Reduced and Weighted Field-of-view Imaging Using Spatially-selective Excitation in MRI: A Simulation Study

홍철표,이동훈,한봉수 한국물리학회 2013 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.62 No.3

This study demonstrated spatially-selective excitation for reduced and weighted field of view (FOV) imaging. Two-dimensional spatially-selective radiofrequency (2D SSRF) excitation can be achieved by using a spatially-selected combination of gradients for two independent axes and the corresponding radiofrequency pulse. Different corresponding excitation profiles can be derived from pulse sequence parameters such as the number of sub-pulses, the pulse duration and the phase encoding gradient waveforms. In the 2D SSRF pulse, the corresponding excitation profile becomes wider when the phase encoding gradient area is decreased. Moreover, the edge region is reduced and central region weighted spatial profiles can be obtained by using a 1-1 binomial spatiallyselective excitation. This characteristic of a 1-1 binomial spatially-selective excitation among the various types of 2D SSRF pulses allows shorter pulse duration and does not increase the scan time. Furthermore, the spatial weighting property using a 1-1 binomial spatially-selective excitation can be exploited to significantly under-sample k-space for sensitivity encoding reconstruction.

Evaluation of Spatial-encoding-related Geometric Distortion in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

홍철표,이동훈,이만우,우영근 한국물리학회 2012 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.61 No.12

This study demonstrated the characteristics of spatial encoding-related geometric distortion in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), using a phantom with known physical dimensions to detect geometric distortion in MR scans. The amount of distortion was calculated as the difference between the physical coordinates of control points in the phantom and those of the corresponding points in the distorted MR image of the phantom. The phase and frequency encoding directions were swapped to acquire a phantom image for movement of a patient table 120쟭m to the right and left, allowing comprehensive distortion mapping over the isocentric plane and the entire field of view (FOV) along the spatial encoding. The geometric distortion of phase encoding directions over the entire FOV was small compared to the distortion of the frequency encoding directions. The maximum absolute deviations were 28.00 mm and 20.00 mm along the frequency and phase encoding directions over the entire FOV, respectively. The mean absolute deviations along the frequency and phase encoding directions were 2.85 mm and 1.97 mm, respectively. Although geometric distortion along the phase encoding axis near the isocenter was small, the distortion increased slightly toward the peripheral region. The distortion of the phase encoding direction in the peripheral region can be severely affected by imaging gradient nonlinearity.

자기공명영상을 이용한 근육 단면적 측정법의 활용을 위한 영상왜곡보정

홍철표,이동훈,박지원,한봉수,Hong, Cheol-Pyo,Lee, Dong-Hoon,Park, Ji-Won,Han, Bong-Soo 대한물리치료학회 2012 대한물리치료학회지 Vol.24 No.2

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the importance of the image distortion correction in the cross sectional area measurement for the iliopsas muscle, tensor fasciae latae muscle, gluteus maximus muscle and the knee extensor muscles, by using (magnetic resonance imaging) MRI. Methods: This study was performed using an open 0.32T MRI system. To estimate the image distortion, T1 images for an AAPM homogeneity/linearity phantom were acquired, and the region in which the maximum geometric distortion was less than or equal to the pixel size (1.6 mm) of the images, it was defined as the distortion correction-free region. The T2 images for a human subject's pelvis and thigh in normal positions were obtained. Then, after the regions of interest in the pelvis and thigh were moved into the distortion correction-free region, T2 images for the pelvis and thigh were scanned with the same imaging parameters used in the previous T2 imaging. The cross-sectional areas were measured in the two T2 images that were obtained in the normal position, and the distortion correction-free region, as well as the area error caused by geometric image distortion was calculated. Results: The geometrical distortion is gradually increased, from the magnet center to the outer region, in axial and coronal plane. The cross-sectional area error of gluteus maximus muscle and the knee extensors was as high as 9.27% and 3.16% in before and after distortion correction, respectively. Conclusion: The cross-sectional area of the muscles that suffered from the geometrical distortion is necessary to correct for the estimation of the intervention.

