• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 2018

Purpose: The effect of global inhomogeneity on quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) was investigated. A technique referred to as Simultaneous Unwrapping Phase with Error Recovery from inhomogeneity (SUPER) is suggested as a preprocessing to QSM to remove global field inhomogeneity-induced phase by polynomial fitting. Materials and Methods: The effect of global inhomogeneity on QSM was investigated by numerical simulations. Three types of global inhomogeneity were added to the tissue susceptibility phase, and the root mean square error (RMSE) in the susceptibility map was evaluated. In-vivo QSM imaging with volunteers was carried out for 3.0T and 7.0T MRI systems to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method. Results: The SUPER technique removed harmonic and non-harmonic global phases. Previously only the harmonic phase was removed by the background phase removal method. The global phase contained a non-harmonic phase due to various experimental and physiological causes, which degraded a susceptibility map. The RMSE in the susceptibility map increased under the influence of global inhomogeneity; while the error was consistent, irrespective of the global inhomogeneity, if the inhomogeneity was corrected by the SUPER technique. In-vivo QSM imaging with volunteers at 3.0T and 7.0T MRI systems showed better definition in small vascular structures and reduced fluctuation and non-uniformity in the frontal lobes, where field inhomogeneity was more severe. Conclusion: Correcting global inhomogeneity using the SUPER technique is an effective way to obtain an accurate susceptibility map on QSM method. Since the susceptibility variations are small quantities in the brain tissue, correction of the inhomogeneity is an essential element for obtaining an accurate QSM.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2004

Purpose: To investigate the effects of tissue inhomogeneity corrections on the dose delivered to prostate cancer patients treated with Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). Methods and Materials: For five prostate cancer patients, IMRT treatment plans were generated using 6 MV or 10 MV X-rays. In each plan, seven equally spaced ports of photon beams were directed to the isocenter, neglecting the tissue heterogeneity in the body. The dose at the isocenter, mean dose, maximum dose, minimum dose and volume that received more than 95% of the isocenter dose in the planning target volume ( $V_{p>95%}$) were measured. The maximum doses to the rectum and the bladder, and the volumes that received more than 50, 75 and 90% of the prescribed dose were measured. Treatment plans were then recomputed using tissue inhomogeneity correction maintaining the intensity profiles and monitor units of each port. The prescription point dose and other dosimetric parameters were remeasured. Results: The inhomogeneity correction reduced the prescription point dose by an average 4.9 and 4.0% with 6 and 10 MV X-rays, respectively. The average reductions of the $V_{p>95%}$ were 0.8 and 0.9% with the 6 and 10 MV X-rays, respectively. The mean doses in the PTV were reduced by an average of 4.2 and 3.4% with the 6 and 10 MV X-rays, respectively. The irradiated volume parameters in the rectum and bladder were less decreased; less than 2.1 % (1.2%) of the reduction in the rectum (bladder). The average reductions in the mean dose were 1.0 and 0.5% in the rectum and bladder, respectively. Conclusions: Neglect of tissue inhomogeneity in the IMRT treatment of prostate cancer gives rise to a notable overestimation of the dose delivered to the target, whereas the impact of tissue inhomogeneity correction to the surrounding critical organs is less significant.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 1996

A radiation beam incident on irregular or sloping surface produces an inhomogeneity of absorbed dose. The use of a tissue compensator can partially correct this dose inhomogeneity. The tissue compensator should be made based on experimentally measured thickness ratio. The thickness ratio depends on beam energy, distance from the tissue compensator to the surface of patient, field size, treatment depth, tissue deficit and other factors. In this study, the thickness ratio was measured for various field size of $5cm{\times}5cm,\;10cm{\times}10cm,\;15cm{\times}15cm,\;20cm{\times}20cm$ for 4MV X-ray beams. The distance to the compensator from the X-ray target was fixed, 49cm, and measurement depth was 3, 5, 7, 9 cm. For each measurement depth, the tissue deficit was changed from 0 to(measurement depth-1)cm by 1cm increment. As a result, thickness ratio was decreased according to field size and tissue deficit was increased. Use of a representative thickness ratio for tissue compensator, there was $10\%$ difference of absorbed dose but use of a experimentally measured thickness ratio for tissue compensator, there was $2\%$ difference of absorbed dose. Therefore, it can be concluded that the tissue compensator made by experimentally measured thickness ratio can produce good distribution with acceptable inhomogeneity and such tissue compensator can be effectively applied to clinical radiotherapy.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.123-132
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• 1989

