• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.455-460
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• 2007

Flow mismatch between blood and dialysate is invariably encountered during conventional hemodialysis, and this deteriorates diffusive mass transfer. A modification of a conventional dialyzer was conceived to prevent this mismatch. The modified dialyzer includes two independent blood flow regions (central and peripheral regions), which were achieved by redesigning the dialyzer cap. Resultantly, the blood stream was divided into two concentric dialyzer regions. Solutes clearances obtained using the modified dialyzers were compared with those of conventional dialyzers. Solutes clearances by conventional dialyzers were uniform, but solutes clearances by modified dialyzers were found to be dependent on the simulated blood split into dialyzer central and peripheral regions. Maximal clearances using the modified dialyzer were improved by up to approximately 7.6% for urea and 7.3% for creatinine, as compared with those of conventional dialyzers. More optimizations are required for clinical applications, but the finding that blood flowrates through central and peripheral fiber bundles can be easily regulated is encouraging.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.411-419
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• 2013

Various biomaterials have been widely used for biomedical applications, including bio-organs, medical devices, and clinical devices like vessel, blood pumps, artificial kidneys and hearts, even in contact with blood. The issue of blood compatibility has been studied intensively to prevent negative effects such as thrombosis due to the implanted devices. The use of lotus-leaf-like structured surfaces has been extended to an increasing number of applications such as contamination prevention and anticorrosion applications. Various methods such as template, sol-gel transition, layer-by-layer, and other methods, developed for the fabrication of lotus-leaf-like surfaces have been reported for major industrial applications. Recently, the non-wettable character of these surfaces has been shown to be useful for biomedical applications ranging from blood-vessel replacement to antibacterial surface treatment. In this review, we provide a summary of current and future research efforts and opportunities in the development and medical applications of lotus-leaf-like structure surfaces.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.318-326
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• 2009

A simple method for measuring magnetic flux and induced current in magnetic nerve stimulation for urinary incontinence treatment is proposed. Unlike electric nerve stimulation, direct measurement of the induced current in magnetic nerve stimulation is impossible. Since induced currents stimulate nerves or muscles in magnetic nerve stimulation, measuring induced current is very important in validating stimulation efficacy and securing safety. The magnetic flux measuring system is composed of 6 layers with pick-up coils of 7 by 7 in each layer, and the induced current measuring system is composed of 6 layers with 7 concentric circular coils in each layer. The proposed method can be used in the design or performance test of a magnetic nerve stimulator for many clinical applications such as urinary incontinence treatment, activation of peripheral nerves, and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.493-498
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• 2016

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) represents beat-to-beat fluctuations of R-R intervals in Electrocardiogram (ECG). On of the clinical applications of HRV is to assess the mental-stress state by evaluating its power spectral density distribution. This study aims at finding new discriminative role of the coupled-oscillating coupling constants, Cs and Cp in the Integral Pulse Frequency Modulation (IPFM) model. Based on comparing with power spectral density of HRV in terms of the relative ratio of the low and high-frequency power component, we can conclude the fact that the coupling parameters Cs and Cp can replace the role of HRV power spectrum interpretation for judging the mental-stress state.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.170-176
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• 2013

Lymphedema is a phenomenon in which fluid is accumulated inside tissues due to the damaged lymphatic systems. Lymphedema can cause complications such as lymphangitis, infection, changes in skin texture, fibrosis, and lymphangiosarcoma. In this study, a lymphedema screening system based on the elasticity of the skin is proposed to easily quantify lymphedema. The developed probe consists of touch sensors, a load cell and hall-effect sensors to measure the indentation force on the skin and the return time of the skin. The developed system can be used to estimate the change in the elasticity of the skin to quantify lymphedema. The system was tested with a thyroid phantom and gelatin phantoms of different concentrations and the resulting force and the time were recorded. It was found that the increase in the elasticity leads to a higher indentation force and shorter return time. This shows that the developed system can monitor the change in the skin elasticity by measuring the return time and the indentation force. The feasibility of the system in clinical applications will be evaluated in the future study.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2006

