• 비파괴검사학회지
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• 제32권5호
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• pp.573-584
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• 2012

유방이나 전립선과 같은 연조직에서 발생하는 암이나 종양은 주위 조직보다 단단한 경향을 가진다. 하지만 초음파 B-mode 영상을 보면 암은 주위 조직과 거의 비슷하여 구별하기 어렵다. 따라서 조직의 단단한 정도를 영상화하면 더 정량적인 정보를 제공해 진단에 도움을 줄 수 있다. 초음파탄성영상은 측정하고자 하는 연조직에 기계적인 힘을 가하고 변형된 정도를 측정하여 영상화 한다. 탄성영상은 기존의 초음파 영상 진단기법과 더불어 종양을 진단하는 유용한 방법으로 자리매김하고 있다. 본 논문에서는 지금까지 발표된 다양한 탄성영상 방법을 분류하고 각 방법의 원리, 특성 등을 살펴본다.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.117-124
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• 2006

Recently, active research has been going on to measure the elastic modulus of human soft tissue with medical ultrasound imaging systems for the purpose of diagnosing cancers or tumors which have been difficult to detect with conventional B-mode imaging techniques. In this paper, a real-time ultrasonic elasticity imaging system is implemented in software on a Pentium processor-based ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system. Soft tissue is subjected to external vibration, and the resulting tissue displacements change the phase of received echoes, which is in turn used to estimate tissue elasticity. It was confirmed from experiment with a phantom that the implemented elasticity imaging system could differentiate between soft and hard regions, where the latter is twice harder than the former, while operating at an adequate frame rate of 20 frames/s.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제50권1호
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• pp.73-79
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• 2020

Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be useful for the evaluation of palatal lesions, and strain elastography (performed together with intraoral ultrasonography) is a relatively new sonographic imaging modality. This report describes 2 clinical cases in which strain elastography was used to assess palatal tumors in conjunction with intraoral ultrasonography, CT, and MRI. In the first case, diagnosed as a myoepithelioma, the strain was determined to be 0.000% (strain of normal tissue, 0.556%). In the second case, diagnosed as an adenoid cystic carcinoma, the determined strain was 0.000% (strain of normal tissue, 1.077%). Therefore, we conclude that intraoral strain elastography can be useful for evaluating palatal lesions.

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2005년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.77-80
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• 2005

Local probe techniques such as scanning probe microscopy (SPM) or atomic force microscopy (AFM) extended our perception into ultra small world. Specially, the sense of touching was extended by AFM into the micro- and nanoworld and has provided complementary new insights of the microscopic world. In addition, touching objects is an essential step before trying to manipulate things. SPM as a touch sensor not only measure the mechanical properties but also detect different properties such as magnetic, electrical, ionic, thermal, chemical and biophysical properties in nanoscale and even less. Obtaining biophysical measurements, monitoring dynamics and processes together with high-resolution imaging of the biomolecules and cells with rather simpler sample preparation than any other techniques give great attractions to the scientists experimenting with biological samples. Among the many AFM capabilities we will specifically introduce the force plot which is used to measure tip-sample interactions and its application this time.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권16호
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• pp.7291-7294
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• 2015

Purpsoe: To investigate the diagnostic value of quantitative analysis of a tissue diffusion and virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) technique with acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography for assessing enlarged cervical lymph nodes. Materials and Methods: Fifty-six enlarged cervical lymph nodes confirmed by pathologic diagnoses were covered in the study. According to the results of pathologic diagnosis, patients were classified into benign and malignant groups. All the patients were examined by both conventional ultrasonography and elastography. AREA% and shear wave velocity (SWV) in ROI of different groups were calculated and compared using ROC curves. Cut-off points of AREA% and SWV were determined with receiver operating characteristic curves. Results: Final histopathological results revealed 21 cases of benign and 35 cases of malignant lymph nodes. The mean values of AREA% and SWV in benign and malignant groups were $45.0{\pm}17.9%$ and $2.32{\pm}0.57m/s$, and $61.3{\pm}21.29%$ and $4.36{\pm}1.25$)m/s, respectively. For the parameters of elastography, "AREA%" and SWV demonstrated significant differences between groups (p=0.002). AREA% was positively correlated with SWV with a correlation coefficient of 0.809 (P<0.001). Conclusions: Stiffness of different lymph node diseases in patients may differ. Elastography can evaluate changes sensitively and provide valuable information to doctors. The study proved that the VTIQ elastography technique can play an important role in differential diagnosis of lymph nodes.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.251-258
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• 2019

