Nowadays, microspheres are expected to be applied to biomedical areas and many studies are being performed. For biomedical applications, many kinds of microspheres were synthesized by emulsion polymerization, emulsifier-free emu]sion polymerization, and emulsifier-free emulsion polymerization with ionic surface-active comonomers. Further synthesis techniques about microencapsulation and magnetic microspheres are introduced. Among the practical applications of microspheres, some interesting subjects are introduced. These include solid-phase immunoassays, labeling and identification of lymphocyte populations, extracorporeal and hemoperfusion systems, drug delivery systems, and immunomagnetic cell separation. In addition, basic theories, problems and research trends are also introduced.

With proper designs of infrared optic system and two dimensional scanning mechanism, a medical infrared imaging system has been developed. The infrared imaging system can be used for two dimensional imaging of surface temperature of human body by measuring the amount of infrared lights radiating from it. It hag been experimentally proven that the degree of temperature measurement accuracy of the developed system is under $0.1^{\circ}C$ with spatial resolution of 1 mrad, image matrix size of $256{\times}240$, and imaging time of 4 seconds.

The experimental results of visual stimulation with the tailored RF pulse are reported. Tailored RF pulse is used for the susceptibility effect imaging. Around 25% signal change of visual cortex area is detected during photic stimulation. Interestingly, with the tailored RF pulse, the signal intensity of visual cortex is deceased during photic stimulation. It is, however, increased with normal $T_2$ weighted imaging. The comparison between normal $T_2$ weighted imaging and the tailored RF pulse imaging are performed with 4T NMR system and the results with human volunteer are also presented.

We have investigated the feasibility study, especially for optimal TR, to obtain 3-D MR neurographic imaging (neurograms or nervography) which shows the distribution of peripheral nerve fibers at the human forearm using 4.7 T magnet. To peform a successful formation of MR neurographic imaging, nerve signal should be separated from the other signal comes from surrounding muscle or fat, because nerves are usually embeded in muscle or fat. Generally, it is well known that nerve has shoter T1 value than that of muscle. Thus, repetition time was optimized to maximize the signal intensity defference between the muscel and nerve. We have also used spin-echo(SE) sequence with long echo time($60{\sim}90\;msec$) to enhance the different signal intensity between muscles and pheriperal nerves base on the fact that muscle tissue has longer T2 relaxation lime than that or nerve.

Medical imagies with high resolution are coded to be archived and communicated in MPACS. In this paper, we have studied on coding of Cardio-Angiography. Our coding technique is Subband-Vecter Quantization. This techniquec is irreversible coding method. This technique's advantages are removing blocking effect and edge degradation, adapting for drastic image change because of dye injection and fast decoding. We achieved good results fur Cardio-Angiography data, but the study on more sophiscated motion estimation techniques and VQ techniques must be performed.

For efficient transmission and storage of digital images, the requirements of image compression is incresing. Because the medical images contain diagnostic information small distortion has been more important factor than the low rate in such images. Generally the distortion in image is the difference of pixel values. However the image is percieved by human visual systems. So it is reasonable that human visual system characteristics be used as criteria of the image compression. In this paper, the Just Noticeable Difference curve is used as criteria of determining the homogeniety of a block and acceptibility of distortions. And Block Truncation Coding using spatial masking effect of eyes is adopted to code the blocks which contain line components. And small blocks which varies slowly can be approximated to polynomial functions successfully. We proposed the hybrid block coding scheme based on the block characteristics and human visual system characteristics. Simulation to several kinds of the medical images using this method showed that medical images can be compressed 5:1 - 10:1 without noticeable distortion.

High-order field gradients are useful for spatial localization of a volume of interest and dynamic range improvement of signal detection in NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) spectroscopy and imaging. This paper proposes a design method of shielded high-order gradient coils to reduce tile effect of eddy current on tile spectroscopy and imaging results. According to the experimental results, the shielded gradient coils produce less than 2 % eddy current compared to non-shielded coils. Two shielded $z^2$ gradient coils have been designed and constructed for 1.5 T whole-body and 3.0 T animal NMR imaging systems. Experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretically expected behavior and show the utility of the shielded high-order gradient coils.

We have developed a monoleaflet polymer valve in order to be used as an inlet valve of the ventricular assist device, because it could help to improve the fluid dynamic characteristics in the ventricle. Mean systolic transvalvular pressure drops were measured for the monoleaflet polymer valve and their results were compared wi th that of the mechanical valve.

