• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.88-93
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• 2016

Recently laser speckle contrast (LSC) imaging has become a widely used optical method for in vivo assessment of blood flow in the animal brain. LSC imaging is useful for monitoring brain hemodynamics with relatively high spatio-temporal resolution. A speckle contrast imaging system has been implemented with electrical sensory stimulation apparatus. LSC imaging is combined with optical intrinsic signal imaging in order to measure changes in cerebral blood flow as well as neural activity in response to electrical sensory stimulation applied to the hindlimb region of the mouse brain. We found that blood flow and oxygen consumption are correlated and both sides of hindlimb activation regions are symmetrically located. This apparatus could be used to monitor spatial or temporal responses of cerebral blood flow in animal disease models such as ischemic stroke or cortical spreading depression.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1217-1222
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• 2012

A wall flow sensor has been used for feedback flow control and wall shear stress measurement. In this study, we developed a new wall flow sensor by combining the PIV algorithm and the micro image sensor used in an optical mouse. The feasibility of the wall flow sensor was investigated by using simulated fluid flow experiments. Compared with the quadrature signal from imaging devices, the accuracy of the wall flow velocity measurement was improved and the dynamic range increased. In addition, the depth information of particles was also measured by using the defocusing imaging technique.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.2.1-2.10
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• 2021

Background: Diseases related to cerebrospinal fluid flow, such as hydrocephalus, syringomyelia, and Chiari malformation, are often found in small dogs. Although studies in human medicine have revealed a correlation with cerebrospinal fluid flow in these diseases by magnetic resonance imaging, there is little information and no standard data for normal dogs. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to obtain cerebrospinal fluid flow velocity data from the cerebral aqueduct and subarachnoid space at the foramen magnum in healthy beagle dogs. Methods: Six healthy beagle dogs were used in this experimental study. The dogs underwent phase-contrast and time-spatial labeling inversion pulse magnetic resonance imaging. Flow rate variations in the cerebrospinal fluid were observed using sagittal time-spatial labeling inversion pulse images. The pattern and velocity of cerebrospinal fluid flow were assessed using phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging within the subarachnoid space at the foramen magnum level and the cerebral aqueduct. Results: In the ventral aspect of the subarachnoid space and cerebral aqueduct, the cerebrospinal fluid was characterized by a bidirectional flow throughout the cardiac cycle. The mean ± SD peak velocities through the ventral and dorsal aspects of the subarachnoid space and the cerebral aqueduct were 1.39 ± 0.13, 0.32 ± 0.12, and 0.76 ± 0.43 cm/s, respectively. Conclusions: Noninvasive visualization of cerebrospinal fluid flow movement with magnetic resonance imaging was feasible, and a reference dataset of cerebrospinal fluid flow peak velocities was obtained through the cervical subarachnoid space and cerebral aqueduct in healthy dogs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.15-21
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• 2016

The circular and flat heat pipe were experimentally investigated by using neutron imaging technique. This experimental study was performed at the DINGO of OPAL research reactor, Australia. The diameter of the circular heat pipe is 10 mm and the dimension of flat is $10(width){\times}3(thickness)mm2$, respectively. We used the distilled water as a coolant. The coolant distributions and 2-phase flow patterns were measured under heating conditions. Experimental results show that neutron imaging technique is a good tool to visualize the 2-phase flow and phenomena in the heat pipe. The coolant distributions and 2-phase flow patterns depend on installation posture of the heat pipe and volume ratio of the coolant. Finally, it was discussed to calculate the void fraction by neutron imaging technique.

• 한국가시화정보학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.83-86
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• 2003

Synchrotron X-ray micro imaging technique was employed to non-invasively monitor the water flow inside xylem vessels in a bamboo leaf. The phase contrast X-ray images clearly visualized plant anatomy and the rise of a water front inside the vessels. Consecutive X-ray images taken for 60 seconds revealed water rise kinetics against gravity in the xylem of a cut dry leaf taken from a bamboo tree. For the first time, traces of water rise, variation of contact angle between water and xylem wall as well as the internal structure of xylem were obtained. In xylem vessels, a repeating flow pattern has a typical flow velocity of $30.7{\mu}m/s$ and faster flow is established intermittently. It is concluded that the transmission type of X-ray micro imaging can be used as a powerful tool to investigate the ascent of sap in the xylem vessels at a resolution higher than that of MRI.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1997 no.05
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• pp.127-130
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• 1997

Phase-contrast(PC) methods have been used for quantitative measurements of velocity and volume flow rate. In addition, phase contrast cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combines the flow dependent contrast of PC MRI with the ability of cardiac cine imaging to produce images throughout the cardiac cycle. In this method, the through-plane velocity has been encoded generally. However, the accuracy of the flow data can be reduced by the effect of flow direction, finite slice thickness, resolution, pulsatile flow pattern, and so on. In this study we calculated the error caused by misalignment of tomographic plane and flow directon. To reduce this error and encode the velocity for more complex flow, we suggested 3 directional velocity encoding method.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2022

