Specific binding ratio (SBR) is mainly used as a quantitative index of dopamine transporter scintigraphy, nevertheless, the striatal volume which is influenced by individual differences and aging is calculated as a fixed value. Therefore, standardized uptake value (SUV) calculated with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) single unit was compared with SBR. A cylinder phantom filled with Iodine-123 was measured and the calibration factor (CF) was calculated from the count rate per volume. The conditions that SBR calculated using the striatal phantom and the radioactivity concentration calibrated and calculated by CF approximate the actual measured value were determined. There was a strong positive correlation between SBR and SUV with 16 clinical cases in Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r>0.7). Moreover, a statistical analysis between the normal and diseased groups for SBR and SUV showed a significant difference (p<0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of SUV was 0.875, which was useful for clinical diagnosis; however, SBR had a higher diagnostic accuracy. SBR is considered to be suitable for quantitative analysis with SPECT single unit.

In computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA), calcification and stent make it difficult to evaluate intravascular lumen. This is a cause of low positive-predictive value of coronary stenosis. Therefore, it is expected to develop a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system that can automatically detect stenosis in coronary arteries. The purpose of this study is to automatically recognize calcifications or stents in coronary arteries and classify them from the normal coronary artery in CTCA. We used 4960 coronary-cross-sectional images, which consisted of 1113 images with calcification, 1353 images with a stent, and 2494 normal artery images. These images were automatically classified using the deep convolutional neural network (LeNet, AlexNet, and GoogLeNet). The classification accuracy of LeNet, AlexNet, and GoogLeNet were 58.4%, 75.9%, and 81.3%, respectively. The proposed method would be a fundamental technique of CAD in CTCA.

The diagnostic X-ray spectra in a water equivalent phantom have been measured. From these measured spectra, the absorbed dose conversion factors of water were derived. The primary X-ray spectra were also measured and the scattered X-ray spectra were calculated by subtraction. The measurements were made at the depths of 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 cm in a 20 cm-thick phantom and at the X-ray tube voltages 60, 90, and 120 kV by using a small silicon diode detector. The radiation field size was 30×30 cm² at the phantom surface. In the obtained spectra, the fraction of the scattered photon number is increased with the depth. The X-ray qualities of the spectra in the phantom were near the qualities of primary X-rays when the depth is 0 cm, and became near the qualities of scattered X-rays as the depth increases. The changes of the X-ray qualities due to the depth change were small; photon mean-energy changes were within 4.6 keV. The changes in the absorbed dose conversion factors were also small (within 0.68%). These conversion factors were 0.4–2.3% larger than those obtained from the effective energy of incident X-rays and only −0.3 to 0.5% larger than those obtained from the X-ray spectra calculated from the aluminum half value layer and the tube voltage of incident X-rays. This study shows experimentally that the absorbed dose in a water-like phantom can be calculated with good accuracy by using the absorbed dose conversion factor obtained from the incident X-rays.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether patients can be identified by using biological fingerprints extracted from bedside chest radiographs and template matching techniques for preventing filing mistakes in a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) server. A total of 400 bedside chest radiographs from 100 male and 100 female patients with current and previous images were used for evaluating patient identification performance. Five biological fingerprints were extracted from 200 previous images using the averaged bedside chest radiographs, produced for each sex and detector size. The correlation values of 200 same patients and 39,800 different patients were calculated as a similarity index, and used for the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The patient identification performance was examined by using the correlation index calculated by the summation of correlation values obtained from five biological fingerprints. The sensitivity at 90.0% specificity was calculated using the correlation index. The correlation index for same patients was higher than that for different patients. The area under the ROC curve was 0.974. The patient identification performance was 76.0% (152/200), and the sensitivity at 90.0% specificity was 93.4% (37168/39800). Our results suggest that the proposed method may potentially be useful for preventing filing mistakes in bedside chest radiographs on a PACS server.