The pH-ISE(ion selective electrode) based on tribenzylamine as a hydrogen ion carrier was prepared and its electrochemical characterization was studied. It responded linearly to hydrogen ions in the range of pH 3.1 - pH 11.0 and the Nernstian slope showed 55.0 mV/pH (at $20{\pm}0.2^{\circ}C$), it also showed a fast response time of 8 sec. When it was directly applied to human blood(pH 6.0-8.5), we could get the same satisfying results. A good reproducibility and stability were shown with the precision of 2 mV (${\pm}0.1$). The pH-ISE based on tribenzylamine exhibited biocompatibility in clinical applications.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.435-440
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• 2020

Single-beam acoustic tweezers that are capable of manipulating micron-size particles in a non-contact manner have been used in many biological and biomedical applications. Current single-beam acoustic tweezer systems developed for in vitro experiments consist of a function generator and a power amplifier, thus the system is bulky and expensive. This configuration would not be suitable for in vivo and clinical applications. Thus, in this paper, we present a portable single-beam acoustic tweezer system and its performances of trapping and manipulating micron-size objects. The developed system consists of an Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip and two pulsers, and parameters such as center frequency and pulse duration were controlled by a Personal Computer (PC) via a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface in real-time. It was shown that the system was capable of generating the transmitting pulse up to 20 MHz, and producing sufficient intensity to trap microparticles and cells. The performance of the system was evaluated by trapping and manipulating 40 ㎛ and 90 ㎛ in diameter polystyrene particles.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.700-704
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• 2015

As pH is a widely used index in chemical, medical, and environmental applications, research on pH sensors has been active in recent years. This study obtained RGB values by measuring the reflected light from a liquid sample to detect fine changes in pH, and performed mathematical modeling to investigate the relationship between the detected optical signal and pH value. Also, the trends in pH changes were easily identified by analyzing RGB values and displaying them in the color coordinate for easy visualization of data. This method implemented a user-friendly system that can measure and analyze in real time. This system can be used in many fields such as genetic engineering, environmental engineering, and clinical engineering, because it not only can measure pH but also replaces a colorimeter or turbidimeter.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2024

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) such as human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells, and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)-hESCs can permanently self-renew while maintaining their capacity to differentiate into any type of somatic cells, thereby serving as an important cell source for cell therapy. However, there are persistent challenges in the application of hPSCs in clinical trials, where one of the most significant is graft rejection by the patient immune system in response to human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatch when transplants are obtained from an allogeneic (non-self) cell source. Homozygous SCNT-hESCs (homo-SCNT-hESCs) were used to simplify the clinical application and to reduce HLA mismatch. Here, we present a xeno-free protocol that confirms the efficient generation of neural precursor cells in hPSCs and also the differentiation of dopaminergic neurons. Additionally, there was no difference when comparing the HLA expression patterns of hESC, homo-SCNT-hESCs and hetero-SCNT-hESCs. We propose that there are no differences in the differentiation capacity and HLA expression among hPSCs that can be cultured in vitro. Thus, it is expected that homo-SCNT-hESCs will possess a wider range of applications when transplanted with neural precursor cells in the context of clinical trials.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2023

Observational data with missing or incomplete data are common in biomedical research. Multiple imputation is an effective approach to handle missing data with the ability to decrease bias while increasing statistical power and efficiency. In recent years propensity score (PS) matching has been increasingly used in observational studies to estimate treatment effect as it can reduce confounding due to measured baseline covariates. In this paper, we describe in detail approaches to competing risk analysis in the setting of incomplete observational data when using PS matching. First, we used multiple imputation to impute several missing variables simultaneously, then conducted propensity-score matching to match statin-exposed patients with those unexposed. Afterwards, we assessed the effect of statin exposure on the risk of heart failure-related hospitalizations or emergency visits by estimating both relative and absolute effects. Collectively, we provided a general methodological framework to assess treatment effect in incomplete observational data. In addition, we presented a practical approach to produce overall cumulative incidence function (CIF) based on estimates from multiple imputed and PS-matched samples.