A finite element-based computer simulation of excimer laser susery was conducted to study some factors on the surgery. In particular, the radius of curvature at the apex of the cornea was examined under various surgical conditions. Corneal tissue was assumed to be a nearly incompressible, linear elastic, homogeneous, isotropic material under very small deformation. The geometry of the human cornea was taken from the experimental data[1]. The simulation utilized ANSYS(Swanson Analysis System Inc.Rev.4.4A). In this study, the major factors which affect the outcomes of the excimer laser surgery were investigated. First, two patterns of surgery with various surgery thickness(40-70micrometers) were examind. The pattern#1 describes the meridian from the apex to the edge of the surgery area to be straight. And the corresponding meridian of the pattern 2 can be expressed as a quardratic function. The results show that the pattern #2 is more realistic and effective. Then, the effects of other factors were investigated based on the pattern #2. Other factors are:various diameters of the surgical area (3-8 milimeters), Young's modules(3.5-4.5MPa), and depth of surgery at the apex(40-70micrometers). Compared with the computer simulation of the radial keratotomy surgery[2], the excimer laser surgery was proven to be more effective in treating myopia patients. In conculusion, the results of the simulation are qualitative agreement with clinical experience[3] indicating the potential of the finite element model of the surgery as a guideline to the surgeon before actual surgery.

We have done a preliminary study on the detection of ventricular late potentials using high-resolution electrocardiography. We designed a battery powered low-noise ECG amplifier. We used the XYZ lead system and the amplifier provides 3 channels of X, Y, and Z signals with a conventional gain and another 3 channels of the amplitude-limited X, Y, and Z signals with high-gain. 12-bit data acquisition system interfaces the amplifiers to a personal computer for further signal analysis. Beat alignment algorithm was implemented on the low-gain signals to synchronize the signal averaging of the high-gain amplitude-limited signals. We suggest the use of the weighted vector sum of X', Y', and Z' signals based on the SNR of each channel. We speculate that this new method will increase the accuracy of the LP detector at the expense of more complicated hardware.

We have developed a software package for the analysis of electric field distribution in human body. It includes the graphical finite element mesh generator, linear system of equations solver using sparse matrix and vector technique, and post-processor for the display of the results. This software package can be used in various research areas of biomedical engineering where we inject current or apply voltage to human body. The software package was developed on Macintosh II computer and the size of the model is only limited by the main memory.

Design as well as Distortion analysis of signal conditioning filters is very useful for practical applications. Distortion analysis of digital filters for wave forms detection in ECG signals is presented. Several band pass and band reject filters are designed for the analysis. Computer simulations are performed to compare the distortions of the Butterworth type filters and linear phase optimal FIR filters which are widely used for ECG signal processing.

Estimation and removal of power line interference in the electrocardiogram using adaptive noise cancelling techniques is presented. The system identification concepts are used to design the noise cancelling filter and the prediction error method is used to adjust filter coefficients. Computer simulation were performed to compare this method with the Lekov's method.

Despite the simplicity of processing, conventional autocorrelation function (ACF) method for the precise determination of fetal heart rate (FHR) has many problems. In the case of weak or noise corrupted Doppler ultrasound singnals, the ACF method is very sensitive to the threshold level and data window length. It is real troublesome to extract FHR when there is a data loss. To overcome these problems, the high resolution pitch detection algorithm is adapted to estimate the FHR. The FHR is determined from the correlation of two interconnected segments by its maximum correlation value. FHR is compensated with a constant correlation threshold in a greatly smeared noise signal. This method yields more accurate, robust and reliable than the ACF method.

Breakthrough of single-quantum coherence is shown to occur even after application of a double-quantum filter with Bax's four-step phase-cycling scheme. The reason for this breakthrough is investigated and a method for its elimination is theoretically developed and experimentally demonstrated.

In this study, Korean speech was recognized by using spatio-temporal recognition neural network. The subjects of speech are numeric speech from zero to nine and basic command which might be used for motorized wheelchair developed it own Lab. Rabiner and Sambur's method of speech detection was used in determining end-point of speech, speech parameter was extracted by using LPC 16 order. The recognition rate was over 90%.

퍼지규칙에 기반을 둔 간기능검사 자동 분석 시스템을 제안하였다. 전문의의 지식과 경험을 수리화한 소속함수를 설정한 후 4가지의 간질환이 있는 118명의 환자를 대상으로 측정된 6종목의 간기능검사 결과에 적용하여 80%의 높은 적중율을 얻었다. 질환별 적중향상은 전문의가 판정한 때 예상되는 것과 일치하였다. 본 연구에서 제안하는 시스템은 유사한 상황의 모든 진단시스템에 동일하게 적용할 수 있다.

