• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.571-575
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• 1998

One of the most significant features of diagnostic ultrasonic instruments is to provide real time information of the soft tissues movements. Echocardiogram has been widely used for diagnosis of heart diseases since it is able to show real time images of heart valves and walls. However, the currently used ultrasonic images are deteriorated due to presence of speckle noises and image dropout. Therefore, it is very important to develop a new technique which can enhance ultrasonic images. In this study, a technique which extracts enhanced binary images in echocardiograms was proposed. For this purpose, a digital moving image file was made from analog echocardiogram, then it was stored as 8-bit gray-level for each frame. For an efficient image processing, the region containing the heat septum and tricuspid valve was selected as the region of interest(ROI). Image enhancement filters and morphology filters were used to reduce speckle noises in the images. The proposed procedure in this paper resulted in binary images with enhanced contour compared to those form the conventional threshold technique and original image processing technique which can be further implemented for the quantitative analysis of the left ventricular wall motion in echocardiogram by easy detection of the heart wall contours.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.133-143
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• 2013

Purpose : To evaluate and compare the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound (US) for detection and estimation of invasion depth of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) by correlation with histopathologic findings in vitro, and to find out the best MR pulse sequence for accurate delineation of tumor from surrounding normal tissue. Materials and Methods: Resected specimens of CRC from 45 patients were examined about tumor detectability and invasion depth of US using high frequency (5-17 MHz) linear transducer in a tube filled with normal saline and MRI in a 8-channel quadrate head coil. The institutional review board approved this study and informed consent was waived. MRI with seven pulse sequences of in- and out-of-phases gradient echo T1 weighted images, fast spin echo T2 weighted image and its fat suppression image, fast imaging employing steady-state acquisition (FIESTA) and its fat suppression image, and diffusion weighted image (DWI) were performed. In each case, both imaging findings of MRI and US were evaluated independently for detection and estimation of invasion depth of tumor by consensus of two radiologists and were compared about diagnostic accuracy according to the histopathologic findings as reference standard. Seven MR pulse sequences were evaluated on the point of accurate delineation of tumor from surrounding normal tissue in each specimen. Results: In specimens of CRC, both imaging modalities of MRI (91.1%) and US (86.7%) showed relatively high diagnostic accuracy to detect tumor and evaluate invasion depth of tumor. In early CRC, diagnostic accuracy of US was 87.5% and that of MRI was 75.0%. There was no statistically significant difference between two imaging modalities (p > 0.05). The best pulse sequence among seven MR sequences for accurate delineation of tumor from surrounding normal tissue in each specimen of CRC was fast spin echo T2 weighted image. Conclusion: MRI and US show relatively high diagnostic accuracy to detect tumor and evaluate invasion depth of resected specimen of CRC. The most excellent pulse sequence of MRI for accurate delineation of tumor from surrounding normal tissue in CRC is fast spin echo T2 weighted image.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.883-889
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• 2021

This study was conducted on 101 patients who visited hospital for abdominal ultrasonography from May 2020 to December 2020. The purpose of this study was to find out the elasticity according to the ultrasound images (echo pattern, splenomegaly, hepatitis) during the ultrasound examination using the shear wave elastography. The shear wave elastography value of the normal group of the echo pattern was 5.75±1.58 kPa, and the group with the abnormal echo pattern was 8.84±4.94 kPa, and the shear wave elastography value of the abnormal group was high (p<0.05). In normal spleen size, hepatic elasticity value was 6.33±2.54 kPa, and hepatic elasticity value of splenomegaly was 13.73±5.48 kPa. In the case of splenomegaly, the liver elasticity value was high, and there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.05). As the spleen size increased, the liver elasticity value increased by 1.485 times, and as hepatitis progressed, the liver elasticity value increased by 1.573 times (p<0.05). As a result of analysis of concordance between ultrasound imaging findings and shear wave elastography, the Kappa value was found to be as high as 0.922 (p<0.05), which showed high concordance between the two test methods. Additional comparisons of liver elasticity values in shearwave elastography tests along with liver ultrasound findings are thought to be of great help in diagnosing liver fibrosis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.116-127
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• 2021

Purpose To evaluate the feasibility of texture analysis of gray-scale ultrasound (US) images for staging of hepatic fibrosis. Materials and Methods Altogether, 167 patients who had undergone routine US and laboratory tests for a fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index were included. Texture parameters were measured using a dedicated in-house software. Regions of interest were placed in five different segments (3, 5, 6, 7, 8) for each patient. The FIB-4 index was used as the reference standard for hepatic fibrosis grade. Comparisons of the texture parameters between different fibrosis groups were performed with the Student's t-test or Mann-Whitney U-test. Diagnostic performance was evaluated by receiver operating curve analysis. Results The study population comprised of patients with no fibrosis (FIB-4 < 1.45, n = 50), mild fibrosis (1.45 ≤ FIB-4 ≤ 2.35, n = 37), moderate fibrosis (2.35 < FIB-4 ≤ 3.25, n = 27), and severe fibrosis (FIB-4 > 3.25, n = 53). Skewness in hepatic segment 5 showed a difference between patients with no fibrosis and mild fibrosis (0.2392 ± 0.3361, 0.4134 ± 0.3004, respectively, p = 0.0109). The area under the curve of skewness for discriminating patients with no fibrosis from those with mild fibrosis was 0.660 (95% confidence interval, 0.551-0.758), with an estimated accuracy, sensitivity, specificity of 64%, 87%, 48%, respectively. Conclusion A significant difference was observed regarding skewness in segment 5 between patients with no fibrosis and patients with mild fibrosis.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.124-132
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• 2017