A radiation beam incident on an irregular or sloping surface produces the non-uniformity of absorded dose. The use of a tissue compensator can partially correct this dose inhomogeneity. The tissue compensator is designed based on the patient's three dimensional contour. After required compensator thickness was determined according to tissue deficit at $25cm\pm25cm$ field size, 10cm depth for 6MV x-rays, tissue deficit was mapped by isoheight technique using laser beam system. Compensator was constructed along the designed model using 0.8mm lead sheet or 5mm acryl plate. Dosimetric verification were peformed by film dosimetry using humanoid phantom. Dosimetric measurements were normalized to central axis full phantom readings for both compensated and non-compensated field. Without compensation, the percent differences in absorbed dose ranged as high as $12.1\%$ along transverse axis, $10.8\%$ along vertical axis. With the tissue compensators in place, the difference was reduced to $0\~43\%$ Therefore, it can be concluded that the compensator system constructed by isoheihnt technique can produce good dose distribution with acceptible inhomogeneity, and such compensator system can be effectively applied to clinical radiotherapy.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2008

Purpose : To compare Multi Echo Data Image Combination (MEDIC) and fast SE T2-weighted images with fat saturation (T2FS) to suggest more accurate evaluation of the histologic components of soft-tissue tumors. Materials and Methods : The experimental group included 25 histologic tissues (5 vascular, 4 neural, 4 fibrous, 4 hypercellular, 2 hemorrhagic necroses, 2 cystic, 2 lipoid, 1 myxoid stroma, and 1 thrombus) in 10 patients who had pathologically confirmed schwannoma (n = 3), hemangioma (n = 2), lipoma (n = 1), angiokeratoma (n = 1), synovial sarcoma (n = 1), liposarcoma (n = 1), and malignant fibrous histiocytoma (n = 1). The inhomogeneity values were measured using the standard deviation value (SD) divided by the mean value as SD presents an error amount similar to that of imaging heterogeneity. Results : The inhomogeneity values of 25 histologic components were lower on MEDIC than those on T2FS (p < .001). Conclusion : We conclude that MEDIC is more accurate than T2FS for evaluating the tissue components of soft-tissue tumors using digitalized data because MEDIC images have far lower inhomogeneity.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 1998

In this paper, we present the degradation of focusing induced by velocity inhomogeneity in human tissue. For simulation, the fatty layer which is the major factor of degradation for its lower velocity, is modeled as a uniform velocity perturbation layer. And we simulate the degradation of resolution resulting from change of beam path due to refraction and the time delay due to velocity difference. We show that focusing error can be compensated for considering the velocity inhomogeneity only. The proposed compensation method can be operated in real time in the presently used digital focusing systems.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.95-99
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• 2009

The purpose of this research is to seek SPAIR's reversal time (TI) which satisfies two conditions ; maintaining the suppression ability of fat tissue and simultaneously minimizing the inhomogeneity of fat tissue in T2 high-speed spin echo 3.0T magnetic resonance image (MRI) of the brain, and to compare SPAIR with STIR which is fat-suppression technique. The reversal times (TI) of SPAIR protocol are set to 1/2, 1/3, 1/6 and 1/12 of SPAIR TR (420 msec), namely 210 msec (8 people), 140 msec (26 people), 70 msec (26 people) and 35 msec (18 people) and STIR TI is set with 250 msec (26 people). With these parameter sets, we acquired the axis direction 104 images of the brain. In ROI ($50\;mm^2$) of output image, signal intensities of the fatty tissue, the muscular tissue, and the background were measured and the CNRs of fatty tissue and the muscular tissue were calculated. The inhomogeneity of the fatty tissue is SD/mean, where SD is the standard deviation and 'mean' is a average fatty tissue signal. Consequently, SPAIR TI is determined on either 1/3 or 1/6 of TR (420 ms) ; 140 ms or 70 ms. Because the difference of statistics in fat-suppression ability and inhomogeneity of fatty tissue is very small (p < 0.001), Selecting 140 ms seems to be better choice for the image quality. Meanwhile, Comparing SPAIR (TI : 140 ms) with STIR, the fat-suppression is not able to be considered statistically (p < 0.252), but the image quality is able to be considered statistically (p < 0.01). In conclusion, SPAIR is better than STIR in the image quality.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2010