저자장 자기공명영상시스템에서 선주사확산강조영상기법 개발

홍철표(Cheolpyo Hong),이동훈(Donghoon Lee),이도완(Dowan Lee),이만우(Manwoo Lee),백문영(Munyoung Paek),한봉수(Bongsoo Han) 한국방사선학회 2008 한국방사선학회 논문지 Vol.2 No.2

0.32 T 자기공명영상시스템에서 선주사영상기법(line scan imaging)을 이용한 확산강조영상(diffusion weighted imaging; DWI) 펄스열(pulse sequence)을 개발하였다. 선주사영상은 단면선택 경사자장과 함께 90도 펄스를 가하여 단면을 선택한 후 y 방향으로 경사자장을 가한 후 180도 라디오파 펄스를 가하여 단면영상의 y-방향 픽셀크기와 같은 너비의 x축에 평행한 띠를 따라 에코가 발생하게 한 뒤 x-방향으로 주파수부호화해서 1차원 k-공간 데이터를 획득하며 이를 1차원 푸리에변환하여 영상을 재구성하였다. 또한 선주사확산강조영상(line scan diffusion weighted image)을 위해서 한 쌍의 사다리꼴모양의 경사자장을 선주사영상기법의 180도 펄스 전후에 대칭으로 배치하였으며 사용된 확산경사자장기울기의 최대값은 G = 15 mT/m 이었고 최대 b 값은 301.50 s/㎟이었다. 본 연구에서 개발된 선주사확산강조펄스열을 이용하여 0.32 T 자기공명영상 장비에서 트리아실글리세롤 팬텀(triacylglycerol, TAG) 및 염화나트륨 수용액 (NaCl = 0.1w/v%) 팬텀 영상을 획득하였다. 또한 1.5 T 자기공명영상시스템에서 단일여기에코평면영상화(single shot echo planar imaging)로 동일한 팬텀의 확산강조영상을 구하였다. 선주사확산강조영상은 가장 널리 이용되고 있는 에코평면영상을 이용한 확산강조영상과 비교하여 자화율차이에 의한 영상왜곡이나 화학이동에 의한 허상들이 없음을 확인하였다. 특히 선주사확산강조영상에서 측정한 염화나트륨 수용액 팬텀의 확산계수(963.90 ± 79.83 ×10¯⁶ ㎟/s)는 1.5 T에서 계산된 확산계수(956.77 ± 4.12 × 10¯⁶ ㎟/s)와 오차범위 내에서 일치하였다. Line scan diffusion weighted imaging (LSDI) pulse sequence for 0.32 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system was developed. In the LSDI pulse sequence, the imaging volume is formed by the intersection of the two perpendicular planes selected by the two slice-selective π/2-pulse and π-pulse and two diffusion sensitizing gradients placed on the both side of the refocusing π-pulse and the standard frequency encoding readout was followed. Since the maximum gradient amplitude for the MR system was 15 mT/m the maximum b value was 301.50 s/㎟. Using the developed LSDI pulse sequence, the diffusion weighted images for the aqueous NaCl solution phantom and triacylglycerol phantom were required at 0.32 T MRI system and analyzed. The mean diffusivity of the aqueous NaCl solution phantom calculated from the line scan diffusion weighted images gives the same results within the standard error range (mean diffusivities = 963.90 ± 79.83 (× 10¯⁶ ㎟/s) at 0.32 T, 956.77 ± 4.12 (× 10¯⁶ ㎟/s) at 1.5 T) and the LSDI images were insensitive to the magnetic susceptibility difference and chemical shift.

