• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2014

Purpose : $T_2{^*}$ relaxation time which includes susceptibility information represents unique feature of tissue. The objective of this study was to investigate $T_2{^*}$ relaxation times of the normal glandular tissue and fat of breast using a 3T MRI system. Materials and Methods: Seven-echo MR Images were acquired from 52 female subjects (age $49{\pm}12 $years; range, 25 to 75) using a three-dimensional (3D) gradient-echo sequence. Echo times were between 2.28 ms to 25.72 ms in 3.91 ms steps. Voxel-based $T_2{^*}$ relaxation times and $R_2{^*}$ relaxation rate maps were calculated by using the linear curve fitting for each subject. The 3D regions-of-interest (ROI) of the normal glandular tissue and fat were drawn on the longest echo-time image to obtain $T_2{^*}$ and $R_2{^*}$ values. Mean values of those parameters were calculated over all subjects. Results: The 3D ROI sizes were $4818{\pm}4679$ voxels and $1455{\pm}785$ voxels for the normal glandular tissue and fat, respectively. The mean $T_2{^*}$ values were $22.40{\pm}5.61ms$ and $36.36{\pm}8.77ms$ for normal glandular tissue and fat, respectively. The mean $R_2{^*}$ values were $0.0524{\pm}0.0134/ms$ and $0.0297{\pm}0.0069/ms$ for the normal glandular tissue and fat, respectively. Conclusion: $T_2{^*}$ and $R_2{^*}$ values were measured from human breast tissues. $T_2{^*}$ of the normal glandular tissue was shorter than that of fat. Measurement of $T_2{^*}$ relaxation time could be important to understand susceptibility effects in the breast cancer and the normal tissue.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.123-131
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• 2020

This study proposes a real-time rendering algorithm for lighting when each of more than 100,000 moving particles exists as a light source. Two 3D textures are used to dynamically determine the range of influence of each light, and the first 3D texture has light color and the second 3D texture has light direction information. Each frame goes through two steps. The first step is to update the particle information required for 3D texture initialization and rendering based on the Compute shader. Convert the particle position to the sampling coordinates of the 3D texture, and based on this coordinate, update the colour sum of the particle lights affecting the corresponding voxels for the first 3D texture and the sum of the directional vectors from the corresponding voxels to the particle lights for the second 3D texture. The second stage operates on a general rendering pipeline. Based on the polygon world position to be rendered first, the exact sampling coordinates of the 3D texture updated in the first step are calculated. Since the sample coordinates correspond 1:1 to the size of the 3D texture and the size of the game world, use the world coordinates of the pixel as the sampling coordinates. Lighting process is carried out based on the color of the sampled pixel and the direction vector of the light. The 3D texture corresponds 1:1 to the actual game world and assumes a minimum unit of 1m, but in areas smaller than 1m, problems such as stairs caused by resolution restrictions occur. Interpolation and super sampling are performed during texture sampling to improve these problems. Measurements of the time taken to render a frame showed that 146 ms was spent on the forward lighting pipeline, 46 ms on the defered lighting pipeline when the number of particles was 262144, and 214 ms on the forward lighting pipeline and 104 ms on the deferred lighting pipeline when the number of particle lights was 1,024766.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2002

Recent advances in radiation transport algorithms, computer hardware performance, and parallel computing make the clinical use of Monte Carlo based dose calculations possible. To compare the speed and accuracies of dose calculations between different developed codes, a benchmark tests were proposed at the XIIth ICCR (International Conference on the use of Computers in Radiation Therapy, Heidelberg, Germany 2000). A Monte Carlo treatment planning comprised of 28 various Intel Pentium CPUs was implemented for routine clinical use. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of our system using the above benchmark tests. The benchmark procedures are comprised of three parts. a) speed of photon beams dose calculation inside a given phantom of 30.5 cm$\times$39.5 cm $\times$ 30 cm deep and filled with 5 ㎣ voxels within 2% statistical uncertainty. b) speed of electron beams dose calculation inside the same phantom as that of the photon beams. c) accuracy of photon and electron beam calculation inside heterogeneous slab phantom compared with the reference results of EGS4/PRESTA calculation. As results of the speed benchmark tests, it took 5.5 minutes to achieve less than 2% statistical uncertainty for 18 MV photon beams. Though the net calculation for electron beams was an order of faster than the photon beam, the overall calculation time was similar to that of photon beam case due to the overhead time to maintain parallel processing. Since our Monte Carlo code is EGSnrc, which is an improved version of EGS4, the accuracy tests of our system showed, as expected, very good agreement with the reference data. In conclusion, our Monte Carlo treatment planning system shows clinically meaningful results. Though other more efficient codes are developed such like MCDOSE and VMC＋＋, BEAMnrc based on EGSnrc code system may be used for routine clinical Monte Carlo treatment planning in conjunction with clustering technique.

