• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.157-163
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• 2007

Purpose: To evaluate the characteristics of (widely used) cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. Materials and Methods: Images were obtained with CT performance phantoms (The American Association of Physicists in Medicine; AAPM). CT phantom as the destination by using PSR $9000N^{TM}$ dental CT system (Asahi Roentgen Ind. Co., Ltd., Japan) and i-CAT CBCT (Imaging Science International Inc., USA) that have different kinds of detectors and field of view, and compared these images with the CT number for linear attenuation, contrast resolution, and spatial resolution. Results: CT number of both PSR $9000N^{TM}$ dental CT system and i-CAT CBCT did not conform to the base value of CT performance phantom. The contrast of i-CAT CBCT is higher than that of PSR $9000N^{TM}$ dental CT system. Both contrasts were increased according to thickness of cross section. Spatial resolution and shapes of reappearance was possible up to 0.6 mm in PSR $9000N^{TM}$ dental CT system and up to 1.0 mm in i-CAT CBCT. Low contrast resolution in region of low contrast sensitivity revealed low level at PSR $9000N^{TM}$ dental CT system and i-CAT CBCT. Conclusion: CBCT images revealed higher spatial resolution, however, contrast resolution in region of low contrast sensitivity was the inferiority of image characteristics.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.53-58
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• 2013

Purpose: To optimize correction method for SPECT/CT, image quality consisting of resolution and contrast was evaluated using three radioisotopes ($^{99m}Tc$, $^{201}Tl$ and $^{131}I$) and three different correction methods; attenuation correction (AC), scatter correction (SC) and both attenuation and scatter correction (ACSC). Materials and Methods: Images were acquired with a SPECT/CT scanner and a conventional CT protocol with an OESM reconstruction algorithm (2 iterations and 10 subsets). For resolution measurement, fixed radioactivity (2.22 kBq) was infused into a spatial resolution phantom and full width at half maximum (FWHM) was measured using a vendor-provided software. For contrast evaluation, radioactive source with a ratio of 1:8 to background was filled in a Flanged Jaszczak phantom and percent contrast (%) were calculated. All the parameters for image quality were compared with non-correction (NC) method. Results: As compared with NC, image resolution of all three isotopes were significantly improved by AC and ACSC, not by SC. In particular, ACSC showed better resolution than AC alone for $^{99m}Tc$ and $^{201}Tl$. Image contrast of all three radioisotopes in a sphere with the largest diameter were enhanced by all correction methods. ACSC showed the highest contrast in all three radioisotopes, which was the most accurate in $^{99m}Tc$ (85.9%). Conclusion: Image quality of SPECT/CT was improved in all the radioisotopes by CT-based attenuation correction methods, except SC alone. SC failed to improve resolution in any radioisotopes, but it was effective in contrast enhancement. ACSC would be the best correction method as it improved resolution in radioisotopes with low energy levels and contrast in radioisotope with low energy levels. However, in radioisotope with high energy level, AC would be better than ACSC for resolution improvement.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.205-208
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• 2004

The two major classes of magnetic resonance (MR) contrast agents are paramagnetic contrast agents, usually based on chelates of gadolinium generating T1 positive signal enhancement, and super-paramagnetic contrast agents that use mono- or polycrystalline iron oxide to generate strong T2 negative contrast in MR images. These paramagnetic or super-paramagnetic complexes are used to develop new contrast agents that can target the specific molecular marker of the cells or tan be activated to report on the physiological status or metabolic activity of biological systems. In molecular imaging science, MR imaging has emerged as a leading technique because it provides high-resolution three-dimension maps of the living subject. The future of molecular MR imaging is promising as advancements in hardware, contrast agents, and image acquisition methods coalesce to bring high resolution in vivo imaging to the biochemical sciences and to patient care.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.30-35
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• 2011