Purpose: To assess the feasibility of the use of spin-echo echo-planar imaging (SE-EPI) magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in livers of children and young adults. Materials and Methods: Patients (${\leq}20$ years old) who underwent 3T SE-EPI MRE were included retrospectively. Subjects were divided into three groups according to the purpose of the liver MRI: suspicion of fatty liver or focal fat deposition in the liver (FAT group), liver fibrosis after receiving a Kasai operation from biliary atresia (BA group), and hepatic iron deposition after receiving chemotherapy or transfusions (IRON group). Technical failure of MRE was defined when a stiffness map showed no pixel value with a confidence index higher than 95%, and the patients were divided as success and failure groups accordingly. Clinical findings including age, gender, weight, height, and body mass index and magnetic resonance imaging results including proton density fat fraction (PDFF), $T2^*$, and MRE values were assessed. Factors affecting failure of MRE were evaluated and the image quality in wave propagation image and stiffness map was evaluated using the appropriate scores. Results: Among total 240 patients (median 15 years, 211 patients in the FAT, 21 patients in the BA, and 8 patients in the IRON groups), technical failure was noted in six patients in the IRON group (6/8 patients, 75%), while there were no failures noted in the FAT and BA groups. These six patients had $T2^*$ values ranging from 0.9 to 3.8 ms. The image quality scores were not significantly different between the FAT and BA groups (P > 0.999), while the scores were significantly lower in the IRON group (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The 3T SE-EPI MRE in children and young adults had a high technical success rate. The technical failure was occurred in children with decreased $T2^*$ value (${\leq}3.8ms$) from iron deposition.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.107-113
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• 2014

Background: Sonoelastography (SE) is a new technique that can assess differences in tissue stiffness, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of SE to assess the long head of biceps tendon alteration. Methods: Forty shoulders of 36 consecutively registered patients with clinical symptoms and conventional ultrasonography findings of biceps tendinitis or tendinosis, and 40 asymptomatic shoulders of 20 healthy volunteers were assessed with SE. Transverse and longitudinal images of long head of biceps tendon were obtained using SE. SE images were performed by one orthopedic surgeon and evaluated by two orthopedic surgeons using an experimentally proven color grading system. Results: The transverse images of SE showed a sensitivity of 87.5%, a specificity of 95.0% and a accuracy of 91.3%, the longitudinal images of SE showed a sensitivity of 92.5%, a specificity of 90.0% and a accuracy of 91.3%. Inter-observer reliability of SE was in 'almost perfect agreement' with a weighted kappa coefficient of 0.83. Conclusions: SE is valuable in the detection of the intratendinous and peritendinous alterations of biceps tendon, and has excellent accuracy and excellent correlation with conventional ultrasound findings.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제48권3호
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• pp.161-165
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• 2018

