• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.21 no.8
• /
• pp.987-997
• /
• 2020

Objective: Measurement of the liver and spleen volumes has clinical implications. Although computed tomography (CT) volumetry is considered to be the most reliable noninvasive method for liver and spleen volume measurement, it has limited application in clinical practice due to its time-consuming segmentation process. We aimed to develop and validate a deep learning algorithm (DLA) for fully automated liver and spleen segmentation using portal venous phase CT images in various liver conditions. Materials and Methods: A DLA for liver and spleen segmentation was trained using a development dataset of portal venous CT images from 813 patients. Performance of the DLA was evaluated in two separate test datasets: dataset-1 which included 150 CT examinations in patients with various liver conditions (i.e., healthy liver, fatty liver, chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and post-hepatectomy) and dataset-2 which included 50 pairs of CT examinations performed at ours and other institutions. The performance of the DLA was evaluated using the dice similarity score (DSS) for segmentation and Bland-Altman 95% limits of agreement (LOA) for measurement of the volumetric indices, which was compared with that of ground truth manual segmentation. Results: In test dataset-1, the DLA achieved a mean DSS of 0.973 and 0.974 for liver and spleen segmentation, respectively, with no significant difference in DSS across different liver conditions (p = 0.60 and 0.26 for the liver and spleen, respectively). For the measurement of volumetric indices, the Bland-Altman 95% LOA was -0.17 ± 3.07% for liver volume and -0.56 ± 3.78% for spleen volume. In test dataset-2, DLA performance using CT images obtained at outside institutions and our institution was comparable for liver (DSS, 0.982 vs. 0.983; p = 0.28) and spleen (DSS, 0.969 vs. 0.968; p = 0.41) segmentation. Conclusion: The DLA enabled highly accurate segmentation and volume measurement of the liver and spleen using portal venous phase CT images of patients with various liver conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.13 no.7
• /
• pp.961-968
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of cerebral angiography in each energy level by using dual energy technique in CT. Methods were performed on 15 DE images and SE images of CT angiography. For the analysis of images, mean value, standard deviation, SNR and CNR value were determined by setting ROI on MCA, brain parenchyma tissue, and back ground. As a result of concurrent visual evaluation with Likert 5 point scale, the clearest MCA image was confirmed at DE 40 keV and SE 120 kVp(p>0.05). The SNR value of the SE image was measured to be similar to the 40 keV energy level of the DE image. The low energy level image of 40 keV and 50 keV was measured with a high SNR and the contrast ratio was higher than that of the high energy image.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.41-47
• /
• 2024

Purpose: ¹⁸F-FET, a radiopharmaceutical based on a Tyrosine amino acid derivative using the Sodium-Potassium Pump-independent Transporter (System L) for non-invasive evaluation of primary, recurrent, and metastatic brain tumors, exhibits distinct characteristics. Unlike the widely absorbed ¹⁸F-FDG in both tumor and normal brain tissues, ¹⁸F-FET demonstrates specific uptake only in tumor tissue while almost negligible uptake in normal brain tissue. This study aims to compare and evaluate the usefulness of ¹⁸F-FDG and ¹⁸F-FET Brain PET/CT quantitative analysis in brain tumor diagnosis. Materials and Methods: In 46 patients diagnosed with brain gliomas (High Grade: 34, Low Grade: 12), Brain PET/CT scans were performed at 40 minutes after ¹⁸F-FDG injection and at 20 minutes (early) and 80 minutes (delay) after ¹⁸F-FET injection. SUV_max and SUV_peak of tumor areas corresponding to MRI images were measured in each scan, and the SUV_max-to-SUV_peak ratio, an indicator of tumor prognosis, was calculated. Differences in SUV_max, SUV_peak, and SUV_max-to-SUV_peak ratio between ¹⁸F-FDG and ¹⁸F-FET early/delay scans were statistically verified using SPSS (ver.28) package program. Results: SUV_max values were 3.72±1.36 for ¹⁸F-FDG, 4.59±1.55 for ¹⁸F-FET early, and 4.12±1.36 for ¹⁸F-FET delay scans. The highest SUV_max was observed in ¹⁸F-FET early scans, particularly in HG tumors (4.85±1.44), showing a slightly more significant difference (P<0.0001). SUV_peak values were 3.33±1.13 for ¹⁸F-FDG, 3.04±1.11 for ¹⁸F-FET early, and 2.80±0.96 for ¹⁸F-FET delay scans. The highest SUV_peak was in ¹⁸F-FDG scans, while the lowest was in ¹⁸F-FET delay scans, with a more significant difference in HG tumors (P<0.001). SUV_max-to-SUV_peak ratio values were 1.11±0.09 for ¹⁸F-FDG, 1.54±0.22 for ¹⁸F-FET early, and 1.48±0.17 for ¹⁸F-FET delay scans. This ratio was higher in ¹⁸F-FET scans for both HG and LG tumors (P<0.0001), but there was no statistically significant difference between ¹⁸F-FET early and delay scans. Conclusion: This study confirms the usefulness of early and delay scans in ¹⁸F-FET Brain PET/CT examinations, particularly demonstrating the changes in objective quantitative metrics such as SUV_max, SUV_peak, and introducing the SUV_max-to-SUV_peak ratio as a new evaluation metric based on the degree of tumor malignancy. This is expected to further contributions to the quantitative analysis of Brain PET/CT images.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.12 no.6
• /
• pp.707-712
• /
• 2018

