• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.274-281
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• 2016

Background: Whole-body counters are widely used to evaluate internal contamination of the internal presence of gamma-emitting radionuclides. In internal dosimetry, it is a basic requirement that quality control procedures be applied to verify the reliability of the measured results. The implementation of intercomparison programs plays an important role in quality control, and the accuracy of the calibration and the reliability of the results should be verified through intercomparison. In this study, we evaluated the reliability of 2 whole-body counting systems using 2 calibration methods. Materials and Methods: In this study, 2 whole-body counters were calibrated using a reference male bottle manikin absorption (BOMAB) phantom and a Radiation Management Corporation (RMC-II) phantom. The reliability of the whole-body counting systems was evaluated by performing an intercomparison with International Atomic Energy Agencyto assess counting efficiency according to the type of the phantom. Results and Discussion: In the analysis of counting efficiency using the BOMAB phantom, the performance criteria of the counters were satisfied. The relative bias of activity for all radionuclides was -0.16 to 0.01 in the Fastscan and -0.01 to 0.03 in the Accuscan. However, when counting efficiency was analyzed using the RMC- II phantom, the relative bias of $^{241}Am$ activity was -0.49 in the Fastscan and 0.55 in the Accuscan, indicating that its performance criteria was not satisfactory. Conclusion: The intercomparison process demonstrated the reliability of whole-body counting systems calibrated with a BOMAB phantom. However, when the RMC-II phantom was used, the accuracy of measurements decreased for low-energy nuclides. Therefore, it appears that the RMC-II phantom should only be used for efficiency calibration for high-energy nuclides. Moreover, a novel phantom capable of matching the efficiency of the BOMAB phantom in low-energy nuclides should be developed.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2015

The egg white phantom is a thermal lesion visualization phantom able to illustrate a thermal lesion. It is often used to evaluate the performance of HIFU and is less expensive than the BSA phantom. This study determined the optimal phantom composition for evaluated therapeutic ultrasound machines by varying the egg white concentration in the egg white phantom and demonstrated its utility as a therapeutic ultrasound phantom. The egg white phantom at varying egg white concentrations (10-40% in 10% intervals) was fabricated, and its thermal properties and acoustic properties were assessed. In addition, the size and shape of the formed lesion were compared between the egg white phantom and bovine liver tissue according to the electrical power. The results showed that 30% egg white phantom was optimal for the performance evaluation due to its thermal and acoustic properties. The generated thermal lesions formed sequentially as a cigar, ellipse, tadpole, and cone shapes according to the electrical power; a similar tendency was observed in the liver tissue. Hence, we conclude that the egg white phantom will prove useful in quantitatively evaluating the thermal effects of therapeutic ultrasound.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.217-226
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• 2012

This study examines image quality of medical image after compression using JPEG2000 for AAPM CT Performance Phantom in PACS. The compressed images of 15:1 showed change of 1.93% and 0.81% in the CT number of water and the slice thickness, respectively, compared to the original images. The variation of the uniformity did not give a correlation for each measured area. In noise measurements at compressions of 10:1 and 15:1, changes of 1.47% to 10.99% were observed, respectively. The noise showed incremation tendency as increasing over the compression ratio 15:1, and the noise of 81.68% was measured at a compression of 40:1. CT number, uniformity, slice thickness, spatial resolution and contrast resolution for the compressed images were slightly changed by increasing the compression ratio. However, the noise was seriously changed relatively at the compressed images. Thus the noise was a important factor to determine the compression ration. A compression ratio of 10:1 for the AAPM CT Performance Phantom image was appropriate and could be applied to diagnostic images.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.185-195
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• 2008

In this paper, PIFA(Planar Inverted F Antenna) which operates in PCS(Personal Communication System) band is designed and characteristics are investigated. Designed PIFA was installed in three types of handsets, folder, bar, slide, and the performance was evaluated. Head and hand phantom were added to make the most similar environment to real condition of mobile phone use, and influences on antenna performance were analyzed. The simulation results confirm radiation patterns are greatly changed and antenna efficiency is decreased by the effect of human body. Performance variation of the mobile handset antenna was observed as changing the angle between mobile handset and head phantom from $0^{\circ}$ to $2^{\circ},\;4^{\circ}$ to confirm the variation caused by the relative position of mobile handset and head phantom. Directivity was decreased gradually as the antenna goes away from head phantom, and showed the trend of increasing efficiency. But in the case of bar type, where the position of antenna is relatively close to head phantom, that trend didn't show. It was confirmed that the shape of handset has a great effect on the performance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.2935-2940
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• 2023