Purpose: To evaluate the usefulness of shear wave elastography in the diagnosis of oral and maxillofacial diseases. Materials and Methods: Ten patients with oral and maxillofacial diseases and 28 volunteers drawn from our student doctors were examined by shear wave elastography with a 14-MHz linear transducer using an Aplio 300 apparatus (Canon Medical Systems, Otawara, Japan). A statistical analysis of the shear elastic modulus(kPa) of healthy tissue (the sublingual gland, submandibular gland, anterior belly of the digastric muscle, and geniohyoid muscle) in the 28 volunteers was performed using 1-way repeated measures analysis of variance with the Tukey honest significant difference test. The maximum shear elastic modulus(kPa) of 8 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and 2 patients with benign lesions was evaluated with the Mann-Whitney U test. The analysis used a 5% significance level. Results: The mean shear elastic modulus of the sublingual gland ($9.4{\pm}3.7kPa$) was lower than that of the geniohyoid muscle ($19.2{\pm}9.2kPa$, P=.000) and the anterior belly of the digastric muscle ($15.3{\pm}6.1kPa$, P=.004). The maximum shear elastic modulus of the SCCs($109.6{\pm}14.4kPa$) was higher than that of the benign lesions($46.4{\pm}26.8kPa$, P=.044). Conclusion: Our results demonstrated the usefulness of shear wave elastography in the diagnosis of oral and maxillofacial diseases. Shear wave elastography has the potential to be an effective technique for the objective and quantitative diagnosis of oral and maxillofacial diseases.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제48권1호
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• pp.45-49
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• 2018

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quantitative strain elastography of tongue carcinoma using intraoral ultrasonography. Materials and Methods: Two patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) who underwent quantitative strain elastography for the diagnosis of tongue lesions using intraoral ultrasonography were included in this prospective study. Strain elastography was performed using a linear 14 MHz transducer (Aplio 300; Canon Medical Systems, Otawara, Japan). Manual light compression and decompression of the tongue by the transducer was performed to achieve optimal and consistent color coding. The variation in tissue strain over time caused by the compression exerted using the probe was displayed as a strain graph. The integrated strain elastography software allowed the operator to place circular regions of interest (ROIs) of various diameters within the elastography window, and automatically displayed quantitative strain (%) for each ROI. Quantitative indices of the strain (%) were measured for normal tissues and lesions in the tongue. Results: The average strain of normal tissue and tongue SCC in a 50-year-old man was 1.468% and 0.000%, respectively. The average strain of normal tissue and tongue SCC in a 59-year-old man was 1.007% and 0.000%, respectively. Conclusion: We investigated the quantitative strain elastography of tongue carcinoma using intraoral ultrasonography. Strain elastography using intraoral ultrasonography is a promising technique for characterizing and differentiating normal tissues and SCC in the tongue.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.10-19
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• 2007

기존 MRI, 즉 T1 강조-, T2 강조-, 확산-, 관류-, 기능적-, 등의 영상법은 조직의 물리적 파라미터 그리고 기능적 특성을 알려주는 역할을 한다. 본 종설에서는 최근 관심이 높아지고 있는 영상기법의 하나로 MRE (Magnetic Resonance Elastography, 자기공명탄성법)를 소개하고자 한다. MRE는 기존의 물리적, 기능적 측정을 벗어나 조직의 기계적 특성에 관한 정보를 제공해준다는 면에서 MRI를 이용한 새로운 modality로서의 가능성을 시사해 준다. 예로부터 진단의 가장 기초적인 방법중 하나로서 촉진을 이용하여 조직의 경도를 가늠하여 왔다. MRE는 조직의 경도를 MRI를 이용하여 객관적으로 수치화해준다. MRE 임상실험을 성공적으로 수행하기 위해서는 몇 가지 하드웨어와 소프트웨어(트랜스듀서, 펄스대열, 영상처리 알고리즘)가 구비되어야 한다. 트랜스듀서는 인체에 진동을 전달해주는 부분으로서 MRE 응용을 가능하게 하는 핵심적인 역할을 한다. 따라서 MRI 시스템의 자기장과 인체의 골격, 피부와 트랜스듀서 접촉면의 압력, 마찰을 고려하여 제작하여야 한다. 트랜스듀서를 통해서 인체 내부에 진동이 전달되고 있으면 최적의 영상을 얻기 위하여 고려되어야 할 사항이 펄스대열을 조정하는 것이다. 마지막으로 여러 가지 물질에 대한 가정(등방성, 균질성, 비압축성)하에서 영상처리 알고리즘은 파동방정식(Helmholtz equation)으로 표현되며 이로부터 탄성도(Elasticity or Modulus)를 구할 수 있다. 본 종설에서는 이에 대한 리뷰 및 MRE를 이용한 응용분야에 대하여 살펴본다.