• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.269-273
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• 2001

Proper determination of pacing threshold is important for patient safety and pacemaker longevity. In general, cardiac muscle contractions caused by pacing pulses are verified by observing the morphology of surface ECG displayed on a monitor. In this study, a method of automatic pacing threshold determination based on morphological difference between intrinsic and paced ECGs was developed. First, characteristics of intrinsic ECG and paced ECG were analyzed in time and frequency domain and a proper discrimination parameter was extracted. Then, the automatic capture verification method based on the parameter was developed and applied to 23 pacemaker patients. The selected parameter was the area of ventricular depolarization wave during 80ms after pacing stimulus. It was found that the method was reliable and effective in identifying paced ECG and, thereby, determing a proper pacing threshold.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1990 no.11
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• pp.25-28
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• 1990

We tested the ability of two-dimensional echocardiograms of complete heart cycle in closed-chest human to discriminate between normal and infarcted myocardium using fixed window, Inter- and Intra-frame analysis. The results show that statistical parameter, MEAN, second order gray level statistics parameter, ASM and proposed parameter, HGE, I.T, can quantitatively distinguish between normal and Infarcted regions. The manner in which these parameters vary over the cardiac cycle is also a good indicator of the state of myocardium. The infarcted areas yield regions of higher Intensity throughout the cardiac cycle. Whereas, normal tissue demonstrates greater variability throughout the cardiac cycle.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.295-303
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• 2021

Idiopathic normal-pressure hydrocephalus (INPH) is considered a potentially treatable neurological disorder by shunt surgery and characterized by a triad of symptoms including gait disturbance, cognitive impairment and urinary dysfunction. Although disorders of white matter are generally viewed as the principal pathological features of INPH, analysis of cortical features are important since the destruction of neural tracts could be associated with cortical structural changing. The aim of the study was to determine whether there was any relationship between gait parameter and structural features of cerebral cortex in INPH patients. Gait parameters were measured as follows: step width, toe in/out angle, coefficient of variation (CV) value of stride length, CV value of stride time. After obtaining individual brain MRI of patients with INPH and hemispheric cortical surfaces were automatically extracted from each MR volume, which reconstructed the inner and outer cortical surface. Then, cortical thickness, surface area, and volume were calculated from the cortical surface. As a result, step width was positively correlated with bilateral postcentral gyrus and left precentral gyrus, and toe in/out was positively correlated with left posterior parietal cortex and left insula. Also, the CV value of stride length showed positive correlation in the right superior frontal sulcus, left insula, and the CV value of stride time showed positive correlation in the right superior frontal sulcus. Unique parameter of cerebral cortical changes, as measured using MRI, might underline impairments in distinct gait parameters in patients with INPH.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.219-226
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• 2017

Penalized-likelihood (PL) reconstruction methods for transmission tomography are known to provide improved image quality for reduced dose level by efficiently smoothing out noise while preserving edges. Unfortunately, however, most of the edge-preserving penalty functions used in conventional PL methods contain at least one free parameter which controls the shape of a non-quadratic penalty function to adjust the sensitivity of edge preservation. In this work, to avoid difficulties in finding a proper value of the free parameter involved in a non-quadratic penalty function, we propose a new adaptive method of space-variant smoothing with a simple quadratic penalty function. In this method, the smoothing parameter is adaptively selected for each pixel location at each iteration by using the image roughness measured by a pixel-wise standard deviation image calculated from the previous iteration. The experimental results demonstrate that our new method not only preserves edges, but also suppresses noise well in monotonic regions without requiring additional processes to select free parameters that may otherwise be included in a non-quadratic penalty function.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.329-337
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• 2003

Blood in congenital or acquired AY fistula(arteriovenous fistula) flows from arteries directly to veins. detouring peripheral micro-circulation. This makes a great effect on the hemodynamics of human cardiovascular system. In this study, a computational method using lumped parameter mode) was proposed to simulate the cardiovascular hemodynamics of patients with acute AV fistula The cardiovascular system model with a fistula compartment in left lower limb was built using 17 standard lumped compartments. Using fourth order Runge-Kutta method. we solved numerically the unsteady linear set of the ordinary differential equations resulting from application of Kirchhoff's law to the lumped parameter hemodynamic model. The baroreceptor reflex system was implemented to explain the auto-regulation effect of the cardiovascular system with acute AV fistula.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2016

Weibull distribution with two parameters, shape (k) and scale (s) parameters are used to model the fatigue failure analysis due to periodic vortex shedding of the synovial fluid in knee joints. In order to determine the later parameter, a suitable statistical model is required for velocity distribution of synovial fluid flow. Hence, wide applicability of Weibull distribution in life testing and reliability analysis can be applied to describe the probability distribution of synovial fluid flow velocity. In this work, comparisons of three most widely used methods for estimating Weibull parameters are carried out; i.e. the least square estimation method (LSEM), maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and the method of moment (MOM), to study fatigue failure of bone joint due to periodic vortex shedding of synovial fluid. The performances of these methods are compared through the analysis of computer generated synovial fluidflow velocity distribution in the physiological range. Significant values for the (k) and (s) parameters are obtained by comparing these methods. The criterions such as root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of determination ($R^2$), maximum error between the cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) or Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) and the chi square tests are used for the comparison of the suitability of these methods. The results show that maximum likelihood method performs well for most of the cases studied and hence recommended.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.105-110
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• 2013

