• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.175-202
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• 2016

Ultrasound imaging is a widely used tool for visualizing human body's internal organs and quantifying clinical parameters. Due to its advantages such as safety, non-invasiveness, portability, low cost and real-time 2D/3D imaging, diagnostic ultrasound industry has steadily grown. Since the technology advancements such as digital beam-forming, Doppler ultrasound, real-time 3D imaging and automated diagnosis techniques, there are still a lot of demands for image quality improvement, faster and accurate imaging, 3D color Doppler imaging and advanced functional imaging modes. In order to satisfy those demands, mathematics should be used properly and effectively in ultrasound imaging. Mathematics has been used commonly as mathematical modelling, numerical solutions and visualization, combined with science and engineering. In this article, we describe a brief history of ultrasound imaging, its basic principle, its applications in obstetrics/gynecology, cardiology and radiology, domestic-industrial products, contributions of mathematics and challenging issues in ultrasound imaging.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제37권1호
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• pp.31-38
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• 2016

For the patients with bladder dysfunction, measurement of urine volume inside the bladder is very critical to avoid bladder failure. In measuring urine volume inside a bladder, low-resolution 3D ultrasound images are widely used. However, urine volume estimation from 3D ultrasound images is prone to big errors and inconsistency because of low spatial resolution and low signal-to-noise ratio of ultrasound images. We developed a new robust volume estimation algorithm which is not computationally expensive. We tested the algorithm on a lab-built ultrasound bladder phantom and volunteers. The average error rate of the human bladder volume estimation was 5.9% which was better than the commercial machine.

• 대한방사선기술학회지:방사선기술과학
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• 제38권3호
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• pp.213-220
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• 2015

본 연구는 3차원 입체정위 유방생검술의 정확도를 알아보고, 심부침생검을 이용하여 Stereotactic biopsy과 Sonoguided biopsy의 정확도와 정밀도를 평가하고자 한다. Stereotactic QC phantom을 이용하여 실제 5개의 target 위치로 3D sterotactic machine의 정확도를 측정하고, CT장비로 Scan하여 실측을 구해 X, Y, Z의 길이의 정밀도를 비교한다. 유방조직과 유사하게 제작한 Agar power phantom을 이용하여 5개의 각기 다른 needle tip Target을 통해 3D sterotactic machine과 2D ultrasound machine의 정확도를 비교하고, Z축을 장비별로 실측하여 정밀도와 신뢰도를 비교하며, 6개의 모조병소 Target을 심어놓은 Medical application phantom으로 표적하여 육안검사와 Specimen검사를 통해 정확도를 확인하였다. Stereotactic QC phantom으로 측정한 3D sterotactic machine의 정확도는 100%였으며, CT와 비교한 정밀도는 X, Y, Z축이 모두 p>0.05로 나타났다. Agar powder phantom으로 측정한 두 장비의 정확도는 100%의 정확도를 보였으며, CT와 두 장비 사이에는 p > 0.05로 차이가 없었다. 그러나 2명의 방사선사가 측정한 신뢰도분석에서 3D sterotactic machine은 ICC가 0.954였고, 2D ultrasound machine은 0.785로 2D ultrasound machine이 술자에 따라 차이가 있었다. Medical application phantom의 실험에서 3D sterotactic machine은 Sliced boneless ham을, 2D ultrasound machine은 small chalk powder group를 찾을 수 없었다. Phantom을 이용한 3차원 입체정위 유방생검술의 정확성은 우수하게 나타났고, 인체조직과 비슷한 Agar powder phantom과 유방 조직과 비슷한 Medical application phantom을 이용하여 Stereotactic biopsy과 Sonoguided biopsy의 정확도와 정밀도 모두 우수하게 나타났다. 또한 Medical application phantom의 심부침생검의 정확성 평가에서 각 검사에 따라 생검 표본이 병소의 형태에 따라 상이하게 채취되었고, 3차원 입체정위 유방생검술의 재현성이 유방 초음파검사보다 술자의 영향없이 우수하였다.

• 한국가시화정보학회지
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.15-20
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• 2018

For the measurement of biophysical properties related with cardiovascular diseases (CVD), various microfluidic devices were proposed. However, many devices were monitored by optical equipment. Ultrasound measurement to quantify the biophysical properties can provide new insights to understand the cardiovascular diseases. This study aims to check feasibility of microfluidic device for ultrasound image analysis based on 3D printer. To facilitate acoustic transmission, agarose solution is poured around 3D mold connected with holes of the acrylic box. By applying speckle image velocimetry(SIV) technique, flow information in the bifurcated channel was estimated. Considering that ultrasound signal amplitude is determined by red blood cell (RBC) aggregation, RBC aggregation in the bifurcated channel can be estimated through the analysis of ultrasound signal. As examples of microfluidic device which mimic the CVD model, velocity fields in microfluidic devices with stenosis and aneurysm were introduced.