The number of CT examinations is increasing, and radiation exposure is also increasing. repeated tests can affect the lens and thyroid. In hospitals, there is a tendency to lack interest in major long-term radiation exposure compared to the interest in increasing image information and image quality with head CT. In this study, we analyzed the improvement of image quality by proposed method to the noisy CT images. The proposed denoising method total variance optimization only for the impulsive noise candidate pixels. Experimental results show that edge information is well preserved and impulse noise can be effectively removed. and worked very well for the images according to tube voltage and rotation time. applied to the clinical setting, it can be used as the lowest exposure condition without worrying about the image quality and it will be helpful for the CT application.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2018

Background: In this study, we investigate the image quality of virtual monochromatic images synthesized from dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) at voltages of 80/140 kV and 100/140 kV. Materials and Methods: Virtual monochromatic images of a phantom are synthesized from DECT scans from 40 to 70 keV in steps of 1 keV under the two combinations of tube voltages. The dose allocation of dual-energy (DE) scan is 50% for both low- and high-energy tubes. The virtual monochromatic images are compared to single-energy (SE) images at the same radiation dose. In the DE images, noise is reduced using the 100/140 kV scan at the optimal monochromatic energy. Virtual monochromatic images are reconstructed from 40 to 70 keV in 1-keV increments and analyzed using two quality indexes: noise and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Results and Discussion: The DE scan mode with the 100/140 kV protocol achieved a better maximum CNR compared to the 80/140 kV protocol for various materials, except for adipose and brain. Image noise is reduced with the 100/140 kV protocol. The CNR values of DE with the 100/140 kV protocol is similar to or higher than that of SE at 120 kV at the same radiation dose. Furthermore, the maximum CNR with the 100/140 kV protocol is similar to or higher than that of the SE scan at 120 kV. Conclusion: It was found that the CNR achieved with the 100/140 kV protocol was better than that with the 80/140 kV protocol at optimal monochromatic energies. Virtual monochromatic imaging using the 100/140 kV protocol could be considered for application in breast, brain, lung, liver, and bone CT in accordance with the CNR results.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.293-301
• /
• 2023

Unstandardized medical data collection and management are still being conducted manually, and studies are being conducted to classify CT data using deep learning to solve this problem. However, most studies are developing models based only on the axial plane, which is a basic CT slice. Because CT images depict only human structures unlike general images, reconstructing CT scans alone can provide richer physical features. This study seeks to find ways to achieve higher performance through various methods of converting CT scan to 2D as well as axial planes. The training used 1042 CT scans from five body parts and collected 179 test sets and 448 with external datasets for model evaluation. To develop a deep learning model, we used InceptionResNetV2 pre-trained with ImageNet as a backbone and re-trained the entire layer of the model. As a result of the experiment, the reconstruction data model achieved 99.33% in body part classification, 1.12% higher than the axial model, and the axial model was higher only in brain and neck in contrast classification. In conclusion, it was possible to achieve more accurate performance when learning with data that shows better anatomical features than when trained with axial slice alone.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.399-405
• /
• 2012