저자장 자기공명영상 시스템에서의 위상대조도 혈관조영기법의 개발과 그 유용성에 대한 연구

이동훈,홍철표,이만우,한봉수,Lee, Dong-Hoon,Hong, Cheol-Pyo,Lee, Man-Woo,Han, Bong-Soo 한국의학물리학회 2012 의학물리 Vol.23 No.3

자기공명 혈관조영술은 혈관협착, 동맥류, 동정맥기형 등의 혈관질환 진단에 널리 사용되고 있다. 특히 위상대조도 자기공명 혈관조영술은 조영제를 사용하지 않는 자기공명 혈관조영술로서 혈관의 해부학적인 정보를 제공함과 동시에 혈류 속도측정이 가능하다. 본 연구에서는 저자장 자기공명영상 시스템에 적합한 2차원 및 3차원 위상대조도 혈관조영술의 펄스열을 개발하여 유속팬텀과 정상인의 뇌에 적용한 후 획득한 혈관영상과 위상분석을 통한 속도측정을 바탕으로 저자장 자기공명영상 시스템에서의 위상대조도 혈관조영술의 유용성을 평가하고자 한다. 2차원 및 3차원 위상대조도 혈관조영술을 제작된 유속팬텀과 인체 내에 적용하여 상시상 정맥동, 곧은 정맥동 및 두 혈관의 합류지점에 대한 속도측정을 시행하였다. 결과로서 2차원 위상대조도 혈관조영술의 사용은 큰 혈관에 대해서는 높은 가시도를 나타내지만, 작은 혈관에 대한 가시도는 상대적으로 저하됨을 확인할 수 있었다. 3차원 위상대조도 혈관조영술을 사용한 혈관영상은 2D PC MRA 영상에 비해 큰 혈관은 물론이고 작은 혈관에 대한 가시도가 향상되었으나 작은 혈관에서 영상의 신호가 불균일하여 작은 혈관의 진단에 사용하기에는 적합하지 않았다. 한편 2차원 위상대조도 혈관조영술을 통한 영상에서 큰 혈관의 가시도는 혈류속도를 측정하기에 충분했다. 측정된 결과는 상시상 정맥동의 경우 $25.46{\pm}0.73cm/sec$, 곧은 정맥동의 경우 $24.02{\pm}0.34cm/sec$, 상시상 정맥동과 곧은 정맥동의 합류지점의 경우 $26.15{\pm}1.50cm/sec$으로 나타났으며 이는 앞선 연구결과에서 알려진 전체 심장운동주기를 고려한 정상인들의 각 해당 부위별 혈류속도의 오차범위 내에 포함되는 좋은 결과를 나타내었다. 앞선 결과들을 토대로 본 연구는 현재 국내에서 제작하여 보급중인 저자장 자기공명영상 시스템에서 위상대조도 혈류영상화 기법의 적용 및 응용 가능성을 보여주고 있으며 이를 실용화하기 위한 중요한 기초자료를 제공할 수 있을 것이다. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) techniques are widely used in diagnosis of vascular disorders such as hemadostenosis and aneurism. Especially, phase contrast (PC) MRA technique, which is a typical non contrast-enhanced MRA technique, provides not only the anatomy of blood vessels but also flow velocity. In this study, we developed the 2- and 3-dimensional PC MRA pulse sequences for a low magnetic field MRI system. Vessel images were acquired using 2D and 3D PC MRA and the velocities of the blood flow were measured in the superior sagittal sinus, straight sinus and the confluence of the two. The 2D PC MRA provided the good quality of vascular images for large vessels but the poor quality for small ones. Although 3D PC MRA gave more improved visualization of small vessels than 2D PC MRA, the image quality was not enough to be used for diagnosis of the small vessels due to the low SNR and field homogeneity of the low field MRI system. The measured blood velocities were $25.46{\pm}0.73cm/sec$, $24.02{\pm}0.34cm/sec$ and $26.15{\pm}1.50cm/sec$ in the superior sagittal sinus, straight sinus and the confluence of the two, respectively, which showed good agreement with the previous experimental values. Thus, the developed PC MRA technique for low field MRI system is expected to provide the useful velocity information to diagnose the large brain vessels.

