• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.558-568
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• 2019

Objective: To evaluate whether computed tomography (CT) reconstruction algorithms affect the CT texture features of the liver parenchyma. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study comprised 58 patients (normal liver, n = 34; chronic liver disease [CLD], n = 24) who underwent liver CT scans using a single CT scanner. All CT images were reconstructed using filtered back projection (FBP), hybrid iterative reconstruction (IR) (iDOSE⁴), and model-based IR (IMR). On arterial phase (AP) and portal venous phase (PVP) CT imaging, quantitative texture analysis of the liver parenchyma using a single-slice region of interest was performed at the level of the hepatic hilum using a filtration-histogram statistic-based method with different filter values. Texture features were compared among the three reconstruction methods and between normal livers and those from CLD patients. Additionally, we evaluated the inter- and intra-observer reliability of the CT texture analysis by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Results: IR techniques affect various CT texture features of the liver parenchyma. In particular, model-based IR frequently showed significant differences compared to FBP or hybrid IR on both AP and PVP CT imaging. Significant variation in entropy was observed between the three reconstruction algorithms on PVP imaging (p < 0.05). Comparison between normal livers and those from CLD patients revealed that AP images depend more strongly on the reconstruction method used than PVP images. For both inter- and intra-observer reliability, ICCs were acceptable (> 0.75) for CT imaging without filtration. Conclusion: CT texture features of the liver parenchyma evaluated using the filtration-histogram method were significantly affected by the CT reconstruction algorithm used.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.382-384
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• 2002

Filtered-Back-Projection technique is used in X-ray CT image reconstruction. This requires X-ray transmission data from all directions. As the transverse cross-section of the body is approximately 50 cm, transmitted X-rays in this direction are strongly attenuated. If X-ray transmission data in this direction is avoided, exposure to the patients seems to be reduced one 20th of usual value. Some alternative method has to be found for clinically sufficient image quality. New methods are under development and tentative results are reported that utilizes the principle of superposition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.443-446
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• 2002

A vehicle oversteered or cornering at excessive speed leaves tire yaw mark on the road surface. A yaw mark is a sign that the tire was sideslipping and exceeded its frictional limit because of centrifugal force. Problems exist with the traditional equation, “critical speed formula (CSF)”, that limits its practical use in traffic accident reconstruction. A major problem is that the equation dose not account for vehicle dynamics and interface between tire and road. The literature refers to that the accuracy of the critical speed formula varies with several factors. New equations that account for vehicle dynamics are introduced in this paper. A comparison of the accuracy of the new method and the traditional method in the calculation of speed is conducted.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.83-87
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• 2011

Purpose: Recently in diagnostics area PET/CT is using a variety of areas including oncology, as well as in cardiology, neurology, etc. While increasing in the importance of PET/CT, there are various researches in the image quality related to reconstruction method. We compared and tested Iterative 2D Reconstruction Method with True X Reconstruction method by Siemens through phantom experiment, so we can see increasing of clinical usefulness of PET/CT. Materials and Methods: We measured contrast ratio and FWHM due to evaluating images on dose and experiment using Biograph 40 True Point PET/CT (Siemens, Germany). Getting a result of contrast ratio and FWHM, we used NEMA IEC PET body phantom (Data Spectrum Corp.) and capillary tube. We used the current TrueX and the previous Iterative 2D algorithm for all images which have 10 minutes long. Also, a clinical suitability of parameter for Iterative 2D and a recommended parameter by Siemens for True X are applied to the experiment. Results: We tested FWHM using capillary tube. As a result, TrueX was less than Iterative 2D. Also, the differences of FWHM get bigger in low dose. On the other hand, we tested contrasts ratio using NEMA IEC PET body phantom. As a result, TrueX was better aspect than Iterative 2D. However, there was no difference in dose. Conclusion: In this experiment, TrueX get higher results of contrast ratio and spatial resolution than Itertive 2D through experiment. Also, in the reconstruction result through TrueX, TrueX had better aspect of resolution than Iterative 2D in low dose. However, contrast ratio had no specific difference. In other words, TrueX reconstruction method in PET/CT had higher clinical value in use because TrueX can reduce exposure of patient and had a better quality of screen.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.819-825
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• 2023

In this study, among chest CT examination conditions, the tube voltage was changed to 100 and 80 kVp and the reconstruction algorithm was changed to FBP, ASIR-V, and DLIR to compare and analyze changes in examination dose and image quality. As a result, when applying ASIR-V and DLIR at a tube voltage of 100 kVp, which is lower than the existing tube voltage, the dose is lowered while achieving image quality most similar to that when applying 120 kVp and FBP. especially, DLIR reconstructed images had excellent SNR and CNR at all tube voltages. In addition, the SSIM index was analyzed to be closest to 1, showing the highest similarity to the original image. Therefore, when performing repeated chest CT examinations, the application of DLIR can reduce the examination dose by about 29.7%, which is expected to help solve some of the biggest problems with CT examinations, namely radiation exposure due to the examination.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.81-85
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• 2017

The aim of this study was to evaluate the usability of applied Low dose Computed Tomography(LDCT) protocol in examining urinary calculus using computed tomography. The subjects of this study were urological patients who visited a medical institution located in Busan from June to December 2016 and the protocol used in this study was Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction: low-dose CT with 50% Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASIR). As results of quantitative analysis, the mean pixel value and standard deviation within kidney region of image(ROI)of the axial image were $26.21{\pm}7.08$ in abdomen CT pre scan and $20.03{\pm}8.16$ in low-dose CT. Also the mean pixel value and standard deviation within kidney ROI of the coronal image were $22.07{\pm}7.35$ in abdomen CT pre scan and $21.67{\pm}6.11$ in low dose CT. The results of qualitative analysis showed that four raters' mean values of observed kidney artifacts were $19.14{\pm}0.36$ when using abdomen CT protocol and $19.17{\pm}0.43$ in low-dose CT, and the mean value of resolution and contrast was $19.35{\pm}0.70$ when using abdomen CT protocol and $19.29{\pm}0.58$ in low-dose CT. Also the results of a exposure dose analysis showed that the mean values of CTDIvol and DLP in abdomen CT pre scan were 18.02 mGy and $887.51mGy{\cdot}cm$ respectively and the mean values of CTDIvol and DLP when using low-dose CT protocol were 7.412 mGy and $361.22mGy{\cdot}cm$ respectively. The resulting dose reduction rate was 58.82% and 59.29%, respectively.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.211-220
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• 2015

