• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.1
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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.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 2013

Purpose: To describe the early experience of analyzing variations and time trends in bladder volume of the rectal cancer patients who received bladder ultrasound scan. Materials and Methods: We identified 20 consecutive rectal cancer patients who received whole pelvic radiotherapy (RT) and bladder ultrasound scan between February and April 2012. Before simulation and during the entire course of treatment, patients were scanned with portable automated ultrasonic bladder scanner, 5 times consecutively, and the median value was reported. Then a radiation oncologist contoured the bladder inner wall shown on simulation computed tomography (CT) and calculated its volume. Results: Before simulation, the median bladder volume measured using simulation CT and bladder ultrasound scan was 427 mL (range, 74 to 1,172 mL) and 417 mL (range, 147 to 1,245 mL), respectively. There was strong linear correlation (R = 0.93, p < 0.001) between the two results. During the course of treatment, there were wide variations in the bladder volume and every time, measurements were below the baseline with statistical significance (12/16). At 6 weeks after RT, the median volume was reduced by 59.3% to 175 mL. Compared to the baseline, bladder volume was reduced by 38% or 161 mL on average every week for 6 weeks. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this study is the first to prove that there are bladder volume variations and a reduction in bladder volume in rectal cancer patients. Moreover, our results will serve as the basis for implementation of bladder training to patients receiving RT with full bladder.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.10-16
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• 2000

A new algorithm for estimating bladder volume for portable bladder volume measurement system is proposed. Given the actual image of a bladder, edges between bladder wall and urine are extracted first. Axes are calculated from these data and actual cross section shape is obtained by filtering. Since ordinary shape of a bladder is irregular, two cross-sections(transverse and longitudinal) are considered. With the area of a longitudinal cross-section projected along the axes of transverse cross-section, or vice versa, two estimated volume are obtained. Averaging these two value yields the volume of the bladder. Applied to actual experiments, the proposed algorithm showed explicitly good results in comparison with the conventional techniques.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.4
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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.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.127-133
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• 2019

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify volume changes and dose variations of rectum and bladder during radiation therapy in prostate cancer (PC) patients. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 20 patients with PC treated with helical tomotherapy. Daily image guidance was performed. We re-contoured the entire bladder and rectum including its contents as well as the organ walls on megavoltage computed tomography once a week. Dose variations were analyzed by means of Dmedian, Dmean, Dmax, V₁₀ to V₇₅, as well as the organs at risk (OAR) volume. Further, we investigated the correlation between volume changes and changes in Dmean of OAR. Results: During treatment, the rectal volume ranged from 62% to 223% of its initial volume, the bladder volume from 22% to 375%. The average Dmean ranged from 87% to 118% for the rectum and 58% to 160% for the bladder. The Pearson correlation coefficients between volume changes and corresponding changes in Dmean were -0.82 for the bladder and 0.52 for the rectum. The comparison of the dose wall histogram (DWH) and the dose volume histogram (DVH) showed that the DVH underestimates the percentage of the rectal and bladder volume exposed to the high dose region. Conclusion: Relevant variations in the volume of OAR and corresponding dose variations can be observed. For the bladder, an increase in the volume generally leads to lower doses; for the rectum, the correlation is weaker. Having demonstrated remarkable differences in the dose distribution of the DWH and the DVH, the use of DWHs should be considered.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.235-240
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• 2018

Purpose: We describe the daily bladder volume change observed by mega-voltage computed tomography (MVCT) during pelvic radiotherapy with potential predictors of increased bladder volume variations. Materials and Methods: For 41 patients who received pelvic area irradiation, the volumes of bladder and pelvic body contour were measured twice a day with pre- and post-irradiation MVCT from the 1st to the 10th fraction. The median prescription dose was 20 Gy (range, 18 to 30 Gy) up to a 10th fraction. The upper and lower margin of MVCT scanning was consistent during the daily treatments. The median age was 69 years (range, 33 to 86 years) and 10 patients (24.4%) were treated postoperatively. Results: Overall bladder volume on planning computed tomography was 139.7 ± 92.8 mL. Generally, post-irradiation bladder volume (POSTBV) was larger than pre-irradiation bladder volume (PREBV) (p < 0.001). The mean PREBV and POSTBV was reduced after 10 fraction treatments by 21.3% (p = 0.028) and 25.4% (p = 0.007), respectively. The MVCT-scanned body contour volumes had a tendency to decrease as the treatment sessions progressed (p = 0.043 at the 8th fraction and p = 0.044 at the 10th fraction). There was a statistically significant correlation between bladder filling time and PREBV (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Daily MVCT-based bladder volume assessment was feasible both intra- and inter-fractionally.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.237-246
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• 2008