Sparse Magnetic Resonance Imaging Reconstruction Using the Bregman Iteration

이동훈,홍철표,이만우 한국물리학회 2013 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.62 No.2

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reconstruction needs many samples that are sequentially sampled by using phase encoding gradients in a MRI system. It is directly connected to the scan time for the MRI system and takes a long time. Therefore, many researchers have studied ways to reduce the scan time, especially, compressed sensing (CS), which is used for sparse images and reconstruction for fewer sampling datasets when the k-space is not fully sampled. Recently, an iterative technique based on the bregman method was developed for denoising. The bregman iteration method improves on total variation (TV) regularization by gradually recovering the finescale structures that are usually lost in TV regularization. In this study, we studied sparse sampling image reconstruction using the bregman iteration for a low-field MRI system to improve its temporal resolution and to validate its usefulness. The image was obtained with a 0.32 T MRI scanner (Magfinder II, SCIMEDIX, Korea) with a phantom and an in-vivo human brain in a head coil. We applied random k-space sampling, and we determined the sampling ratios by using half the fully sampled k-space. The bregman iteration was used to generate the final images based on the reduced data. We also calculated the root-mean-square-error (RMSE) values from error images that were obtained using various numbers of bregman iterations. Our reconstructed images using the bregman iteration for sparse sampling images showed good results compared with the original images.Moreover, the RMSE values showed that the sparse reconstructed phantom and the human images converged to the original images. We confirmed the feasibility of sparse sampling image reconstruction methods using the bregman iteration with a low-field MRI system and obtained good results. Although our results used half the sampling ratio, this method will be helpful in increasing the temporal resolution at low-field MRI systems.

Rapid 2D Phase-contrast Magnetic Resonance Angiography Reconstruction Algorithm via Compressed Sensing

이동훈,홍철표,이만우,한봉수 한국물리학회 2013 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.63 No.5

Phase-contrast magnetic resonance angiography (PC MRA) is an excellent technique for visualization of venous vessels. However, the scan time of PC MRA is long compared with there of other MRA techniques. Recently, the potential of compressed sensing (CS) reconstruction to reduce the scan time in MR image acquisition using a sparse sampling dataset has become an active field of study. In this study, we propose a combination method to apply the CS reconstruction method to 2D PC MRA. This work was performed to enable faster 2D PC MRA imaging acquisition and to demonstrate its feasibility. We used a 0.32 T MR imaging (MRI) system and a total variation (TV)-based CS reconstruction algorithm. To validate the usefulness of our proposed reconstruction method, we used visual assessment for reconstructed images, and we measured the quantitative information for sampling rates from 12.5 to 75.0%. Based on our results, when the sampling ratio is increased, images reconstructed with the CS method have a similar level of image quality to fully sampled reconstruction images. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were also closer to the reference values when the sampling ratio was increased. We confirmed the feasibility of 2D PC MRA with the CS reconstruction method. Our results provide evidence that this method can improve the time resolution of 2D PC MRA.

Keyhole Imaging기법을 적용한 위상대조도 자기공명 혈관조영기법

이동훈,홍철표,한봉수,이만우,Lee, D.H.,Hong, C.P.,Han, B.S.,Lee, M.W. 대한의용생체공학회 2012 의공학회지 Vol.33 No.2

Phase Contrast MR Angiography(PC MRA) is excellent MRA technique for measuring the velocity of vessels in the human body. PC MRA need to at least four images for angiogram reconstruction and it caused longer scan time. Therefore, we used keyhole imaging combined PC MRA to reduce the scan time. However, keyhole imaging can lead the erroneous effects as loss of phase information or frequency discontinuous. In this study, we applied the keyhole imaging combined 2D PC MRA for improving the temporal resolution and also measured the velocity to evaluate the accuracy of phase information. We used 0.32T MRI scanner(Magfinder II, Scimedix, Korea). Using the 2D PC MRA pulse sequence, the vascular images for a human brain targeted on the Superior Sagittal Sinus(SSS) were obtained. We applied tukey window function for keyhole images to minimize the ringing artifact and erroneous factors that are induced frequency discontinuous and phase information loss. We also applied zero-padded algorithm to peripheral missing k-space lines to compare keyhole imaging results and the artifact power(AP) value was measured on the complex difference images to validate the image quality. Consider as based on our results, heavy image distortions and artifacts were shown until using at least 50% keyhole factor. Using above the 50% keyhole factors are shown well reconstructed and matched for magnitude images and velocity information measurements. In conclusion, we confirmed the image quality and velocity information of keyhole technique combined 2D PC MRA. Especially, measured velocity information through the keyhole imaging combination was similar to the velocity information of full sampled k-space image despite of frequency discontinuous and phase information loss in the keyhole imaging reconstruction process. Consequently, the keyhole imaging combined 2D PC MRA will give some clinical usefulness and advantages as improving the temporal resolution and measuring the velocity information via selecting the appropriate keyhole factor at low tesla MRI system.

