• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권6호
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• pp.1982-1990
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to verify the possibility of fuel rod pattern analysis in a fresh fuel assembly using the Yonsei single-photon emission computed tomography (YSECT) system. The YSECT system consisted of three main parts: four trapezoidal-shaped bismuth germanate scintillator-based 64-channel detectors, a semiconductor-based multi-channel data acquisition system, and a rotary stage. In order to assess the performance of the prototype YSECT, tomographic images were obtained for three representative fuel rod patterns in the 6 × 6 array using two representative image-reconstruction algorithms. The fuel-rod patterns were then assessed using an in-house fuel rod pattern analysis algorithm. In the experimental results, the single-directional projection images for those three fuel-rod patterns well discriminated each fuel-rod location, showing a Gaussian-peak-shaped projection for a single 10 mm-diameter fuel rod with 12.1 mm full-width at half maximum. Finally, we successfully verified the possibility of the fuel rod pattern analysis for all three patterns of fresh fuel rods with the tomographic images obtained by the rotational YSECT system.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제49권1호
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• pp.29-39
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• 2024

Background: The gamma emission tomography (GET) device has been reported a reliable technique to inspect partial defects within spent nuclear fuel (SNF) of pin-by-pin level. However, the existing GET devices have low accuracy owing to the high attenuation and scatter probability for SNF inspection condition. The purpose of this study is to design and optimize a Yonsei single-photon emission computed tomography version 2 (YSECT.v.2) for fast inspection of SNF in water storage by acquisition of high-quality tomographic images. Materials and Methods: Using Geant4 (Geant4 Collaboration) and DETECT-2000 (Glenn F. Knoll et al.) Monte Carlo simulation, the geometrical structure of the proposed device was determined and its performance was evaluated for the ¹³⁷Cs source in water. In a Geant4-based assessment, proposed device was compared with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)-authenticated device for the quality of tomographic images obtained for 12 fuel sources in a 14 × 14 Westinghouse-type fuel assembly. Results and Discussion: According to the results, the length, slit width, and septal width of the collimator were determined to be 65, 2.1, and 1.5 mm, respectively, and the material and length of the trapezoidal-shaped scintillator were determined to be gadolinium aluminum gallium garnet and 45 mm, respectively. Based on the results of performance comparison between the YSECT.v.2 and IAEA's device, the proposed device showed 200 times higher performance in gamma-detection sensitivity and similar source discrimination probability. Conclusion: In this study, we optimally designed the GET device for improving the SNF inspection accuracy and evaluated its performance. Our results show that the YSECT.v.2 device could be employed for SNF inspection.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권7호
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• pp.2341-2347
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• 2021

Because single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is one of the widely used nuclear medicine imaging systems, it is extremely important to acquire high-quality images for diagnosis. In this study, we designed a super-resolution (SR) technique using dense block-based deep convolutional neural network (CNN) and evaluated the algorithm on real SPECT phantom images. To acquire the phantom images, a real SPECT system using a^99mTc source and two physical phantoms was used. To confirm the image quality, the noise properties and visual quality metric evaluation parameters were calculated. The results demonstrate that our proposed method delivers a more valid SR improvement by using dense block-based deep CNNs as compared to conventional reconstruction techniques. In particular, when the proposed method was used, the quantitative performance was improved from 1.2 to 5.0 times compared to the result of using the conventional iterative reconstruction. Here, we confirmed the effects on the image quality of the resulting SR image, and our proposed technique was shown to be effective for nuclear medicine imaging.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권10호
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• pp.3943-3948
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• 2022

Single-photon emission computed tomography is one of the reliable pin-by-pin verification techniques for spent-fuel assemblies. One of the challenges with this technique is to increase the total fuel assembly verification speed while maintaining high verification accuracy. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm-based tomographic image analysis technique for partial-defect verification of fuel assemblies. With the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique, a tomographic image dataset consisting of 511 fuel-rod patterns of a 3 × 3 fuel assembly was generated, and with these images, the VGG16, GoogLeNet, and ResNet models were trained. According to an evaluation of these models for different training dataset sizes, the ResNet model showed 100% pattern estimation accuracy. And, based on the different tomographic image qualities, all of the models showed almost 100% pattern estimation accuracy, even for low-quality images with unrecognizable fuel patterns. This study verified that an AI model can be effectively employed for accurate and fast partial-defect verification of fuel assemblies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권4호
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• pp.776-780
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• 2017

