Electromagnetic tracking is a method to track the position and space attitude of objects utilizing electromagnetic field. In this paper, the main methods during the development of Electromagnetic tracking are summarized and classified according to the magnetic field generation method, the number of magnetic sources and sensors used, the configuration and geometry of them. Tracking algorithm and calibration methods are also discussed. The critical issues during the development of electromagnetic tracking are analyzed, with the hope of helping the further research and application of electromagnetic tracking.
Algorithms ; Electromagnetic Fields ; Phantoms, Imaging

The ultrasound endoscopic probes with very small size transducers are normally imaging by focused ultrasound beamforming technology. So the imaging frame rate is not very high, which cannot meet the needs of some clinical applications based on high imaging rate. In recent years, plane-wave ultrafast imaging technology can obtain high image frame rate and guarantee the image quality. In this paper, a plane wave ultra-fast imaging technique based on a home-made small line array ultrasound transducer is presented. Feasibility of the method is verified by simulation estimations and phantom experiments. The results show that for the small size transducer design of plane wave ultrafast imaging, it is necessary to fully consider the combination of the array element width and the number of array elements. So that a good plane wave imaging quality can be obtained. It lays a foundation for the ultra-fast imaging of plane wave in the interventional ultrasound imaging and ultrasound endoscopy.
Phantoms, Imaging ; Transducers ; Ultrasonography ; instrumentation

Humans ; Radiation Exposure ; Phantoms, Imaging

OBJECTIVE: Based on the Magphan phantom,a baseline value of low contrast resolution was established,and the stability of the imaging performance of the system was monitored.Drift and correction were found in time to give full play to the performance of the device. METHODS: The general test evaluation method for low-contrast resolution was not suitable for the characteristics of long-term monitoring equipment performance changes,and the test evaluation of low-contrast resolution that incorporates the -test method in statistical principle was proposed. RESULTS: By analyzing and evaluating the test results of the low contrast resolution of the standard water model image,and verifying the correctness of the evaluation method,according to the correct test method,the test statistic value was used as the low contrast resolution value of the MRI equipment to test the boundary of the region.The value was used as a baseline value for low contrast resolution to establish a long-term stable quality assurance system. CONCLUSIONS In this paper,the data of the low contrast resolution test on Magphan phantom was in line with practical experience,therefore the test method of low contrast resolution was verified.The baseline value of the indicator can be established based on the detection and evaluation method of low contrast resolution based on phantom,then to ensure the stability of the imaging performance of the system.
Contrast Media ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Phantoms, Imaging

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to analyze the measurement differences of simple radiographs according to radiation projection angle using a phantom and to propose methods for objective analysis of simple radiographs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We took simple radiographs with different projection angles using a C-arm image intensifier and measured five parameters of the foot on the simple radiographic images. Five parameters include lateral tibiocalcaneal angle, lateral talocalcaneal angle, naviculocuboid overlap, lateral talo-first metatarsal angle, and lateral calcaneo-first metatarsal angle. Intraobserver and interobserver reliability were verified, and then intraclass correlations of parameters were analyzed. RESULTS: Radiographic parameters of the foot showed high intraobserver and interobserver reliability. Lateral tibiocalcaneal angle has a strong negative linear relationship with rotation and a moderate negative linear relationship with tilt. Lateral talocalcaneal angle has a moderate positive linear relationship with rotation and a strong positive linear relationship with tilt. Naviculocuboid overlap has a strong positive linear relationship with rotation and a moderate positive linear relationship with tilt. Lateral talo-first metatarsal angle does not have a linear relationship with rotation and a moderate negative linear relationship with tilt. Lateral calcaneo-first metatarsal angle has a moderate positive linear relationship with rotation and tilt. CONCLUSION: More precise evaluation of the foot with a simple radiograph can be performed by understanding the changes of radiographic parameters according to radiation projection angle.
Foot* ; Metatarsal Bones ; Phantoms, Imaging ; Radiography

PURPOSE: We evaluated the impact of three automatic optimization of parameters (AOP) modes of digital mammography on the dose and image quality. METHODS: Computerized Imaging Reference Systems phantoms were used. A total of 12 phantoms with different thickness and glandularity were imaged. We analyzed the average glandular dose (AGD) and entrance surface exposure (ESE) of 12 phantoms imaged by digital mammography in three modes of AOP; namely standard mode (STD), contrast mode (CNT), and dose mode (DOSE). Moreover, exposure factors including kVp, mAs, and target/filter combination were evaluated. To evaluate the quality of the obtained digital image, two radiologists independently counted the objects of the phantoms. RESULTS: According to the AOP modes, the score of masses and specks was sorted as CNT>STD=DOSE. There was no difference in the score of fiber among the three modes. The score of image preference was sorted as CNT>STD>DOSE. The AGD, ESE, and mAs were sorted as CNT>STD>DOSE. The kVp was sorted as CNT=STD>DOSE. The score of all test objects in the phantom image was on a downtrend with increasing breast thickness. The score of masses was different among the three groups; 20-21%>30%>50% glandularity. The score of specks was sorted as 20-21%=30%>50% glandularity. The score of fibers was sorted as 30%>20-21%=50% glandularity. The score of image preference was not different among the three glandularity groups. The AGD, ESE, kVp, and mAs were correlated with breast thickness, but not correlated with glandularity. CONCLUSION: The DOSE mode offers significant improvement (19.1-50%) in dose over the other two modes over a range of breast thickness and breast glandularity with acceptable image quality. Owning knowledge of the three AOP modes may reduce unnecessary radiation exposure by utilizing the proper mode according to its purpose.
Breast ; Mammography ; Phantoms, Imaging ; Radiation Dosage

