• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.129-132
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• 2023

Purpose: Positron emisson tomography (PET) is a crucial medical imaging scanner for the detection of cancer lesions. In order to maintain the improved image quality, it is crucial to apply detectors of superior performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare PET image quality using Monte Carlo simulation based on the detector materials of BGO, LSO, and LuAP. Materials and Methods: The Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) was used to design the PET detector. Scintillations with BGO, LSO and LuAP were modelled, with a size of 3.95 × 5.3 mm2 (width × height) and 25.0 mm (thickness). The PET detector consisted of 34 blocks per ring and a total of 4 rings. A line source of 1 MBq was modelled and acquired with a radius of 1 mm and length of 20 mm for 20 seconds. The acquired image was reconstructed maximum likelihood expectation maximization with 2 iteration and 10 subsets. The count comparison was carried out. Results and Discussion: The highest true, random, and scatter counts were obtained from the BGO scintillation detector compared to LSO and LuAP. Conclusion: The BGO scintillation detector material indicated excellent performance in terms of detection of gamma rays from emitted PET phantom.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2021

Computed tomography (CT) has the problem of having more radiation exposure compared to other radiographic apparatus. There is a low-dose imaging technique for reducing exposure, but it has a disadvantage of increasing noise in the image. To compensate for this, various noise reduction algorithms have been developed that improve image quality while reducing the exposure dose of patients, of which the median modified Wiener filter (MMWF) algorithm that can be effectively applied to CT devices with excellent time resolution has been presented. The purpose of this study is to optimize the mask size of MMWF algorithm and to see the excellence of noise reduction of MMWF algorithm for existing algorithms. After applying the MMWF algorithm with each mask sizes set from the MASH phantom abdominal images acquired using the MATLAB program, which includes Gaussian noise added, and compared the values of root mean square error (RMSE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), coefficient correlation (CC), and universal image quality index (UQI). The results showed that RMSE value was the lowest and PSNR, CC and UQI values were the highest in the 5 x 5 mask size. In addition, comparing Gaussian filter, median filter, Wiener filter, and MMWF with RMSE, PSNR, CC, and UQI by applying the optimized mask size. As a result, the most improved RMSE, PSNR, CC, and UQI values were showed in MMWF algorithms.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.216-224
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• 2009

$^{131}I$ is a radiological isotope being used widely for treatment of cancer as emitting gamma-ray and it is also applied to estimate the function of thyroid for its accumulation in thyroid. However, $^{131}I$ is more difficult to quantitate comapred to $^{99m}Tc$, because $^{131}I$ has multiple energy gamma-ray emissions compared to $^{99m}Tc$ which is a mono energetic gamma-ray source. Especially, scattered ray and septal penetration resulted by high energy gamma ray have a bad influence upon nuclear medicine image. The purpose of this study was to estimate scatter components depending on the different source locations within a phantom using Monte Carlo simulation (GATE). The simulation results were validated by comparing with the results of real experiments. Dual-head gamma camera (ECAM, Chicago, Illinois Siemens) with high energy, general-purpose, and parallel hole collimators (hole radius: 0.17 cm, septal thickness: 0.2 cm, length: 5.08 cm) was used in this experiment. The NaI crystal is $44.5{\times}59.1\;cm$ in height and width and 0.95 cm in thickness. The diameter and height of PMMA phantom were 16 cm and 15 cm, respectively. The images were acquired at 5 different locations of $^{131}I$ point source within the phantom and the images of $^{99m}Tc$ were also acquired for comparison purpose with low energy source. The simulation results indicated that the scattering was influenced by the location of source within a phantom. The scattering effects showed the same tendency in both simulation and actual experiment, and the results showed that the simulation was very adequate for further studies. The results supported that the simulation techniques may be used to generalize the scattering effects as a function of a point source location within a phantom.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 2012

Diverse designs of collimator have been applied to Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) according to the purpose of acquisition; thus, it is necessary to reflect geometric characteristic of each collimator for successive image reconstruction. This study carry out reconstruction algorithm for imaging system in nuclear medicine with pinhole collimator. Especially, we study to solve sampling problem which caused in the system model of pinhole collimator. System model for a maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) was developed based on the geometry of the collimator. The projector and back-projector were separately implemented based on the ray-driven and voxel-driven methods, respectively, to overcome sparse sampling problem. We perform phantom study for pinhole collimator by using geant4 application for tomographic emission(GATE) simulation tool. The reconstructed images show promising results. Designed iterative reconstruction algorithm with unmatched system model effective to remove sampling problem artefact. Proposed algorithm can be used not only for pinhole collimator but also for various collimator system of imaging system in nuclear medicine.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 2009