Purpose: Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) were found to reduce the incidence of acute and late rectal toxicity compared with conventional radiation therapy (RT), although acute and late urinary toxicities were not reduced significantly. Acute urinary toxicity, even at a low-grade, not only has an impact on a patient's quality of life, but also can be used as a predictor for chronic urinary toxicity. With bladder filling, part of the bladder moves away from the radiation field, resulting in a small irradiated bladder volume; hence, urinary toxicity can be decreased. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of bladder volume on acute urinary toxicity during RT in patients with prostate cancer. Materials and Methods: Forty two patients diagnosed with prostate cancer were treated by 3DCRT and of these, 21 patients made up a control group treated without any instruction to control the bladder volume. The remaining 21 patients in the experimental group were treated with a full bladder after drinking 450 mL of water an hour before treatment. We measured the bladder volume by CT and ultrasound at simulation to validate the accuracy of ultrasound. During the treatment period, we measured bladder volume weekly by ultrasound, for the experimental group, to evaluate the variation of the bladder volume. Results: A significant correlation between the bladder volume measured by CT and ultrasound was observed. The bladder volume in the experimental group varied with each patient despite drinking the same amount of water. Although weekly variations of the bladder volume were very high, larger initial CT volumes were associated with larger mean weekly bladder volumes. The mean bladder volume was $299{\pm}155\;mL$ in the experimental group, as opposed to $187{\pm}155\;mL$ in the control group. Patients in experimental group experienced less acute urinary toxicities than in control group, but the difference was not statistically significant. A trend of reduced toxicity was observed with the increase of CT bladder volume. In patients with bladder volumes greater than 150 mL at simulation, toxicity rates of all grades were significantly lower than in patients with bladder volume less than 150 mL. Also, patients with a mean bladder volume larger than 100 mL during treatment showed a slightly reduced Grade 1 urinary toxicity rate compared to patients with a mean bladder volume smaller than 100 mL. Conclusion: Despite the large variability in bladder volume during the treatment period, treating patients with a full bladder reduced acute urinary toxicities in patients with prostate cancer. We recommend that patients with prostate cancer undergo treatment with a full bladder.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.7-12
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• 2019

Purpose: During the pelvic radiation therapy, it is performed with controlling bladder volume because the range of irradiation is changed depending on the bladder volume. Therefore in this study, we evaluate the accuracy of BVI by tracing the change of bladder volume using ultrasonic pulse diagnosis equipment(BVI 6100, Medical supply Co. LTD) Material and Methods: From January 2017 to September 2018, 19 patients who received pelvic radiation therapy at Pusan National University Hospital were included. To treat the patient, we compared that the bladder volume obtained from the BVI and the bladder volume obtained from the CBCT image then we evaluated for significance. Results: There was a significant correlation of r=0.773, BVI and CBCT in the whole volume section. However, based on the bladder volume in the RTP Image the p value was shown to be 0 at 125~175cc and lower than 0.05 at 175~275cc, And more than 0.05 at 275~375cc. Conclusions: In this study, the patient whose bladder volume is above than 275cc, there is a significance of bladder volume between BVI and CBCT image. However, we could make a decision to be undermined the reliability of BVI measurement in the case of the patient with emptied his urine. Therefore, it is possible to acquire a significant value for 175~275cc patients to use the correction value of BVI and the appropriate tolerance of volume.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.415-421
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• 2017

In the case of radiation therapy for prostate cancer, a balloon infused with a certain amount of air through the anus is used to reduce rectal dose. Because of the reason, radiation therapy for prostate cancer has acquired CBCT for daily image induction. In order to maintain the anatomical structure most similar to the first CT taken before treatment, it is pretreated, but it can not be said to be perfectly consistent. In two actual treatment regimens, the volume of the bladder was measured as 45.82 cc and 63.43 cc, and the equivalent diameter was 4.4 cm and 4.9 cm. As a result of this study, the mean volume of the bladder was estimated to be 56.2 cc, 105.6 cc by 20 CBCT. The mean dose of CBCT was 1.74% and the mean Bladder mean dose was 96.67%. In case B, PTV mean dose was 4.31%, Bladder mean Dose was estimated to be 97.35%. The changes in the volume of the bladder resulted in changes in the dose of PTV and bladder. The correlation coefficient of bladder dose according to the change of bladder volume showed linearity of mean dose $R^2=-0.94$. The correlation coefficient of the PTV dose according to the volume change of the bladder showed linearity of mean dose $R^2=0.04$. It was found that the dose change of PTV was larger than that of bladder according to the change of bladder volume.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.256-267
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• 2000

In this paper, we studied the ultrasonic urine volume sensor of urinary alarm system for home use to detect the time of urination as a assistive methodology for the incontinence patients and the correlation between urine volume and bladder interwall distance by using developed sensor. The developed sensor was designed to minimize the measurement error by using ultrasound with 2.25 MHz center frequency which provides higher resolution as well as longer penetration depth. To verify usefulness of the developed sensor, we performed a preliminary experiment of estimating bladder volume from the measured distance between interior and posterior wall of bladder. In the preliminary experiment, bladder volume estimated from the result using a commercial ultrasonography system. The experimental results show there exists god correlation between the actual urine volume and the measured interwall distance of the bladder. In conclusion, the developed ultrasound bladder volume sensor can be applied to an urine alarm system which provides patient the exact time of urination, it will be contribute in health care and welfare society.