• Journal of KIISE:Computer Systems and Theory
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.619-628
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• 2000

Abstract Perspective views provide a powerful depth cue and thus aid the interpretation of complicated images. The main drawback of current perspective volume rendering is the long execution time. In this paper, we present an efficient perspective volume rendering algorithm based on coherency between rays. Two sets of templates are built for the rays cast from horizontal and vertical scanlines in the intermediate image which is parallel to one of volume faces. Each sample along a ray is calculated by interpolating neighboring voxels with the pre-computed weights in the templates. We also solve the problem of uneven sampling rate due to perspective ray divergence by building more templates for the regions far away from a viewpoint. Since our algorithm operates in object-order, it can avoid redundant access to each voxel and exploit spatial data coherency by using run-length encoded volume. Experimental results show that the use of templates and the object-order processing with run-length encoded volume provide speedups, compared to the other approaches. Additionally, the image quality of our algorithm improves by solving uneven sampling rate due to perspective ray di vergence.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.167-174
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• 2003

In the radiation treatment planning (RTP) process, especially for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), knowing the exact volume and shape and the precise position of a lesion is very important. Sometimes X-ray projection images, such as angiograms, become the best choice for lesion identification. However, while the exact target position can be acquired by bi-projection images, 3D target reconstruction from bi-projection images is considered to be impossible. The aim of this study was to reconstruct the 3D target volume from multiple projection images. It was assumed that we knew the exact target position in advance, and all processes were performed in Target Coordinates, where the origin was the center of the target. We used six projections: two projections were used to make a Reconstruction Box and four projections were for image acquisition. The Reconstruction Box was made up of voxels of 3D matrices. Projection images were transformed into 3D in this virtual box using a geometric back-projection method. The resolution and the accuracy of the reconstructed target volume were dependent on the target size. An algorithm was applied to an ellipsoid model and a horseshoe-shaped model. Projection images were created geometrically using C program language, and reconstruction was also performed using C program language and Matlab ver. 6(The Mathwork Inc., USA). For the ellipsoid model, the reconstructed volume was slightly overestimated, but the target shape and position proved to be correct. For the horseshoe-shaped model, reconstructed volume was somewhat different from the original target model, but there was a considerable improvement in determining the target volume.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2009

Purpose: The aim of present study is to evaluate a possibility of clinical application for the effect of low intensity ultrasound stimulation (LIUS) in mechanical characteristics of bone on osteoporotic fractures prevention. Materials and Methods: Eight virgin ICR mice (14 weeks old, approximate weight 25g) were ovariectomized (OVX) to induce osteoporosis. The right hind limbs were then stimulated with LIDS (US Group), whereas left hind limbs were not stimulated (CON Group). Both hind limbs of all mice were scanned by in-vivo micro-CT to acquire two-dimensional (2D) images at 0 week before stimulation and 3 weeks and 6 weeks after stimulation. Three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) models generated by scanned 2D images were used to determine quantitatively the effect of LIUS on strength related to bone structure. Additionally, distributions of Hounsfield units and elastic moduli, which are related to the bone quality, for the bones in the US and CON groups were determined to analyze quantitatively a degree of improvement of bone qualities achieved by LIUS. Results: The result of FE analysis showed that the structural strength in US Group was significantly increased over time (p<0.05), while that in CON Group was statistically constant over time (p>0.05). High values of Hounsfield units obtained from voxels on micro-CT images and high values of elastic moduli converted from the Hounsfield units were dominantly appeared in US Group compared with those in CON Group. Conclusion: These finding indicated that LIUS would improve the mechanical characteristics of osteoporotic bone via the effects of bone structure (bone strength) and quality (Hounsfield unit and elastic modulus). Therefore, the LIUS may decrease effectively the risk of osteoporotic fracture in clinics.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.3 no.8
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• pp.329-334
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• 2014

In this study, a new method that automatically segments trabecular bone for its morphological analysis using micro-computed tomography imaging was proposed. In the proposed method, the bone region was extracted using a threshold value, and the outer boundary of the bone was detected. The sphere of maximum size with the corresponding voxel as the center was obtained by applying the sphere-fitting method to each voxel of the bone region. If this sphere includes the outer boundary of the bone, the voxels included in the sphere are classified as cortical bone; otherwise, they are classified as trabecular bone. The proposed method was applied to images of the distal femurs of 15 mice, and comparative experiments, with results manually divided by a person, were performed. Four morphological parameters-BV/TV, Tb.Th, Tb.Sp, and Tb.N-for the segmented trabecular bone were measured. The results were compared by regression analysis and the Bland-Altman method; BV/TV, Tb.Th, Tb.Sp, and Tb.N were all in the credible range. In addition, not only can the sphere-fitting method be simply implemented, but trabecular bone can also be divided precisely by using the three-dimensional information.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.122-128
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• 2009