In this study, we compared the clinical usefulness of SPAIR (Spectral Adiabatic Inversion Recovery) and STIR (Short TI Inversion Recovery) to evaluate the fat tissues precisely. The images of brain axial (n = 20), lumber spine sagittal (n = 20), hip joint coronal (n = 17) and knee joint (n = 25) were obtained by turbo spin echo T2 weighted method on 3T magnetic resonance image. The signal intensity (SI) values were measured using region of interest in fat, muscle tissue, and background noise. The inhomogeneity values were measured using the standard deviation (SD) value divided by the mean values. SD signifies the amount of error which is similar to the imaging heterogeneity. In brain axial images, the SPAIR showed more superior SI and inhomogeneity results than the STIR. In spine, hip and knee images, STIR showed more excellent SI results, but poor inhomogeneity than the SPAIR.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.155-163
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• 2004

Purpose : To confirm the reproducibility of in vivo transmission dosimetry system and the accuracy of the a1gorithms for the estimation of transmission dose in head and neck radiation therapy patients. Materials and Methods : From September 5 to 18, 2001, transmission dose measurements were peformed when radiotherapy was given to brain or head and neck cancer patients. The data of 35 patients who were treated more than three times and whose central axis of the beam was not blocked were analyzed in this study. To confirm the reproducibility of this system, transmission dose was measured before dally treatment and then repetitively every hour during the treatment time, with a field size of 10$\times$10 cm$^{2}$ and a delivery of 100 MU. The accuracy of the transmission dose calculation algorithms was confirmed by comparing estimated dose with measured dose. To accurately estimate transmission dose, tissue inhomogeneity correction was done. Results : The measurement variations during a day were within $\pm$0.5$\%$ and the dally variations in the checked period were within $\pm$ 1.0$\%$, which were acceptable for system reproducibility. The mean errors between estimated and measured doses were within $\pm$5.0$\%$ in Patients treated to the brain, $\pm$2.5$\%$ in head, and $\pm$ 5.0%$\%$in neck. Conclusion : The results of this study confirmed the reproducibility of our system and its usefulness and accuracy for dally treatment. We also found that tissue inhomogeneity correction was necessary for the accurate estimation of transmission dose in patients treated to the head and neck.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2004

Introduction : The phantom that includes high density materials such as steel was custom-made to fix lung and bone in order to evaluation inhomogeneity correction at the time of conducting radiation therapy to treat lung cancer. Using this, values resulting from the inhomogeneous correction algorithm are compared on the 2 and 3 dimensional radiation therapy planning systems. Moreover, change in dose calculation was evaluated according to inhomogeneous by comparing with the actual measurement. Materials and Methods : As for the image acquisition, inhomogeneous correction phantom(Pig's vertebra, steel(8.21g/cm3), cork(0.23 g/cm3)) that was custom-made and the CT(Volume zoom, Siemens, Germany) were used. As for the radiation therapy planning system, Marks Plan(2D) and XiO(CMS, USA, 3D) were used. To compare with the measurement value, linear accelerator(CL/1800, Varian, USA) and ion chamber were used. Image, obtained from the CT was used to obtain point dose and dose distribution from the region of interest (ROI) while on the radiation therapy planning device. After measurement was conducted under the same conditions, value on the treatment planning device and measured value were subjected to comparison and analysis. And difference between the resulting for the evaluation on the use (or non-use) of inhomogeneity correction algorithm, and diverse inhomogeneity correction algorithm that is included in the radiation therapy planning device was compared as well. Results : As result of comparing the results of measurement value on the region of interest within the inhomogeneity correction phantom and the value that resulted from the homogeneous and inhomogeneous correction, gained from the therapy planning device, margin of error of the measurement value and inhomogeneous correction value at the location 1 of the lung showed $0.8\%$ on 2D and $0.5\%$ on 3D. Margin of error of the measurement value and inhomogeneous correction value at the location 1 of the steel showed $12\%$ on 2D and $5\%$ on 3D, however, it is possible to see that the value that is not correction and the margin of error of the measurement value stand at $16\%$ and $14\%$, respectively. Moreover, values of the 3D showed lower margin of error compared to 2D. Conclusion : Revision according to the density of tissue must be executed during radiation therapy planning. To ensure a more accurate planning, use of 3D planning system is recommended more so than the 2D Planning system to ensure a more accurate revision on the therapy plan. Moreover, 3D Planning system needs to select and use the most accurate and appropriate inhomogeneous correction algorithm through actual measurement. In addition, comparison and analysis through TLD or film dosimetry are needed.