Radiographic images of the hip joint can include a false profile view when the foot of the affected side is positioned parallel to the detector plane and the pelvic rotation angle is 65°. However, to the best of our knowledge, pelvic rotation angle has yet to be adequately investigated. The present study aimed to improve radiographic imaging reproducibility by testing pelvic rotation angles using the pubic symphysis and greater trochanter as a guide. The pubic bone angles were 50°–60° independent of gender or age in approximately 70% of 210 hip joints examined by computed tomography. When the line connecting the centers of the femoral neck and the pubic symphysis was based on a detector plane during hip joint magnetic resonance imaging of 12 healthy volunteers, pubic bone angles were approximately 65° and 62° when rotated outwards at 20° and 30°, respectively. Based on the detector plane, the difference between the angle at the intersection of the line connecting the femoral neck center and the pubic symphysis center and the angle at the intersection of the line connecting the pubic symphysis superior margin and the greater trochanter was <4° at external rotation angles of 10°, 20°, and 30°. The foot of the affected side corresponding to the detector plane in front of the body at approximately 65° and the second metatarsal at a pelvic rotation angle when collimated was rotated 25° outwards. Radiation is incident on the pubic symphysis and the greater trochanter can be used as an ejection point.

In general probe, the focal length in the elevational direction and resolution are fixed by the acoustic lens, so that sufficient resolution cannot be obtained in the region other than the focal point, except for special ultrasonic probes. Therefore, to improve the elevational resolution in the very shallow region, we devised the “narrow aperture method” for attaching a tape slit to an acoustic lens, and verified the method and its effect. The result of the study, for the slit, use Transpore™ tape overlaid on three layers and set the slit width to 1 mm. In addition, as a result of measurement of the slice thickness of the linear probe PLT-1204B manufactured by Canon Medical Systems, it was possible to reduce the slice thickness to a depth of 9 mm by 1 mm slit. The effectiveness of a 1 mm slit was also confirmed by probes from other companies. Moreover, it was found that the beam profile of 1 mm slit has almost the same shape even if the probe is different. The narrow aperture method of the acoustic lens can improve the elevational resolution in a very shallow region of a general ultrasonic probe.

We have found that the number of packages influences contrast for brain tissue signals on fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the contrast of white and gray matters by changing the number of packages. In a volunteer study (n=8), FLAIR images were obtained with the various number of packages (number of package=2, 3, 4, 5). We investigated the same imaging condition at both 1.5 and 3.0T. The signal intensity of white and gray matters in all volunteers was increased as increasing the number of packages. Moreover, the contrast ratio between white and gray matters was slightly decreased. In our conclusion, the contrast between the gray and white matters on FLAIR was influenced by the number of packages.

The standard general purpose of anti-scatter girds: JIS Z 4910: 2015 (IEC 60627: 2013) has been revised, with the new addition of an image improvement factor (Q) to the physical characteristic. Using aluminum (Al) and fiber-interspaced anti-scatter grids; we studied the meaning of Q by calculating each of the physical characteristics and assessing the image. The experimental method was based on JIS Z 4910: 2015. The two anti-scatter grids had a grid ratio of 12: 1 and a strip frequency of 40 cm⁻¹. Assessment items consisted of grid exposure factor (B), grid selectivity (Σ), contrast improvement ratio (K), and Q. In addition, the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) and contrast-detail curve (CD-curve) were determined from the contrast-detail phantom image, and the inverse image quality figure (IQF) was then calculated from the CD-curve. Compared to the Al-interspaced anti-scatter grid, the fiber-interspaced anti-scatter grid had B at 0.87, Σ at 0.95, K at 0.99, and Q at 1.14. In the assessment of the contrast-detail phantom image, the fiber-interspaced anti-scatter grid had an IQF of 1.02 times and a CNR of approximately 1.24 times when compared to the Al interspaced anti-scatter grid. The fiber-interspaced anti-scatter grid was superior with respect to the B and Q of the physical characteristics and to the CNR of image quality assessment.