Recently, model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) has played an important role in transmission tomography by significantly improving the quality of reconstructed images for low-dose scans. MBIR is based on the penalized-likelihood (PL) approach, where the penalty term (also known as the regularizer) stabilizes the unstable likelihood term, thereby suppressing the noise. In this work we further improve MBIR by using a more expressive regularizer which can restore the underlying image more accurately. Here we used a spline regularizer derived from a linear combination of the two-dimensional splines with first- and second-order spatial derivatives and applied it to a non-quadratic convex penalty function. To derive a PL algorithm with the spline regularizer, we used a separable paraboloidal surrogates algorithm for convex optimization. The experimental results demonstrate that our regularization method improves reconstruction accuracy in terms of both regional percentage error and contrast recovery coefficient by restoring smooth edges as well as sharp edges more accurately.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.129-137
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• 2024

Purpose: Patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) who undergo dental procedures during radiotherapy (RT) face an increased risk of developing osteoradionecrosis (ORN). Accordingly, new tools must be developed to extract critical information regarding the dose delivered to the teeth and mandible. This article proposes a novel approach for visualizing 3-dimensional planned dose distributions on panoramic reconstruction computed tomography (pCT) images. Materials and Methods: Four patients with HNC who underwent volumetric modulated arc therapy were included. One patient experienced ORN and required the extraction of teeth after RT. In the study approach, the dental arch curve (DAC) was defined using an open-source platform. Subsequently, pCT images and dose distributions were generated based on the new coordinate system. All teeth and mandibles were delineated on both the original CT and pCT images. To evaluate the consistency of dose metrics, the Mann-Whitney U test and Student t-test were employed. Results: A total of 61 teeth and 4 mandibles were evaluated. The correlation coefficient between the 2 methods was 0.999, and no statistically significant difference was observed (P>0.05). This method facilitated a straightforward and intuitive understanding of the delivered dose. In 1 patient, ORN corresponded to the region of the root and the gum receiving a high dosage (approximately 70 Gy). Conclusion: The proposed method particularly benefits dentists involved in the management of patients with HNC. It enables the visualization of a 3-dimensional dose distribution in the teeth and mandible on pCT, enhancing the understanding of the dose delivered during RT.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.271-277
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• 2019

CareDose 4D which is the Siemens's Automatic Exposure Control (AEC) can adjust the level of radiation dose distribution which is based on organ characteristic unlike other manufacturer's AEC. Currently, a wide scan range containing different organs is sometimes examined at once (defined as one scan). The purpose of this study was to figure out which organ characteristic option is suitable when one scan method is utilized. Two types of anthropomorphic phantoms were scanned in the same range which were from frontal bone to carina level according to three different organ characteristics such as Thorax, Abdomen, and Neck. All scans and image reconstruction parameters were equally applied and radiation dose were compared. Radiation dose with Thorax organ characteristic was lower than that with Neck. Also, that with Abdomen oran characteristic was lower than Thorax. There were significant differences in radiation dose according to different organ characteristics at the same parameters (P<0.05). Usage of Neck organ characteristic had a result of the highest radiation dose to all phantom. On the other hand, utilization of Abdomen organ characteristic showed the lowest radiation dose. As a result, it is desirable to set appropriate organ characteristic according to examined body part when you checkup patients. Also, when you implement one scan method, selection of Abdomen-based organ characteristic has reduced more radiation dose compared with two different organ characteristic.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.64-64
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• 2003

Objectives: Patient dose verification is clinically the most important parts in the treatment delivery of radiation therapy. The three dimensional(3D) reconstruction of dose distribution delivered to target volume helps to verify patient dose and determine the physical characteristics of beams used in intensity modulated radiation therapy(IMRT). We present Beam Intensity Scanner(BInS) system for the pre treatment dosimetric verification of two dimensional photon intensity. The BInS is a radiation detector with a custom made software for relative dose conversion of fluorescence signals from scintillator. Methods: This scintillator is fabricated by phosphor Gadolinium Oxysulphide and is used to produce fluorescence from the irradiation of 6MV photons on a Varian Clinac 21EX. The digitized fluoroscopic signals obtained by digital video camera will be processed by our custom made software to reproduce 3D relative dose distribution. For the intensity modulated beam(IMB), the BInS calculates absorbed dose in absolute beam fluence, which are used for the patient dose distribution. Results: Using BInS, we performed various measurements related to IMRT and found the followings: (1) The 3D dose profiles of the IMBs measured by the BInS demonstrate good agreement with radiographic film, pin type ionization chamber and Monte Carlo simulation. (2) The delivered beam intensity is altered by the mechanical and dosimetric properties of the collimating of dynamic and/or static MLC system. This is mostly due to leaf transmission, leaf penumbra, scattered photons from the round edges of leaves, and geometry of leaf. (3) The delivered dose depends on the operational detail of how to make multileaf opening. Conclusions: These phenomena result in a fluence distribution that can be substantially different from the initial and calculative intensity modulation and therefore, should be taken into account by the treatment planing for accurate dose calculations delivered to the target volume in IMRT.