Fluorescent Diffuse Optical Tomography (FDOT) is an emerging imaging method with great prospects in fields of biology and medicine. However, the current solutions to the forward problem in FDOT are time consuming, which greatly limit the application. We proposed a method for FDOT based on Lattice Boltzmann forward model on GPU to greatly improve the computational efficiency. The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) was used to construct the optical transmission model. This method separated the LBM into collision, streaming and boundary processing processes on GPUs to perform the LBM efficiently, which were local computational and inefficient on CPU. The feasibility of the proposed method was verified by the numerical phantom and the physical phantom experiments. The experimental results showed that the proposed method achieved the best performance of a 118-fold speed up under the precondition of simulation accuracy, comparing to the diffusion equation implemented by Finite Element Method (FEM) on CPU. Thus, the LBM on the GPU may efficiently solve the forward problem in FDOT.
Computers ; Fluorescence ; Phantoms, Imaging ; Tomography, Optical/methods*

There is a shared problem in current optical imaging technologies of how to obtain the optical parameters of biological tissues with complex profiles. In this work, an imaging system for obtaining the optical parameters of biological tissues with complex profile was presented. Firstly, Fourier transformation profilometry was used for obtaining the profile information of biological tissues, and then the difference of incident light intensity at different positions on biological tissue surface was corrected with the laws of illumination, and lastly the optical parameters of biological tissues were achieved with the spatial frequency domain imaging technique. Experimental results indicated the proposed imaging system could obtain the profile information and the optical parameters of biological tissues accurately and quickly. For the slab phantoms with height variation less than 30 mm and angle variation less than 40º, the maximum relative errors of the profile uncorrected optical parameters were 46.27% and 72.18%, while the maximum relative errors of the profile corrected optical parameters were 6.89% and 10.26%. Imaging experiments of a face-like phantom and a human's prefrontal lobe were performed respectively, which demonstrated the proposed imaging system possesses clinical application value for the achievement of the optical parameters of biological tissues with complex profiles. Besides, the proposed profile corrected method can be used to combine with the current optical imaging technologies to reduce the influence of the profile information of biological tissues on imaging quality.
Diagnostic Imaging ; Humans ; Light ; Optical Imaging ; Phantoms, Imaging

Noticing the phenomenon that biological tissues will change its elasticity by orders of magnitude after it was frozen, we proposed in principle the strategy of using ultrasound elastography to monitor the formation and thawing of the iceball when performing a cryosurgery. Following our former theoretical evaluation, conceptual experiments were designed to apply ultrasound elastography to monitor three kinds of testing samples which includes: phantom embedded with glass block, phantom with tissues at normal temperature and phantom with frozen tissues inside. It was demonstrated for the first time that the ultrasound elastography could provide a high contrast picture on the ice ball during cryosurgery. The measurement errors involved in the application of the method was preliminarily analyzed and approaches to further improve the method were pointed out. With a much different value in elastography than that of water, monitoring the ice ball, the imaging target in clinics, is expected to be an important area for the application of ultrasound elastography.
Cryosurgery ; methods ; Elasticity Imaging Techniques ; methods ; Phantoms, Imaging ; Ultrasonics

BACKGROUNDAn early identification of the composition of arterial thrombus may have diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic implications. The variation of magnetic resonance (MR) signal intensity between white and red thrombi, especially in the susceptibility sensitive MR sequence, remains unknown. Our research was to evaluate the feasibility of MRI in differentiating of white and red thrombi with a phantom study.

METHODSA total of 12 red and 12 white thrombi were prepared with the venous blood. Examination of the phantom was completed using a 3.0T MR unit, including fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) T1, T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), FLAIR T2, T2 gradient echo (T2 GRE) imaging, and susceptibility weighted angiography sequences (SWAN). MR signal intensity patterns of the thrombi were objectively classified as hyperintensity, isointensity and hypointensity, compared with the background agar. The volume of thrombus was calculated and correlated with its signal intensity.

RESULTSFor white thrombi, 11/12 clots showed hyperintensity and 1/12 showed isointensity in FLAIR T1 images. In T2WI, 6/12 clots showed hyperintensity, 3/12 isointensity, and 3/12 hypointensity. In FLAIR T2, 8/12 clots showed hyperintensity and 4/12 showed isointensity. In T2 GRE, 3/12 clots showed hyperintensity and the remaining 9/12 clots showed isointensity. In SWAN, 5/12 clots demonstrated hyperintensity and 7/12 isointensity. For the red thrombus, 12/12 clots demonstrated hyperintensity in FLAIR T1, T2WI, and FLAIR T2 sequences. In T2 GRE and SWAN sequences, 3/12 clots displayed hypointensity and the remaining 9/12 clots showed slight hyperintensity. Thrombi with hypointensity displayed in T2 GRE and SWAN sequences were significantly larger than those with hyperintensity.

CONCLUSIONSDifferentiation of white and red thrombi with conventional MR sequence is unreliable, because both kinds of thrombi do not possess unique signal intensity features in these sequences. Red thrombus may or may not show hypointensity in the susceptibility sensitive MR sequences, depending on its size and time course.