Compton imaging is often recognized as a potentially more valuable 3-D technique in nuclear medicine than conventional emission tomography. Due to inherent computational limitations, however, it has been of a difficult problem to reconstruct images with good accuracy. In this work we show that the row-action maximum likelihood algorithm (RAMLA), which have proven useful for conventional tomographic reconstruction, can also be applied to the problem of 3-D reconstruction of cone-beam projections from Compton scattered data. The major advantage of RAMLA is that it converges to a true maximum likelihood solution at an order of magnitude faster than the standard expectation maximiation (EM) algorithm. For our simulations, we first model a Compton camera system consisting of the three pairs of scatterer and absorber detectors placed at x-, y- and z-axes, and generate conical projection data using a software phantom. We then compare the quantitative performance of RAMLA and EM reconstructions in terms of the percentage error. The net conclusion based on our experimental results is that the RAMLA applied to Compton camera reconstruction significantly outperforms the EM algorithm in convergence rate; while computational costs of one iteration of RAMLA and EM are about the same, one iteration of RAMLA performs as well as 128 iterations of EM.

• Journal of the Korean Physical Society
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• v.73 no.11
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• pp.1764-1773
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• 2018

A-PET is a quad-head PET scanner developed for use in small-animal imaging. The dimensions of its volumetric field of view (FOV) are $46.1{\times}46.1{\times}46.1mm^3$ and the gap between the detector modules has been minimized in order to provide a highly sensitive system. However, such a small FOV together with the quad-head geometry causes image quality degradation. The main factor related to image degradation for the quad-head PET is the mispositioning of events caused by the penetration effect in the detector. In this paper, we propose a precise method for modelling the system at the high spatial resolution of the A-PET using a LOR (line of response) based ML-EM (maximum likelihood expectation maximization) that allows for penetration effects. The proposed system model provides the detection probability of every possible ray-path via crystal sampling methods. For the ray-path sampling, the sub-LORs are defined by connecting the sampling points of the crystal pair. We incorporate the detection probability of each sub-LOR into the model by calculating the penetration effect. For comparison, we used a standard LOR-based model and a Monte Carlo-based modeling approach, and evaluated the reconstructed images using both the National Electrical Manufacturers Association NU 4-2008 standards and the Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission simulation toolkit (GATE). An average full width at half maximum (FWHM) at different locations of 1.77 mm and 1.79 mm are obtained using the proposed system model and standard LOR system model, which does not include penetration effects, respectively. The standard deviation of the uniform region in the NEMA image quality phantom is 2.14% for the proposed method and 14.3% for the LOR system model, indicating that the proposed model out-performs the standard LOR-based model.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.3006-3016
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• 2022

In this study, the images of specific prompt gamma (PG)-rays of 719 keV emitted from proton-boron reactions were analyzed using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Quantitative evaluation of the images verified the detection of anatomical changes in tumors, one of the important factors in daily adaptive proton therapy (DAPT) and verified the possibility of application of the PG-ray images to DAPT. Six scenarios were considered based on various sizes and locations compared to the reference virtual tumor to observe the anatomical alterations in the virtual tumor. Subsequently, PG-rays SPECT images were acquired using the modified ordered subset expectation-maximization algorithm, and these were evaluated using quantitative analysis methods. The results confirmed that the pixel range and location of the highest value of the normalized pixel in the PG-rays SPECT image profile changed according to the size and location of the virtual tumor. Moreover, the alterations in the virtual tumor size and location in the PG-rays SPECT images were similar to the true size and location alterations set in the phantom. Based on the above results, the tumor anatomical alterations in DAPT could be adequately detected and verified through SPECT imaging using the 719 keV PG-rays acquired during treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.741-748
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• 2021