Respiratory signal is one of the important physiological information indicating the status and function of the body. Recent studies have provided the possibility of being able to estimate the respiratory signal by using a change of PWV(pulse width variability), PRV(pulse rate variability) and PAV(pulse amplitude variability) in the PPG (photoplethysmography) signal during daily life. But, it is not clear whether the respiratory monitoring is possible even during sleep. Therefore, in this paper, we estimated the respiration from PWV, PRV and PAV of PPG signals during sleep. In addition, respiration rates of the estimated respiration signal were calculated through a time-frequency analysis, and errors between respiration rates calculated from each parameter and from reference signal were evaluated in terms of 1 sec, 10 sec and 1 min. As a result, it showed the errors in PWV(1s: $36.38{\pm}37.69$ mHz, 10s: $36.53{\pm}38.16$ mHz, 60s: $30.35{\pm}38.72$ mHz), in PRV(1s: $1.45{\pm}1.38$ mHz, 10s: $1.44{\pm}1.37$ mHz, 60s: $0.45{\pm}0.56$ mHz), and in PAV(1s: $1.05{\pm}0.81$ mHz, 10s: $1.05{\pm}0.79$ mHz, 60s: $0.56{\pm}0.93$ mHz). The errors in PRV and PAV are lower than that of PWV. Finally, we concluded that PRV and PAV are more effective than PWV in monitoring the respiration in daily life as well as during sleep.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.212-221
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• 2008

The total hip replacement (THR) has been used as the most effective way to restore the function of damaged hip joint. However, various factors have caused some side effects after the THR. Unfortunately, the success of the THR have been decided only by the proficiency of surgeons so far. Hence, It is necessary to find the way to minimize the side effect caused by those factors. The purpose of this study was to suggest the definite data, which can be used to design and choose the optimal hip implant. Using finite element analysis (FEA), the biomechanical condition of bone cement was evaluated. Stress patterns were analyzed in three conditions: cement mantle, procimal femur and stem-cement contact surface. Additionally, micro-motion was analyzed in the stem-cement contact surface. The 3-D femur model was reconstructed from 2-D computerized tomography (CT) images. Raw CT images were preprocessed by image processing technique (i.e. edge detection). In this study, automated edge detection system was created by MATLAB coding for effective and rapid image processing. The 3-D femur model was reconstructed based on anatomical parameters. The stem shape was designed using that parameters. The analysis of the finite element models was performed with the variation of parameters. The biomechanical influence of each parameter was analyzed and derived optimal parameters. Moreover, the results of FE A using commercial stem model (Zimmer's V erSys) were similar to the results of stem model that was used in this study. Through the study, the improved designs and optimal factors for clinical application were suggested. We expect that the results can suggest solutions to minimize various side effects.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.236-239
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• 2005

This study investigated the effect of ovariectomy (OVX) on the rat bone fur long term (22 weeks). In previous researches, there were many studies for morphology of OVX-induced osteoporotic bones based on micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT). However, there were few studies fpr detecting and tracking changes of mechanical characteristics in the lumbar vertebrae of OVX rat fur long-term. For this study, one female Sprague-Dawley rat was used: an OVX rat. The 4th lumbar of the OVX rat was utilized as a specimen. Morphological characteristics could be investigated fur the lumbar vertebrae in an OVX rat by using in-vivo Micro-CT. An OVX rat was scanned at week 0 (just before surgery), at week 4, at week 8, at week 16 and at week 22 after surgery. Micro finite element $({\mu}FE)$ analysis was used to investigate mechanical characteristics in the lumbar vertebrae for an OVX rat.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2005

A sensor and measuring system were implemented to measure both uroflow and urophonography signal during urination for diagnose the lower urinary tract symptom. The implemented system was composed of the uroflow sensor using the load-cell, the urophonography measurement sensor so as stethoscope type, pre-processing part for sensors signal detection, amplifier and filter, system control parts and PC measurement program. A simulator of the lower urinary system that is experimental equipment implemented for evaluate the developed system. The two signals were measured using implemented system and analyzed these signal by means of time domain and frequency domain for extraction of the characteristic parameter which can most effectively reflected by the occlusion of the lower urinary system. Furthermore two signals were measured and analyzed with the subject of 5 healthy adult for clinical application possibility of the implemented system. As a result, the most influence bandwidth of effect according to occlusion of the lower urinary system is $253{\sim}282$ Hz of the urophonography signal.