A polystyrene phantom was developed following the guidance of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) for gamma knife (GK) quality assurance. Its performance was assessed by measuring the absorbed dose rate to water and dose distributions. The phantom was made of polystyrene, which has an electron density (1.0156) similar to that of water. The phantom included one outer phantom and four inner phantoms. Two inner phantoms held PTW T31010 and Exradin A16 ion chambers. One inner phantom held a film in the XY plane of the Leksell coordinate system, and another inner phantom held a film in the YZ or ZX planes. The absorbed dose rate to water and beam profiles of the machine-specific reference (msr) field, namely, the 16 mm collimator field of a GK Perfexion^TM or Icon^TM, were measured at seven GK sites. The measured results were compared to those of an IAEA-recommended solid water (SW) phantom. The radius of the polystyrene phantom was determined to be 7.88 cm by converting the electron density of the plastic, considering a water depth of 8 g/cm². The absorbed dose rates to water measured in both phantoms differed from the treatment planning program by less than 1.1%. Before msr correction, the PTW T31010 dose rates (PTW Freiberg GmbH, New York, NY, USA) in the polystyrene phantom were 0.70 (0.29)% higher on average than those in the SW phantom. The Exradin A16 (Standard Imaging, Middleton, WI, USA) dose rates were 0.76 (0.32)% higher in the polystyrene phantom. After msr correction factors were applied, there were no statistically significant differences in the A16 dose rates measured in the two phantoms; however, the T31010 dose rates were 0.72 (0.29)% higher in the polystyrene phantom. When the full widths at half maximum and penumbras of the msr field were compared, no significant differences between the two phantoms were observed, except for the penumbra in the Y-axis. However, the difference in the penumbra was smaller than variations among different sites. A polystyrene phantom developed for gamma knife dosimetry showed dosimetric performance comparable to that of a commercial SW phantom. In addition to its cost effectiveness, the polystyrene phantom removes air space around the detector. Additional simulations of the msr correction factors of the polystyrene phantom should be performed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.7 no.7
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• pp.114-123
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• 2007

The increasing use of computed tomography (CT) as a diagnostic tool creates the need from and efficient means of evaluating the performance of the CT scanner now in use. Accordingly, acceptance testing and quality assurance of CT is of great importance. The aim of this study is to analyze of AAPM CT performance phantom in the CT accreditation program. The modular phantom offers the CT system with which to measure eight performance parameters. The parameters are listed of CT attenuation coefficient of water, noise, uniformity, spatial resolution, contrast resolution, slice thickness (5 and 10 mm), artifacts and alignment. The phantom evaluation was done by two radiologists. The acceptance testing protocol described here in demonstrates the successful of the guidelines for the quality assurance using AAPM CT performance phantom. We need to be upgraded for the CT image quality and make the standard reference of the quality assurance in the CT.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.595-602
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• 2018

Quality control (QC) of Computed Tomography (CT) devices is based on image quality measurement on AAPM CT phantom which is a standard phantom. Although it is possible to control the accuracy of the CT apparatus, it is expensive and has a disadvantage of low penetration rate. Therefore, in this study, we make image quality measurement phantom at low cost using FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) type three-dimensional printer and try to analyze the usefulness, compare it with existing standard phantom. To print a phantom, We used three-dimensional printer of the FFF system and PLA (Poly Lactic Acid, density: $1.24g/cm^3$) filament, and the CT device of 64 MDCT (Aquilion CX, Toshiba, Japan). In addition, we printed a phantom using three-dimensional printer after design using various tool based on existing standard phantom. For image quality evaluation, AAPM CT phantom and self-generated phantom were measured 10 times for each block. The measured data were analyzed for significance using the Mannwhiteney U-test of SPSS (Version 22.0, SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). As a result of the analysis, phantom fabricated with three-dimensional printer and standard phantom showed no significant difference (p>0.05). Furthermore, we confirmed that image quality measurement performance of a phantom using three-dimensional printer is similar to the existing standard phantom. In conclusion, we confirmed the possibility of low cost phantom fabrication using three dimensional printer.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 2019