• 한국음향학회지
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• 제36권4호
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• pp.238-246
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• 2017

고주파수, 고해상도 초음파 영상을 획득하기 위해서는 고주파수 초음파 변환기가 가지는 작은 구경에 따른 낮은 민감도와 침투 깊이에 따른 높은 감쇠량을 극복하여야 한다. 이는 고주파수 초음파 변환기의 본질적인 한계점이므로 수신 시스템을 통하여 그 한계점을 극복하여야 한다. 본 논문은 고주파수, 고해상도 초음파 영상을 위하여 고주파수 초음파 변환기의 본질적인 한계인 낮은 민감도와 높은 감쇠량을 극복할 수 있는 저잡음 광대역 수신 시스템 개발과 특성 평가 결과에 관한 것이다. 개발한 저잡음 광대역 수신 시스템은 80 MHz 이상의 동작 주파수 대역에서 최대 73 dB의 증폭 이득과 48 dB의 가변 이득 범위를 만족하며 ${\pm}1dB$의 증폭 이득 평탄도 성능을 가진다. 또한 개발한 수신 시스템은 상용 리시버에 비하여 8.4 dB 이상의 신호대잡음비 성능과 3.7 dB 이상의 대조도 성능이 우수함을 확인하였다.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• 제29권3E호
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• pp.111-118
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• 2010

Three-dimensional ultrasound imaging is a new, exciting technology that allows physicians to use ultrasound to view pathology as a volume, thereby enhancing comprehension of patient anatomy. In this paper, a brief history of the 3-D ultrasound imaging is described in accordance with the development of transducer technology. Then, two representative types of 3-D imaging transducers are reviewed with description of the concept and operation principle of each type: mechanical transducer and matrix array transducer. The mechanical transducer is detailed into free-hand scanning and sequential scanning types. Advantages of each transducer over the other and the technical issues for further performance enhancement are also presented.

• 비파괴검사학회지
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• 제34권6호
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• pp.441-446
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• 2014

A 3D ultrasound image is desired in many medical examinations. However, the implementation of a 2D array, which is needed for a 3D image, is challenging with respect to fabrication, interconnection and cabling. A 2D sparse array, which needs fewer elements than a dense array, is a realistic way to achieve 3D images. Because the number of ways the elements can be placed in an array is extremely large, a method for optimizing the array configuration is needed. Previous research placed the target point far from the transducer array, making it impossible to optimize the array in the operating range. In our study, we focused on optimizing a 2D sparse array transducer for 3D imaging by using a simulated annealing method. We compared the far-field optimization method with the near-field optimization method by analyzing a point-spread function (PSF). The resolution of the optimized sparse array is comparable to that of the dense array.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제39권4호
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• pp.153-160
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• 2018

3D ultrasound bladder scanners are getting popular in hospitals for the patients with bladder dysfunction. A current bladder scanner adopts a mechanical scan to acquire 3D images and requires two motors and complicated mechanical devices. In this paper, we propose a new ultrasound bladder scanner using hand-motion scan. Instead of two motors and mechanical devices, it has a motion sensor to record transducer positions during hand-motion scan. The experiments with a bladder phantom and volunteers showed similar measurement accuracy to a conventional 3D ultrasound bladder scanner. We expect that the proposed method will reduce the cost and size of the bladder scanner.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.247-257
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• 2003

This paper proposes a three-dimensional (3D) segmentation algorithm for extracting a diagnostic object from ultrasound images by using a LoG operator In the proposed algorithm, 2D cutting planes are first obtained by the equiangular revolution of a cross sectional Plane on a reference axis for a 3D volume data. In each 2D ultrasound image. a region of interest (ROI) box that is included tightly in a diagnostic object of interest is set. Inside the ROI box, a LoG operator, where the value of $\sigma$ is adaptively selected by the distance between reference points and the variance of the 2D image, extracts edges in the 2D image. In Post processing. regions of the edge image are found out by region filling, small regions in the region filled image are removed. and the contour image of the object is obtained by morphological opening finally. a 3D volume of the diagnostic object is rendered from the set of contour images obtained by post-processing. Experimental results for a tumor and gall bladder volume data show that the proposed method yields on average two times reduction in error rate over Krivanek's method when the results obtained manually are used as a reference data.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제41권5호
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• pp.195-202
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• 2020

Needle detection in ultrasound images is sometimes difficult due to obstruction of fat tissues. Accurate needle detection using continuous ultrasound (CUS) images is a vital stage of treatment planning for tissue biopsy and brachytherapy. The main goal of the study is classified into two categories. First, new detection model, i.e. D-Attention Unet, is developed by combining the context information of 3D medical data and CUS images. Second, the D-Attention Unet model was compared with other models to verify its usefulness for needle detection in continuous ultrasound images. The continuous needle images taken with ultrasonic waves were converted into still images for dataset to evaluate the performance of the D-Attention Unet. The dataset was used for training and testing. Based on the results, the proposed D-Attention Unet model showed the better performance than other 3 models (Unet, D-Unet and Attention Unet), with Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), Recall and Precision at 71.9%, 70.6% and 73.7%, respectively. In conclusion, the D-Attention Unet model provides accurate needle detection for US-guided biopsy or brachytherapy, facilitating the clinical workflow. Especially, this kind of research is enthusiastically being performed on how to add image processing techniques to learning techniques. Thus, the proposed method is applied in this manner, it will be more effective technique than before.