The brain is the body's most organized and controlled organ, and it governs various psychological and mental functions. A brain abnormality could greatly affect one's physical and mental abilities, and consequently one's social life. Brain disorders can be broadly categorized into three main afflictions: stroke, brain tumor, and dementia. Among these, stroke is a common disease that occurs owing to a disorder in blood flow, and it is accompanied by a sudden loss of consciousness and motor paralysis. The main types of strokes are infarction and hemorrhage. The exact diagnosis and early treatment of an infarction are very important for the patient's prognosis and for the determination of the treatment direction. In this study, texture features were analyzed in order to develop a prototype auto-diagnostic system for infarction using computer auto-diagnostic software. The analysis results indicate that of the six parameters measured, the average brightness, average contrast, flatness, and uniformity show a high cognition rate whereas the degree of skewness and entropy show a low cognition rate. On the basis of these results, it was suggested that a digital CT image obtained using the computer auto-diagnostic software can be used to provide valuable information for general CT image auto-detection and diagnosis for pre-reading. This system is highly advantageous because it can achieve early diagnosis of the disease and it can be used as supplementary data in image reading. Further, it is expected to enable accurate medical image detection and reduced diagnostic time in final-reading.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.5-10
• /
• 2000

Objective: To describe the neuroradiologic findings of primary antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (PAPS). Materials and Methods: During a recent two-year period, abnormally elevated antiphospholipid antibodies were detected in a total of 751 patients. In any cases in which risk factors for stroke were detected - hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, smoking, and the presence of SLE or other connective tissue diseases - PAPS was not diagnosed. Neuroradiologic studies were performed in 11 of 32 patients with PAPS. We retrospectively reviewed brain CT (n = 7), MR (n = 8), and cerebral angiography (n = 8) in 11 patients with special attention to the presence of brain parenchymal lesions and cerebral arterial or venous abnormalities. Results: CT or MR findings of PAPS included nonspecific multiple hyper-intensity foci in deep white matter on T2-weighted images (5/11), a large infarct in the territory of the middle cerebral artery (4/11), diffuse cortical atrophy (2/11), focal hemorrhage (2/11), and dural sinus thrombosis (1/11). Angiographic findings were normal (5/8) or reflected either occlusion of a large cerebral artery (2/8) or dural sinus thrombosis (1/8). Conclusion: Neuroradiologic findings of PAPS are nonspecific but in young or middle- aged adults who show the above mentioned CT or MR findings, and in whom risk factors for stroke are not present, the condition should be suspected.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.195-197
• /
• 2015

Artifacts can seriously degrade the quality of computed tomography (CT) images, sometimes to the point of making them diagnostically unusable. Here, we report an unusual CT artifact that could have resulted in the misdiagnosis of a hyperdense hemorrhagic lesion in a 55-year-old man. The author recommend that when hemorrhagic lesion in posterior fossa is suggested on CT, the physician should carefully consider all patient-related clinical data prior to considering surgical intervention or a biopsy. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can help in preventing the misdiagnosis as hemorrhage of CT scan.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.355-362
• /
• 2010

This study determines a range of CT parameter values in Brain CT which are minimizing patient absorption dose without compromising the image quality and optimal exposure condition. We measured dose and image noise using conventional CT parameters in Brain CT. In additon, we evaluated dose, SNR and PSNR of head phantom images while changing kVp and rotation time. In this study, effectiveness of dose that was achieved from dose reproducible experiments in conventional head CT condition is determined by changing kVp and rotation time. Dose and PSNR is related to low dose-high resolution condition. In conclusion, we suggest that using proposed conditions is effective for imaging to compare with conditions proposed by the manufacturer.