In this study, we evaluated image quality by changing collimator length and detector thickness using the Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) simulation tool. The gamma camera based on the Cadimium Zinc Telluride (CZT) and NaI detectors is modeled. In addition the images were acquired by setting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 cm collimator length and 1, 3, 5, and 7 mm detector thickness using point source and phantom, which is designed by each diameter (4.45, 3.80, 3.15, 2.55 mm) with 447, 382, 317, and 256 Bq. The sensitivity (cps/MBq) for point source, and signal to noise ratio (SNR) and profile for phantom at the 4.45 mm by drwan the region of interests were used for quantitative analysis. Based on the results, the sensitivity according to collimator length is 2.3 ~ 48.6 cps/MBq for CZT detector, and 1.8 ~ 43.9 cps/MBq for NaI detector. The SNR using phantom is 3.6~9.8 for CZT detector, and 2.9~9.5 for NaI detector. As the collimator length is increased, the image resolution is also improved according to profile results based on the CZT and NaI detector. In addition, the senistivity for detector thickness is 0.04 ~ 0.12 cps/MBq for CZT detector, and 0.03 ~ 0.11 cps/MBq. The SNR using phnatom is 7.3~9.8 count for CZT detector, and 5.9~9.5 for NaI detector. As the detector thickness is increased, the image resolution is decreased according to profile results based on the CZT and NaI detector due to scatter ray. In conclusion, we need to set the geometric material such as detector and collimator to acuquire suitable image quality in nuclear medicine.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 1999

The aim of this study is to improve the accuracy of field placement and junction between adjacent fields and block shielding through the use of a computed tomography(CT) simulator and virtual simulation. The information was acquired by assessment of Alderson Rando phantom image using CT simulator (I.Q. Xtra - Picker), determination of each field by virtual fluoroscopy of voxel IQ workstation AcQsim and colored critical structures that were obtained by contouring in virtual simulation. And also using a coronal, sagittal and axial view can determine the field and adjacent field gap correctly without calculation during the procedure. With the treatment planning by using the Helax TMS 4.0, the dose in the junction among the adjacent fields and the spinal cord and cribriform plate of the critical structure was evaluated by the dose volume histogram. The pilot image of coronal and sagittal view took about 2minutes and 26minutes to get 100 images. Image translation to the virtual simulation workstation took about 6minutes. Contouring a critical structure such as cribriform plate, spinal cord using a virtual fluoroscopy were eligible to determine a correct field and shielding. The process took about 20 minutes. As the result of the Helax planning, the dose distribution in adjacent field junction was ideal, and the dose level shows almost 100 percentage in the dose volume histogram of the spinal cord and cribriform plate CT simulation can get a correct therapy area due to enhancement of critical structures such as spinal cord and cribriform plate. In addition, using a Spiral CT scanner can be saved a lot of time to plan a simulation therefore this function can reduce difficulties to keep the patient position without any movements to the patient, physician and radiotherapy technician.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.103-109
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• 2019

Background: Four-dimensional computed tomographic (4DCT) images are increasingly used in clinic with the growing need to account for the respiratory motion of the patient during radiation treatment. One of the reason s that makes the dose evaluation using 4DCT inaccurate is a change of the patient respiration during the treatment session, i.e., intrafractional uncertainty. Especially, when the amplitude of the patient respiration is greater than the respiration range during the 4DCT acquisition, such an organ motion from the larger respiration is difficult to be represented with the 4DCT. In this paper, the method to generate images expecting the organ motion from a respiration with extended amplitude was proposed and examined. Materials and Methods: We propose a method to generate extra-phase images from a given set of the 4DCT images using deformable image registration (DIR) and linear extrapolation. Deformation vector fields (DVF) are calculated from the given set of images, then extrapolated according to respiratory surrogate. The extra-phase images are generated by applying the extrapolated DVFs to the existing 4DCT images. The proposed method was tested with the 4DCT of a physical 4D phantom. Results and Discussion: The tumor position in the generated extra-phase image was in a good agreement with that in the gold-standard image which is separately acquired, using the same 4DCT machine, with a larger range of respiration. It was also found that we can generate the best quality extra-phase image by using the maximum inhalation phase (T0) and maximum exhalation phase (T50) images for extrapolation. Conclusion: In the present study, a method to construct extra-phase images that represent expanded respiratory motion of the patient has been proposed and tested. The movement of organs from a larger respiration amplitude can be predicted by the proposed method. We believe the method may be utilized for realistic simulation of radiation therapy.