Purpose: The Boramae Hospital are currently using Wide beam reconstruction (WBR: UltraSPECT, Israel) to improve the resolution. The Xact-bone belongs to the WBR. It has been reported that Xact-bone helps us to improve image resolution and contrast. This study will be evaluated clinical usefulness of Xact-bone method. Materials and Methods: The usefulness evaluation of Xact-bone method was analyzed in resolution test and contrast ratio. The resolution test in Planar image were obtained from Full width at half maximum (FWHM) by using capillary tube. And the contrast ratio was obtained from Bone and Soft tissue (B/S) ratio values that were acquired from bone scan study of 50 patients before and after using the Xact-bone method. We prepared the Triple Line Source Phantom, NEMA IEC Body Phantom and Standard Jaszczak Phantom to acquire the FWHM and Contrast Ratio values of Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) image. Subsequently we compared among the Filtered backprojection (FBP), Orderd subset expectation maximization (OSEM) and Xact-Bone image. Results: The results of the planar Xact-bone data improved resolution about 20% by using capillary tube. In addition it was improved B/S ratio about 15%. When using Triple Line Source Phantom, SPECT Xact-bone data improved resolution for both FBP, OSEM methods about 20% and 10%, respectively. Contrast ratio in each spheres has also been increased for both methods that using NEMA IEC body Phantom and Standard Jaszczak Phantom. Conclusion: When we were using Xact-bone method, we could see to improve the resolution and Contrast ratio as compared to do not use the Xact-bone method. Accordingly, by using WBR's Xact-bone method is expected to improve the image quality. However, when introducing new software, it is needed to match the characteristics of the hospital protocol and clinical application.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.407-414
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• 2014

The aim of the present study was to carry out quantitative analysis of spatial resolution for the influence of the focus size and digital image post-processing on the Computed Radiography (CR). The modulation transfer functions of an edge measuring method (MTF) was used for the evaluation of the spatial resolution. The focus size of X-ray tube was used the small focus (0.6 mm) and the large focus (1.2 mm). We evaluated the 50% and 10% of MTF for the enhancement of edge and contrast by using multi-scale image contrast amplification (MUSICA) in digital image post-processing. As a results, the edge enhancement than the contrast enhancement were significantly higher the spatial resolution of MTF 50% in all focus. Also the spatial resolution of the obtained images in a large focus were improved by digital image processing. In conclusion, the results of this study should serve as a basic data for obtain the high resolution clinical images, such as skeletal and chest images on the CR.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.393-400
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to suggest a method to reduce the dose by Analyzing the dose area product (DAP) and image quality according to the change of tube current using NEMA Phantom. The spatial resolution and low contrast resolution were used as evaluation criteria in addition to signal to noise ratio (SNR) and contrast to noise ratio (CNR), which are important image quality parameters of intervention. Tube voltage was fixed at 80 kVp and the amount of tube current was changed to 20, 30, 40, and 50 mAs, and the dose area product and image quality were compared and analyzed. As a result, the dose area product increased from $1066mGycm^2$ to $6160mGycm^2$ to 6 times as the condition increased, while the spatial resolution and low contrast resolution were higher than 20 mAs and 30 mAs, Spatial resolution and low contrast resolution were observed below the evaluation criteria. In addition, the SNR and CNR increased up to 30 mAs, slightly increased at 40 mAs, but not significantly different from the previous one, and decreased at 50 mAs. As a result, the exposure dose significantly increased due to overexposure of the test conditions and the image quality deteriorated in all areas of spatial resolution, low contrast resolution, SNR and CNR.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 2010