To avoid imaging artifacts and interpretation mistakes, an improvement of the uniformity in gamma camera systems is a very important point. We can expect excellent uniformity using cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) photon counting detector (PCD) because of the direct conversion of the gamma rays energy into electrons. In addition, the uniformity performance such as integral uniformity (IU), differential uniformity (DU), scatter fraction (SF), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) varies according to the energy window setting. In this study, we compared a PCD and conventional scintillation detector with respect to the energy windows (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) using a $^{99m}Tc$ gamma source with a Geant4 Application for Tomography Emission simulation tool. The gamma camera systems used in this work are a CZT PCD and NaI(Tl) conventional scintillation detector with a 1-mm thickness. According to the results, although the IU and DU results were improved with the energy window, the SF and CNR results deteriorated with the energy window. In particular, the uniformity for the PCD was higher than that of the conventional scintillation detector in all cases. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that the uniformity of the CZT PCD was higher than that of the conventional scintillation detector.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제52권7호
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• pp.804-810
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• 2009

목 적 : 영아연축은 이차성 전신간질중의 하나로 간질 병소를 발견하기 힘든 질환중의 하나이다. 이에 저자들은 $^{99m}Tc-ECD$ 추적자의 느린 점적 주사를 이용한 발작기 SPECT를 통하여 영아 연축 환아에서 간질 병소를 찾아보고자 하였다. 방 법 : 2005년 3월부터 2007년 2월까지 연세대학교 의과대학 소아과에 내원한 영아 연축 14명의 환아를 대상으로 첫 연축이 발생하는 시점에 $^{99m}Tc-ECD$ 를 2분에 걸쳐 천천히 같은 속도로 주입하였다. 발작간기와 발작기 간의 SPECT 의 차이를 비교하였으며 객관적인 비교를 위하여 SISCOM기법을 사용하였다. 또한 간질 병소를 발견할 수 있는 진단기법인 뇌파, 자기공명영상, 양전자단층촬영(PET) 등과 비교 분석하였다. 결 과 : 전체 14례의 추적자의 느린 점적 주사를 이용한 발작기 SPECT 중 10례에서 간질 병소의 혈류가 증가하였다. 비디오 뇌파와 발작기 SPECT에서 간질병소의 일치율은 Kappa=0.57, 95% confidence interval: 0.18-0.96로 높게 나왔다. 이 중 6례에서 발작기 SPECT와 비디오 뇌파에 근거하여 간질 수술을 시행하였으며 수술적 예후가 Engle class I으로 좋은 결과를 보였다. 결 론 : 추적자의 느린 점적 주사를 이용한 발작기 SPECT는 간질 병소를 찾기 어려운 영아 연축 환아에서 간질 병소를 찾아내는데 중요한 역할을 하는 것을 알 수 있었다. 그러나 보다 큰 규모의 전향적인 연구가 필요할 것으로 사료된다.

• 대한핵의학회지
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.55-62
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• 1983

In 16 volunteers without clinical or laboratory evidence of liver disease, liver volume was determined using single-photon emission computed tomography(ECT). This technique provided excellent object contrast between the liver and its surroundings and permitted calculation of liver volume without geometric assumptions about the liver's configuration. Reproducibility of results was satisfactory, with a root-me an-square error of less than 2% between duplicate measurements in 16 individuals. The volume measurements were validated by the use of phantoms.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제42권2호
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• pp.127-136
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• 2008

Monte Carlo simulation methods are especially useful in studying a variety of problems difficult to calculate by experimental or analytical approaches. Nowadays, they are extensively applied to simulate nuclear medicine instrumentations such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) for assisting system design and optimizing imaging and processing protocols. The goal of this paper is to address the practical issues, a potential user of Monte Carlo simulations for nuclear medicine can encounter, to help them to choose a code. This review introduces the different types of Monte Carlo codes currently available for nuclear medicine, comments main features and properties for a code to be proper for a given purpose, and discusses current research trends in Monte Carlo codes.

