences between the CBCT generated cephalogram and the digital cephalogram. Conclusions: The results suggest that the CBCT generated cephalogram can be used for some cephalometric measurements not requiring porion, PTV, condylion as a landmark (SNA, SNB, U1 to SN, IMPA, interincisal angle, etc.).

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze the rotational errors of roll, pitch, and yaw in the whole breast cancer treated by the three-dimensional radiation therapy (3D-CRT) using TomoDirect (TD). Twenty-patient previously treated with TD 3D-CRT was selected. We performed a retrospective clinical analysis based on 80 images of megavoltage computed tomography (MVCT) including the systematic and random variation with patient setup errors and treatment setup margin (mm). In addition, a rotational error (degree) for each patient was analyzed using the automatic image registration. The treatment margin of X, Y, and Z directions were 4.2 mm, 6.2 mm, and 6.4 mm, respectively. The mean value of the rotational error for roll, pitch, and yaw were $0.3^{\circ}$, $0.5^{\circ}$, $0.1^{\circ}$, and all of systematic and random error was within $1.0^{\circ}$. The errors of patient positioning with the Y and Z directions have generally been mainly higher than the X direction. The percentage in treatment fractions in less than $2^{\circ}$ at roll, pitch, and yaw are 95.1%, 98.8%, and 97.5%, respectively. However, the edge of upper and lower (i.e., bottom) based on the center of therapy region (point) will quite a possibility that it is expected to twist even longer as the length of treatment region. The patient-specific characters should be considered for the accuracy and reproducibility of treatment and it is necessary to confirm periodically the rotational errors, including patient repositioning and repeating MVCT scan.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.228-239
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• 2009

Purpose: 4DCT scans performed for radiotherapy were retrospectively analyzed to assess the possible benefits of respiratory gating in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and established the predictive factors for identifying patients who could benefit from this approach. Materials and Methods: Three treatment planning was performed for 15 patients with stage I~III NSCLC using different planning target volumes (PTVs) as follows: 1) PTVroutine, derived from the addition of conventional uniform margins to gross tumor volume (GTV) of a single bin, 2) PTVall phases (patient-specific PTV), derived from the composite GTV of all 6 bins of the 4DCT, and 3) PTVgating, derived from the composite GTV of 3 consecutive bins at end-exhalation. Results: The reductions in PTV were 43.2% and 9.5%, respectively, for the PTVall phases vs. PTVroutine and PTVgating vs. PTVall phases. Compared to PTVroutine, the use of PTVall phases and PTVgating reduced the mean lung dose (MLD) by 18.1% and 21.6%, and $V_{20}$ by 18.2% and 22.0%, respectively. Significant correlations were seen between certain predictive factors selected from the tumor mobility and volume analysis, such as the 3D mobility vector, the reduction in 3D mobility and PTV with gating, and the ratio of GTV overlap between 2 extreme bins and additional reductions in both MLD and $V_{20}$ with gating. Conclusion: The additional benefits with gating compared to the use of patient-specific PTV were modest; however, there were distinct correlations and differences according to the predictive factors. Therefore, these predictive factors might be useful for identifying patients who could benefit from respiratory-gated radiotherapy.