Objectives : Autism is a well-known psychiatric disorder that is presumed to have a neural basis. To investigate the underlying neurofunctional abnormalities of autism, the authors performed single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) on children with autism. Methods : Fifty-five children with untreated autism (47 boys and 8 girls, mean age=$50.6{\pm}20.28$ months) were selected from among the patients visiting the child and adolescent psychiatric clinic of Seoul National University Hospital. Psychiatrists had diagnosed the participants according to the DSM-IV criteria for autistic disorder and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) criteria for a diagnosis of autism. All participants were examined using 99mTC-HMPAO Brain SPECT. Using statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis, we compared the participants' SPECT images to standardized SPECT images of normal children, which had been retrospectively selected by the authors, on a voxel by voxel basis. Voxels with a p-value less than .001 were considered to be significantly different. Results : The autistic group showed significant hypoperfusion in the right medial frontal gyrus, right precentral gyrus, and left precuneus gyrus. In addition, they showed no significant hyperperfusion areas when compared to the control group. Conclusion : The findings of hypoperfusion in the medial-frontal lobe and precuneus are accord with hemodynamic abnormalities that have been already reported. Therefore, these findings are compatible with the recently suggested "theory of mind" hypothesis and the disturbances in attention shifting that have been observed in autistic children.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.395-405
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• 2014

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate 1) somatotopic arrangement of the second and third fingers in SI area 2) difference of neural activation in the SI area produced by stimulation with different frequencies 3) correlation between the intensity of tactile perception by different stimulus intensity and the level of brain activation measurable by means of fMRI. Background: Somatosensory cortex can obtain the information of environmental stimuli about "where" (e.g., on the left palm), "what" (e.g., a book or a dog), and "how" (e.g., scrub gently or scrub roughly) to organism. However, compared to visual sense, the neural mechanism underlying the processing of specific electrotactile stimulus is still unknown. Method: 10 right-handed subjects participated in this study. Non-painful electrotactile stimuli were delivered to two different finger tips of right hand. Functional brain images were collected from 3.0T MRI using the single-shot EPI method. The scanning parameters were as follows: TR and TE were 3000, 35ms, respectively, flip angle 60, FOV $24{\times}24cm$, matrix size $64{\times}64$, slice thickness 4mm (no gap). SPM5 was used to analyze the fMRI data. Results: Significant activations produced by the stimulation were found in the SI, SII, the subcentral gyrus, the precentral gyrus, and the insula. In all participants, statistically significant activation was observed in the contralateral SI area and the bilateral SII areas by the stimulation on the fingers but ipsilaterally dominant. The SI area representing the second finger generally located in the more lateral and inferior side than that of the third finger across all the subjects. But no difference in brain area was found for the stimulation of the fingers by different frequencies. And two typical patterns were observed on the relationship between the perceived psychological intensity and the amount of voxels in the primary sensory cortex during the stimulation. Conclusion: It was possible to discriminate the representation sites in the SI by electrotactile stimulation of digit2 and digit3. But we could not find the differences of the brain areas according to different stimulation frequencies from 3 to 300Hz. Application: The results of the study can provide a deeper understanding of somatosensory cortex and offer the information for tactile display for blinds.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.31-38
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• 2007

To evaluate the accuracy and extent in the localization of cerebral motor coutex activation using a gradient- echo echo planar imaging(GE-EPI) compared to spin-echo echo planar iimaging(SE-EPI) on 3T MR imaging. Functional MR imaging of cerebral motor cortex activation was examined in GE-EPI and SE-EPI in five healthy male volunteers. A right finger movement was accomplished with a paradigm of 6 task and rest, periods and the cross-correlation was used for a statistical mapping algorithm. We evaluated any sorts of differenced of the time seried and the signal intensity changes between the rest and task periods obtained with two technoques. The qualitative analysis was distributed with activation sites of large veins and small veins by using two techniques and was found that both the techniques were clinically uesful for delineating large veins and small veins in fMRL Signal intensity charge of the rest and activation periods provided simmilar activations in both methods(GE-EPI : 0.93$\pm$0.11, SE-EPI : 0.80$\pm$.015) but the signal intensity in GE-EPI(133.95$\pm$15.76) was larger than in SE-EPI(74.5$\pm$18.90). The average SNRs of EPI raw data were higher at SMA in SE-EPI(48.54$\pm$12.37) than GE-EPI(41.4$\pm$12.54) and at M1 in SE-EPI(43.24$\pm$11.77) than GE-EPI(38.27$\pm$6.53). The localization of activation voxels of the GE-EPI showed a larger vein but the SE-EPI generally showed small vein. Then the analysis results of the two techniques were used for a statistacal paired student t-test. SE-EPI was found clinically useful for localizing the cerebral moter cortex cativation on 3.0T, but showed a little different activation patterns comparad to GE-EPI. In conclusion, SE-EPI may be feasible and can detect true cortical activation from capillaries and GE-EPI can obtain the large veins in the motor cortex activation on 3T MR imaging.