In this paper, we devised a simple portable digital recorder for a day life ECG signal recording. The system are consisted of ECG amp. part, signal conditioning part. A/D converter, data compression part and digital memory part. An ADPCM algorithm used at data compress part for 50% of data reduction. The maximum lengths of recording times take 3 hours in 1 mega byte memory.

In this paper, we proposed a speech support system of personal computer for the blind. The system is consist of hardware part and software part. The hardware part are consist of personal computer and sound card. The software part are consist of sound driver system, character table and sound output algorithm. This system can recognize inputted characters from keyboard and program produced character strings.

In this paper, we implemented a pulse wave type oximeter system that continuously measure the of oxyhemoglobin saturation of the arterial blood(SaO2) and pulse rate with non-invasively. We use the transmission type and reflection type transducer for comparison the percentage of hemoglobin oxgen saturation. The light Iron the two kind of LEDs is transmitted through the tissue, then received by a single photodiode with alternatively. By the phase sensitive detection circuit, the output of the photodiode is separated in to red and near infrared signal. We calculated a ratio of light transmittance between two kind of LEDs, and then, it is applied to the oxgen saturation coefficent calculation formular.

This paper describes an improved FES system to restore paralyzed extremities in spinal cord injury patients. For composing stimulus pattern which is suitable for each muscle, electrical stimulus pattern creating system is also developed by using IBM-PC. In the improved portable FES system using V40 microprocessor, muscle fatigue can be decreased by selecting the stimulus frequency which is proper to the response characteristics of each muscle. Driving softwares for the portable FES system and the stimulus pattern creating system are programmed with assembler and C language. A multichnnel portable FES system is designed to minimize the sire and weight using a D/A converter and 32 channel multiplexer.

We have developed MITS(Medical Information Transmission System) that captures, stores and manages the digitalized medical images and transmit them via LAN, and also have developed DSCW(Dedicated System for Clinical Ward) that enables to review the medical images and clinical laboratory test results transmitted via LAN at clinical ward. They were implemented on the 386 platforms, and interconnected via 10 Mbps LAN between department of radiology and clinical ward.

A transcutaneoos information transmission system using transmitted infrared light for an implantable total artificial heart(TAH) an developed and the performance of the system was tested. In an in vitro test, transmittance of the developed system was measured through various thicknesses of pig shins. In an in vivo test, a loopback test using a personal computer was performed to determine the error rate and an experiment using a mock system was taken. In this experiment, within acceptable lateral and vertical displacements, the error rate of at least 3.8E-6 was guaranteed. Monitoring signals from the internal controller(Intel 87C196) of the mock system were successfully transmitted to the external controller(IBM PC) and the operating commands from the external controller were successfully conducted by the mock system. Communication was done in half duplex mode according to RS-232 protocol at the speed of 4800 bps.

This paper describes the first attempt to design of an intelligent HDF control system for acute or chronic renal failure patients. As the fist step to achieve our objective, we have developed a HDF machine control system based on personal computer, which provides convinient operating procedure using menu driven software and also treatment decision aid procedure using patient data retrival system.

The purpose of this research is development of EGG system for quantitative assessment of laryngeal function using speech and electroglotto-graphic data. The designed EGG system is 4-electrodes system which excitation current source is supplied from 1st to 4th electrode. The output signal.: from 2nd and 3rd electrodes, which are motivated by frequency of excitation current source, are air-pressure waveforms from vocal folds. After demodulation process, we obtain pitch signals of the modulated waveforms by excitation current source through differentiator which cuts off frequency below 0.1Hz. Software processing methods were used as conventional pitch extraction methods, but the proposed system is designed to analog hardware in order to eliminate interferences from low formant frequency of speech. We will construct the discriminating database between pathological subjects and control groups on each case. Using the proposed 3 channel EGG system and LMS algorithm, it will be detected that the distinctive characteristics of laryngeal function of voiced region and other regions by EGG signals and LPC spectra.

To Determine the major factor which causes the accelerated calcification of the severe flexing area of the artificial heart sac, comparative study under well defined in vitro situation were carried out. The results show that the effect of static mechanical stress is not so important. According to the data, change of surface area caused by the applied mechanical stress is one of the important factors of the heavy calcification of the severe flexing area of the artificial heart sac.

A new hydrodynamic mock circulation system was developed, which can test prosthetic heart valves of various sizes in order to obtain valve parameters, such as pressure drop, regurgitation and valve performance index with a high reproducibility. High reproducibility can be obtained only under equal testing conditions, i.e., the compliance, resistance and inertance of the mock circulation system must be constant parameter estimation using actual pressure and flow data was applied to calculate these systemic variables in order to adjust them to create the necessary equal testing conditions.