In the field of nuclear medicine, the various static phantoms of international standards are used to assess the performance of the nuclear medicine equipment. However, we only reproduced a fixed situation in spite of the movement of the cardiac, and the demands for dynamic situations have been continuously raised. More research is necessary to address these challenges. This study used flexible materials to design the dynamic cardiac phantom, taking into account the various clinical situations. It also intended to reproduce the images through dynamic cardiac flow to confirm the usefulness of the proposed technique. The frame of dynamic cardiac phantom was produced based on the international standard phantom. A nuclear medicine dynamic cardiac phantom was produced rubber material and silicone implemented by 3D printing technique to reproduce endocardium and epicardium movement. Therefore we compared and evaluated the image of a cardiac phantom made of rubber material and a cardiac phantom made of silicone material by 3D printing technique. According to the results of this study, the analysis of the Summed Rest Score(SRS) showed abnormalities in the image of a cardiac phantom made of rubber material at 10, 20, and 30 stroke rates, but the image of a cardiac phantom made of silicone material by 3D printing technique showed normal levels. And the analysis of the Total Perfusion Deficit(TPD) showed that TPD in the image of a cardiac phantom made of rubber material was higher than that of the image of a cardiac phantom made of silicone material by 3D printing technique at 10, 20, and 30 stroke rates. The potential for clinical application of the proposed method was confirmed in the dynamic cardiac phantom implemented with 3D printing technique. It is believed that the objective information secures the reliability of inspection equipment and it contributes to improve the diagnostic value of nuclear medicine.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.333-340
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• 2009

MR compatible coaxial-slot antenna for microwave hyperthermia was developed while its structure and size of each part were determined by computer simulation using finite element method(FEM). Its local heating performance was evaluated using tissue-mimic phantom and swine muscles. 2% agarose gel mixed with 6mM/$\ell$ $MnCl_2$ as a biological tissue-mimic phantom was heated by the proposed antenna driven by a 2.45GHz microwave generator. The temperature changes of the phantom were monitored using multi-channel digital thermometer at the distance of 0mm, 5mm, 10mm and 20mm from the tip center of the antenna. Also muscle tissue of swine was heated for 2 and 5minutes with 50W and 30W of microwave generator powers, respectively, to evaluate the local heating performance of the antenna. MRI compatibility was also verified by acquiring MR images and MR temperature map. MR signals were acquired from the agarose gel phantom using $T2^*$ GRE sequence with 1.5T clinical MRI scanner(Signa Echospeed, GE, Milwaukee, WI, U.S.A.) at Pusan Paik Hospital and were transferred to PC in order to reconstruct MR images and temperature map using proton resonance frequency(PRF) method and laboratory-developed phase unwrapping algorithm. Authors found that it has no severe distortion due to the antenna inserted into the phantom. Finally, we can conclude that the suggested coaxial-slot antenna has an excellent local heating performance for both of tissue-mimic phantom and swine muscle, and it is compatible to 1.5T MRI scanner.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.592-600
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• 2016

AAPM CT performance for special medical equipment quality control checks using a standard phantom for evaluation, using the evaluator's subjective assessment as to minimize errors due computerized assessment program to evaluate their usefulness. Phantom for evaluation AAPM CT Performance Phantom: was used, the default shooting conditions are the same as quality control checks. And, we use IMAGE J to evaluate the program. Quantitative evaluation with CT attenuation coefficient and the noise measurement, the uniformity measurement, the slice thickness measurement, contrast resolution of the measurement, a phantom image of the spatial resolution determined by the evaluation program is evaluated as self-extracting the result after processing the image, CT uniformity measurement for the evaluation that was smaller and the standard deviation of a video image processing more uniform slice thickness measurements it is difficult to evaluate due to the difference of the ratio of the measured value of the phantom image. Contrast resolution was measured cylindrical diameter 6th evaluate the shape of a circle obtained a mean value and a standard deviation of diameters, the spatial resolution of the group of source, including acceptance criteria automatically extracted result as a result of both the number of the extracted circularIt appeared. Evaluate the source image and video processing, and video to qualitative evaluation by gross were processed video image is shown excellent results. If the evaluators in order to minimize the errors of subjective judgment based on the results of the above should be done with a quantitative evaluation and qualitative evaluation utilizes a computerized assessment program is considered that further evaluation be made more efficient.