• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.1213-1217
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• 2011

Electric stimulators are used for various treatments, such as for pain relief and to improve rehabilitation in and out of the hospital. However, if the stimulation pulse affects the patient's heart, it can cause critical cardiac disorders such as arrhythmia or ventricular fibrillation. As a result, it must be ensured that the transmission length of the stimulation pulse does not exceed the proper range in the design of an electric stimulator. Furthermore, every anticipated risk factor must be monitored in in-vitro and in-vivo experiments. A new stimulator was designed to supply continuous 0.001 J stimulation pulses at a rate of 60 pulses per second. To evaluate the safety of the new electric stimulator and to measure its energy transfer and pulse transmission length, we built a conduction model that was filled with saline and measured the electric field at various positions in response to real stimulations. In an animal experiment with two pigs, heart disorders were induced by applying electric stimulation to tissues near the heart. These heart disorders were different from the result obtained with 9 V DC stimulation.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 1995

We produced the causalgiform pain by the tight ligation of L5 and L6 spinal nerves in the adult rats. To evalute the effect of Ketamine -noncompetitive NMDA (N-methyl-D aspartate) antagoinst- on the causalgiform pain, we tested the changes of; withdrawal sensitivity to the innocuous mechanical stimulation of Von Frey hair 2.35 g(mechanical allodynia); withdrawal frequency to the cold stimulation of acetone (cold allodynia); and total withdrawal time (second) to the cold ($4^{\circ}C$) plate stimulation (cold hyperalgesia) after the administration of 1 mg, 3 mg, 10 mg/kg ketamine. The results were as follows: 1) Cold hyperalgesia was significantly reduced (p<0.05) by 1 mg, 3mg, 01 mg/kg ketamine. 2) Cold allodynia and mechanical allodynia was significantly reduced (p<0.05) by 10 mg/kg ketamine. Above results suggest a therapeutic utility of ketamine in treatment of causalgia - especially, cold hyperalgesia.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.215-224
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• 2001

Objcetive : Neuropathic pain sometimes arises from a partial peripheral nerve injury. This kind of pain is usually accompanied by spontaneous burning pain, allodynia and hyperalgesia. It has been well known that acupuncture is effective to the pain control from ancient time in Asia. However, it is not clear whether acupuncture can control neuropathic pain. The aim of the present study is to examine if acupuncture stimulation may be effective to the mechanical allodynia in a rat model of neuropathic pain. Methods : To produce neuropathic pain, under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia, the right superior caudal trunk was resected between the S3 and S4 spinal nerves. After the neuropathic surgery, we examined if the animals exhibited the behavioral signs of mechanical allodynia. The mechanical allodynia was assessed by stimulating the tail with von Frey hair (bending force : 2.0g). three or 6 weeks after the neuropathic surgery, acupuncture stimulation was delivered to Houxi (SI 3) as the following parameters (2HZ frequency, 0.07mA intensity and 3msec duration) for 30 minutes. Results : The stimulation of Houxi (SI 3) acupoint relieved the behavioral signs of mechanical allodynia. Conclusion : Our results suggest that acupuncture can control the mechanical allodynia of neuropathic pain.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 1992

The present study was designed to evaluate effects of intermittent electrical stimulation of the sciatic nerve on the atrophic response of antigravity muscles, such as the soleus (slow m.) and medial gastrocnemius (fast m.) muscles. Rats (Sprague-Dawley, 245-255g) were subjected to a hindlimb suspension and divided into three groups : one was with hindlimb suspension (MS) and another with hindlimb suspension plus intermittent electrical stimulation of the sciatic nerve (HS ES). Control group (CONT) was kept free without strain of the hindlimb. After 7 days of hindlimb suspension, the soleus and medial gastrocnemius muscles were cut at their insertion sites, and were then connected to the force transducer to observe their mechanical properties. Optimal pulse width and frequency of electrical stimulation were 0.2ms, 20Hz for the soleus muscle and 0.3ms, 40Hz for the medial gastrocnemius muscle under supramaximal stimulation. Body weight and circumference of the hindlimb were significantly decreased in HS and HS-ES groups compared with the control group. In HS-ES group, however, the weight of the soleus muscle was not different from that in the control group while the weight of the medial gastrocnemius muscle was lower than that in the control group. In HS group, mechanical properties of muscle contraction including contraction time, half relaxation time, twitch tension, tetanic tension, and fatigue index of both muscles were significantly decreased compared with the control group except for twitch tension and tetanic tension of medial gastrocnemius muscle. The degree of atrophy of the soleus muscle in HS group was more prominent than that of the medial gastrocnemius muscle. Twitch tension and fatigue index of the soleus muscle and fatigue index of the medial gastrocnemius muscle in HS-ES group were not different from those of the control group. While mechanical properties of the soleus muscle examined were all significantly increased in HS-ES group compared with HS group, only contraction time and fatigue index of the medial gastrocnemius muscle were significantly increased in HS-ES group. These data indicate that intermittent electrical stimulation may be useful in prevention of muscle atrophy.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.175-181
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• 2015