• Korean Circulation Journal
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• 제52권11호
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• pp.814-825
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• 2022

Background and Objectives: Real-world trends in the utility and type of gatekeeping studies in invasive coronary angiography (ICA) requires further investigation. Methods: We identified outpatients who underwent noninvasive cardiac tests or directly ICA for suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) from the nationwide Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service-National Patient Sample database between 2012 and 2018. Results: Among 71,401 patients, the percentage of patients who were evaluated for suspected CAD was 34.7% for treadmill test (TMT), 4.2% for single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), 24.2% for coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA), 1.6% for multiple gatekeepers, and 32.3% for directly ICA without noninvasive studies. The proportion of CCTA as a gatekeeper showed linear increase, (18.6% in 2012 and 28.8% in 2018; p<0.001), while those of TMT, SPECT, and direct ICA have decreased (p<0.001, p=0.03, and p<0.001, respectively). The overall incidence of downstream ICA after gatekeeper was 13.8% (6,662/48,346), and SPECT showed higher ICA rate in pairwise comparison with TMT and CCTA (p<0.001). Patients who performed gatekeepers before ICA showed higher rate of subsequent PCI (34.7% vs. 32.3%; p<0.001) and CABG (3.5% vs. 1.0%; p<0.001), compared to those who directly underwent ICA, and CCTA was associated with higher revascularization rate after ICA in pairwise comparison with TMT and SPECT (p<0.001). Conclusions: Nationwide database demonstrated that CCTA is utilized increasingly as a gatekeeper for ICA and is associated with high revascularization rate after ICA in outpatients with suspected CAD.

• 한국의학물리학회지:의학물리
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.162-170
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• 2013

인간의 질병연구를 위한 소동물용 픽셀화 반도체 검출기 기반의 단일광자단층촬영(SPECT, single photon emission computed tomography)시스템 개발이 이루어지고 있다. 본 연구에서는 CdTe검출기 기반의 SPECT시스템의 고해상도 및 저선량 소동물 영상화 가능성을 알아보고자 NaI(Tl) 섬광결정 검출기로 구축된 SPECT 시스템과 비교 평가하였다. CdTe 검출기는 $44.8{\times}44.8$ mm의 크기이며 $0.35{\times}0.35{\times}5$ mm크기의 픽셀로 구성되어 있다. 검출기의 내인성 분해능은 0.35 mm 이며 이는 픽셀 크기와 동일하다. GATE 시뮬레이션 방법을 통하여 두 시스템간의 성능 평가를 수행하고 비교 분석하였다. 시스템의 공간 분해능과 민감도는 10 MBq의 $^{99m}Tc$ 점 선원을 사용하여 평가하였다. 복셀화된 MOBY (mouse whole-body) 팬텀을 사용하여 정량적 평가 및 흡수선량을 계산하였다. 점선원과 조준기 사이의 거리가 30 mm 일 때, NaI(Tl) 섬광결정 검출기 기반의 SPECT의 분해능은 1.54 mm, 민감도는 83 cps/MBq였으며, CdTe검출기 기반의 SPECT시스템의 분해능은 1.32 mm, 민감도는 116 cps/MBq로 더욱 향상된 공간 분해능과 민감도를 나타내었다. 두 시스템의 정량적 통계 분석은 CNR 계산을 통해 이루어졌으며, 주입 선량을 다양하게 설정하여 두 시스템에서의 CNR을 획득하였다. Mouse brain내 striatum의 주입선량이 160 Bq/voxel일 경우, CdTe검출기 기반의 SPECT에서 획득한 CNR은 2.30이었으며 섬광결정 검출기 SPECT에서 획득한 CNR은 1.85로 CdTe검출기 기반의 SPECT에서 더욱 큰 CNR을 지니고 있었다. 또한, CdTe기반의 SPECT를 사용할 경우 NaI(Tl) 섬광결정 검출기 기반의 SPECT 시스템을 사용하는 것보다 동일한 정량적 수치획득을 위한 소동물의 피폭선량을 감소시켜줄 수 있었다. 본 연구에서는 반도체 검출기 CdTe기반의 SPECT은 NaI(Tl) 섬광결정 검출기 SPECT 시스템보다 공간 분해능과 민감도 측면에서 높은 성능을 보였음을 증명하였다. 실제 시스템과의 검증 등의 추가 연구가 필요하지만, 본 연구 결과는 향후 피폭 선량을 줄이는 동시에 영상의 질을 높일 수 있는 소동물용 SPECT 시스템 구축에 응용될 수 있을 것이다.