With the growth of interest in the UAVs, the study of the UAV collision avoidance is in progress. Lidar, Video camera, laser sensor, and ultrasonic sensor may be utilized for collision avoidance of UAV. In this paper, the characteristics of MB 1230 ultrasonic sensor is analyzed through the experiment. When concurrently using multitudinous ultrasonic sensors, ultrasonic sensors do not generate correct measurement values. To solve ultrasonic sensor interference, sequentially transmitting ultrasonics signal is suggested by using 'Enable' signal input of ultrasonic sensor, so by activating each ultrasonic sensor gradually. This proposed solution is also verified by experimentation.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.269-275
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• 2023

Echocardiography is a non-invasive method that is useful for diagnosing pulmonary arterial hypertension. It is known that echocardiography depends on the experience, education, and knowledge level of the cardiac sonographer. This study aimed to compare the agreement values between cardiac sonographer with different practical experiences in the diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension using echocardiography. Three readers re-evaluated the echocardiography images of 148 patients who were diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension at the S Medical Center from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020. The echocardiography values measured by each reader were compared and analyzed. The results of the analysis of discrete variables revealed that the agreement values of the cardiac sonographers showed excellent consistency for both reader 3 and the cardiologist group, indicating that more experience leads to better predictive accuracy for diagnosis of the condition. Furthermore, in terms of continuous variables, all the cardiac sonographer demonstrated good agreement in the measured values of the right atrium, which was easier to assess and clearer than the structurally complex measurements of the right ventricle. This study represents the first analysis in Korea of the agreement values measured by medical technologists who are cardiac sonographers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.79 no.6
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• pp.348-353
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• 2018

Hepatic pseudolymphoma is a rare benign liver mass that is characterized by proliferation of non-neoplastic lymphocytes extranodally. To the best of our knowledge, only 46 cases have been reported in the English literature. We described the case of a 75-year-old woman with hepatic pseudolymphoma mimicking a hypervascular tumor. After the histological confirmation of the rectal neuroendocrine tumor, CT scan revealed a 1.0 cm-sized, poorly-defined and low-density nodule in the liver. On MRI, the hepatic nodule showed an arterial enhancement and a low-signal intensity on the hepatobiliary phase. On diffusion-weighted imaging, the hepatic nodule showed a high signal intensity on a high b-value. On fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/CT, it revealed a high standardized uptake value nodule. The US showed the hypoechoic nodule and the US-guided biopsy confirmed the hepatic pseudolymphoma.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.693-699
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• 2023

Ultrasound is widely used in the medical field for non-destructive and non-invasive disease diagnosis. In order to improve the disease diagnosis accuracy of diagnostic medical images, improving spatial resolution is a very important factor. In this study, we aim to model the super resolution convolutional neural network (SRCNN) algorithm in ultrasound images and analyze its applicability in the medical diagnostic field. The study was conducted as an experimental study using Field II simulation and open source clinical liver hemangioma ultrasound imaging. The proposed SRCNN algorithm was modeled so that end-to-end learning can be applied from low resolution (LR) to high resolution. As a result of the simulation, we confirmed that the full width at half maximum in the phantom image using a Field II program was improved by 41.01% compared to LR when SRCNN was used. In addition, the peak to signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index (SSIM) evaluation results showed that SRCNN had the excellent value in both simulated and real liver hemangioma ultrasound images. In conclusion, the applicability of SRCNN to ultrasound images has been proven, and we expected that proposed algorithm can be used in various diagnostic medical fields.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.419-431
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• 2000

In this paper, a new beamforming technique is proposed, which can completely eliminate all the artifacts caused by digital scan converter. In the proposed method, named display-pixel-based focusing(DPBF) by the authors, ultrasound waves are focused directly at the display pixels instead of sampling points on the polar coordinate. Consequently. the DPBF system does not require the digital scan converter. To verify the proposed method, we modified a commercial scanner and performed experiments with a 3.5 MHz convex array and a 7.5 MHz linear array. We also defined and measured ICRA/B(Image Coarseness Ratio) to compare the image quality quantitatively. The experimental results with in vivo and in vitro data show that the proposed method improves the ICRA/B considerably, resulting in much smoother and finer images.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.134-136
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• 2021

Research related to early diagnosis of breast cancer using artificial intelligence algorithms has been actively conducted in recent years. Although various algorithms that classify breast cancer based on a few publicly available ultrasound breast cancer images have been published, these methods show various limitations such as, processing speed and accuracy suitable for the user's purpose. To solve this problem, in this paper, we propose a multi-stage transfer learning where ResNet model trained on ImageNet is transfer learned to microscopic cancer cell line images, which was again transfer learned to classify ultrasound breast cancer images as benign and malignant. The images for the experiment consisted of 250 breast cancer ultrasound images including benign and malignant images and 27,200 cancer cell line images. The proposed multi-stage transfer learning algorithm showed more than 96% accuracy when classifying ultrasound breast cancer images, and is expected to show higher utilization and accuracy through the addition of more cancer cell lines and real-time image processing in the future.