선형적 위상배열 코일구조의 시뮬레이션을 통한 민감도지도의 공간 해상도 및 필터링 변화에 따른 MR-SENSE 영상재구성 평가

이동훈,홍철표,한봉수,김형진,서재준,김소현,이춘형,이만우,Lee, D.H.,Hong, C.P.,Han, B.S.,Kim, H.J.,Suh, J.J.,Kim, S.H.,Lee, C.H.,Lee, M.W. 대한의용생체공학회 2011 의공학회지 Vol.32 No.3

Parallel imaging technique can provide several advantages for a multitude of MRI applications. Especially, in SENSE technique, sensitivity maps were always required in order to determine the reconstruction matrix, therefore, a number of difference approaches using sensitivity information from coils have been demonstrated to improve of image quality. Moreover, many filtering methods were proposed such as adaptive matched filter and nonlinear diffusion technique to optimize the suppression of background noise and to improve of image quality. In this study, we performed SENSE reconstruction using computer simulations to confirm the most suitable method for the feasibility of filtering effect and according to changing order of polynomial fit that were applied on variation of spatial resolution of sensitivity map. The image was obtained at 0.32T(Magfinder II, Genpia, Korea) MRI system using spin-echo pulse sequence(TR/TE = 500/20 ms, FOV = 300 mm, matrix = $128{\times}128$, thickness = 8 mm). For the simulation, obtained image was multiplied with four linear-array coil sensitivities which were formed of 2D-gaussian distribution and the image was complex white gaussian noise was added. Image processing was separated to apply two methods which were polynomial fitting and filtering according to spatial resolution of sensitivity map and each coil image was subsampled corresponding to reduction factor(r-factor) of 2 and 4. The results were compared to mean value of geomety factor(g-factor) and artifact power(AP) according to r-factor 2 and 4. Our results were represented while changing of spatial resolution of sensitivity map and r-factor, polynomial fit methods were represented the better results compared with general filtering methods. Although our result had limitation of computer simulation study instead of applying to experiment and coil geometric array such as linear, our method may be useful for determination of optimal sensitivity map in a linear coil array.

기능적 자기공명영상 사용유무에 따른 확산텐서영상 분석의 유효성 평가

이동훈,박지원,홍철표,Lee, Dong-Hoon,Park, Ji-Won,Hong, Cheol-Pyo 대한물리치료학회 2013 대한물리치료학회지 Vol.25 No.5

Purpose: This study was conducted in order to evaluate the quantitative effectiveness of region of interest (ROI) setting in MR-DTI analysis with and without fMRI activation results. Methods: Ten right-handed normal volunteers participated in this study. DTI and fMRI datasets for each subject were obtained using a 1.5T MRI system. For neural fiber tracking, ROIs were drawn using two methods: The drawing points were located in the fMRI activation areas or areas randomly selected by users. In this study, the neural fiber tract targeted the corticospinal tract (CST) Quantitative analyses were performed and compared. The pixel numbers passing through the fiber tract in the individual brain volume were counted. The ratios between the ROI pixel numbers and the extracted fiber pixel numbers, and the ratios between the fiber pixel numbers and the whole-brain pixel numbers were also calculated. Results: According to our results, extracted CST fiber tract in which the ROI was drawn with fMRI activation areas showed higher distribution than drawing the ROI by users' hands. In addition, the quantitatively measured values represented higher pixel distribution: The counted average pixel numbers were 4553.8 and 1943.3. The average ratios of the ROI areas were 33.87 and 22.52. The average percentages of the individual whole-brain volume numbers were 2.06 and 0.87. Conclusion: Results of this study appear to indicate that use of this method can allow for more objectives and significant for study of the recovery of neural fiber mechanisms and brain rehabilitation.