In this study, the correlation among the changes of Modulation Transfer Function(MTF) in the noise and high-contrast resolution and the change of Contrast to noise ratio(CNR) in the low-contrast resolution will be examined to investigate the estimation of image quality according to the type of algorithms. The image data obtained by scanning American Association of Physicists in Medicine(AAPM) phantom was applied to each algorithm and the exposure condition of 120 kVp, 250 mAs, and then the CT number and noise were measured. The MTF curved line of the high-contrast resolution was calculated with Point Spread Function(PSF) by using the analysis program by Philips, resulting in 0.5 MTF, 0.1 MTF and 0.02 MTF respectively. The low-contrast resolution was calculated with CNR and the uniformity was measured to each algorithm. Since the measurement value for the uniformity of the equipment was below ${\pm}$ 5 HU, which is the criterion figure, it was found to belong to the normal range. As the algorithm got closer from soft to edge, the standard deviation of CT number increased, which indicates that the noise increased as well. As for MTF, 0.5 MTF, 0.1 MTF and 0.02 MTF were all sharp algorithms, and as the algorithm got closer from soft to edge, it was possible to distinguish more clearly with the naked eye. On the other hand, CNR gradually decreased, because the difference between the contrast hole CT number and the acrylic CT number was the same while the noise of hole increased.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.287-296
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• 2012

Although low spatial resolution satellite images like MODIS and GOCI can be important to observe land surface, it is often difficult to visually interpret the imagery because of the low contrast by prevailing cloud covers. We proposed a simple and adaptive stretching algorithm to enhance image contrast over land areas in cloudy images. The proposed method is basically a linear algorithm that stretches only non-cloud pixels. The adaptive linear stretch method uses two values: the low limit (L) from image statistics and upper limit (U) from low boundary value of cloud pixels. The cloud pixel value was automatically determined by pre-developed empirical function for each spectral band. We used MODIS and GOCI images having various types of cloud distributions and coverage. The adaptive contrast stretching method was evaluated by both visual interpretation and statistical distribution of displayed brightness values.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1170-1178
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• 2021

This paper proposed a versatile algorithm based on a dual-tree complex wavelet transform for intensifying the visual aspect of medical images. First, the decomposition of the input image into a high sub-band and low-sub-band image is done. Further, to improve the resolution of the resulting image, the high sub-band image is interpolated using Lanczos interpolation. Also, contrast enhancement is performed by singular value decomposition (SVD). Finally, the image reconstruction is achieved by using an inverse wavelet transform. Then, the Gaussian filter will improve the visual quality of the image. We have collected images from the hospital and the internet for quantitative and qualitative analysis. These images act as a reference image for comparing the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm with the existing state-of-the-art. We have divided the proposed algorithm into several stages: preprocessing, contrast enhancement, resolution enhancement, and visual quality enhancement. Both analyses show the proposed algorithm's effectiveness compared to existing methods.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.12
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• pp.163-173
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• 2014

When evaluating the spatial resolution images and evaluation of low contrast resolution using CT standard phantom, and might present a automated quantitative evaluation method for minimizing errors by subjective judgment of the evaluator be, and try to evaluate the usefulness. 120kVp and 250mAs, 10mm collimation, SFOV(scan field of view) of 25cm or more than, exposure conditions DFOV(display field of view) of 25cm, and were evaluated the 24 passing images and 20 failing images taken using a standard reconstruction algorithm by using the Nuclear Associates, Inc. AAPM CT Performance Phantom(Model 76-410). Quantitative evaluation of low contrast resolution and spatial resolution was using an evaluation program that was self-developed using the company Mathwork Matlab(Ver. 7.6. (R2008a)) software. In this study, the results were evaluated using the evaluation program that was self-developed in the evaluation of images using CT standard phantom, it was possible to evaluate an objective numerical qualitative evaluation item. First, if the contrast resolution, if EI is 0.50, 0.51, 0.52, 0.53, as a result of evaluating quantitatively the results were evaluated qualitatively match. Second, if CNR is -0.0018~-0.0010, as a result of evaluating quantitatively the results were evaluated qualitatively match. Third, if the spatial resolution, as a result of using a image segmentation technique, and automatically extract the contour boundary of the hole, as a result of evaluating quantitatively the results were evaluated qualitatively match.