This paper proposes an ultrasound vessel-pattern imaging algorithm with low computational complexity. The proposed imaging algorithm reconstructs blood-vessel patterns by only detecting blood flow, and can be applied to a real-time signal processing hardware that extracts an ultrasonic finger-vessel pattern. Unlike a blood-flow imaging mode of typical ultrasound medical imaging device, the proposed imaging algorithm only reconstructs a presence of blood flow as an image. That is, since the proposed algorithm does not use an I/Q demodulation and detects a presence of blood flow by accumulating an absolute value of the clutter-filter output, a structure of the algorithm is relatively simple. To verify a complexity of the proposed algorithm, a simulation model for finger vessel was implemented using Field-II program. Through the behavioral simulation, it was confirmed that the processing time of the proposed algorithm is around 54 times less than that of the typical color-flow mode. Considering the required main building blocks and the amount of computation, the proposed algorithm is simple to implement in hardware such as an FPGA and an ASIC.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6331-6335
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• 2013

Objective:To evaluate the performance of combined quantitative analysis of thyroid blood flow and static imaging data in the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Method: Thyroid blood flow and static imaging were performed in 165 patients with thyroid nodules. Patients were divided into a benign thyroid nodule group (BTN, n=135) and a malignant thyroid nodule group (MTN, n=30) based on the results of post-surgical pathologic examination. Carotid artery thyroid transit times (CTTT), perfusion ratio of thyroid nodule blood/thyroid blood (TNB/TB), and perfusion ratio of thyroid nodule blood/carotid artery blood (TNB/CAB) were measured using thyroid blood flow imaging. The ratios between thyroid nodule and ipsilateral submandibular gland (TN/SG) and thyroid nodule and normal thyroid tissue (TN/T) were measured from thyroid static imaging. The differences between the BTN and MTN groups were compared. Results: 1) CTTT was markedly lower in the MTN group than the BTN group, the difference being statistically significant. 2) TNB/TB and TNB/CAB were both significantly higher in MTN than BTN groups. 3) TN/T was significantly lower in MTN group than BTN group. 4) TN/SG was lower in MTN group than BTN group, but the difference was not statistically significant. 5) Using the combination of CTTT and TN/T, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were 93.1%, 95.3% and 94.9% respectively for the diagnosis of MTN. Using the combination of CTTT, TNB/TB and TN/T, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy changed to 89.7%, 100%, and 98.1% respectively. 6) Correlation analysis demonstrated a significant correlation between TN/T and TNB/TB (r=-0.384, P=0.036) and TNB/CAB (r=-0.466, P=0.009) in the MTN group. Conclusion: The combination of quantitative markers from thyroid blood flow and thyroid static imaging had high specificity and accuracy in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules, thus providing an important imaging diagnostic approach.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.377-382
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• 1994

In the conventional Fourier imaging method in MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), intramotion such as pulsatile flow makes zipper-like artifact along the phase encoding direction. On the other hand, line-integral projection reconstruction (LPR) method has advantages such as imaging of short T2, object and reduction of the flow artifact by elimination of the flow-induced phase fluctuation. The LPR, however, necessarily requires time consuming filtering and back-projection processes, so that the reconstruction takes long time. To overcome the long reconstruction time of the LPR and to obtain the flow artifact reduction effect, we adopted phase corrected concentric square raster sampling (CSRS) method and improved its imaging performance. The CSRS is a fast reconstruction method which has the same properties with the LPR. In this paper, we proposed a new method of flow artifact reduction using the CSRS method. Through computer simulations and experiments, we verified that the proposed method can eliminate phase fluctuations, thereby reducing the flow artifact and re- markably shorten the reconstruction time which required long time in the LPR.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.677-687
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• 2021

Microvascular ultrasound (US) techniques are advanced Doppler techniques that provide high sensitivity and spatial resolution for detailed visualization of low-flow vessels. Microvascular US imaging can be applied to breast lesion evaluation with or without US contrast agents. Microvascular US imaging without a contrast agent uses a sophisticated wall filtering system to selectively obtain low-flow Doppler signals from overlapped artifacts. Microvascular US imaging with second-generation contrast agents amplifies flow signals and makes them last longer, which facilitates hemodynamic evaluation of breast lesions. In this review article, we will introduce various microvascular US techniques, explain their clinical applications in breast cancer diagnosis and radiologic-histopathologic correlation, and provide a summary of a recent radiogenomic study using microvascular US.