In this paper, the neuromuscular electrical stimulation medical devices for non-implantable incontinence treatment other than vaginal insertion type was developed and commercialized. The structure of medical devices for electrical stimulation based on the anatomy of the pelvic floor muscle designed. Then, the optimum parameters that may be effective in pelvic floor muscle electrical stimulation was set. The circuit system based on the optimum parameters were designed and manufactured. The frequency of the pulse voltage for electrical stimulation is 75[Hz], the pulse width is 300[${\mu}s$], the development of medical devices was to have seven program functions to the various treatments. The circuit system of medical devices was composed of microcontroller, comparator and converter. The performance of the developed circuit system in KTC(Korea Testing Certification) were carried out medical equipment inspection test. Test results, test specifications were satisfied with the medical device, the performance was verified to be commercialized as a medical device. The development of medical devices were validated risk assessment and product performance through a software validation. Commercialization of medical equipment was acquired to enable the certification standards of the international standard IEC 60601-1.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.365-373
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• 1999

Somatostatin (SOM) is one of the major neuropeptides in dorsal root ganglion cells, but its role in spinal nociceptive process has not been well known. In present study we aimed to investigate the effect of SOM on the response of dorsal horn neurons to the various types of peripheral nociceptive stimuli in anesthetized cats. Using carbon-filament microelectrode, the single cell activities of wide dynamic range neurons were recorded from the lumbosacral enlargement after noxious mechanical (squeeze), thermal (radiant heat lamp) and cold (dry ice) stimulation to the receptive field. Sciatic nerve was stimulated electrically to evoke $A\;{\delta}-$ and C-nociceptive responses. SOM analogue, octreotide $(10\;{\mu}g/kg),$ was applied intravenously and the results were compared with those of morphine (2 mg/kg, MOR). Systemic SOM decreased the cellular responses to the noxious heat and the mechanical stimulation, but increased those to the cold stimulation. In the responses to the electric stimuli of sciatic nerve, $A\;{\delta}-nociceptive$ response was increased by SOM, while C-nociceptive response was decreased. On the other hand, MOR inhibited the dorsal horn cell responses to all the noxious stimuli. From the above results, it is concluded that SOM suppresses the transmission of nociceptive heat and mechanical stimuli, especially via C-fiber, while it facilitates those of nociceptive cold stimuli via $A\;{\delta}-fiber$.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.199-205
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• 2006

Objectives : The present study was conducted to evaluate the analgesic effects of automatically controlled heating acupuncture(ACHA) using 2 different pain models(acute pain and neuropathic pain) and 2 different stimulation conditions (heating $41.5^{\cdot}C$ and heating $44.5^{\cdot}C$) in Sprague-Dawley rats. Methods : Tail flick latency(TFL) to a noxious radiant heat stimulus in lightly anesthetized rats was measured before and after ACHA stimulation for 5-min at the Zusanli(ST36) acupoint. For the neuropathic surgery, the right superior caudal trunk was resected at the level between S1 and S2 spinal nerves innervating the tail. Two weeks after the nerve injury, ACHA stimulation($41.5^{\cdot}C$ or $44.5^{\cdot}C$) was delivered to Zusanli(ST36) for 5 min. The behavioral signs of warm allodynia were evaluated by the tail immersion test (i.e. immersing the tail in warm $water(40^{\cdot}C)$ and measuring the latency to an abrupt tail movement) before and after the ACHA stimulation. Results : In the TFL test, ACHA stimulations under both the conditions above produced more potent analgesic effects than plain acupuncture(PA, acupuncture needle insertion only) and control(no treatment). In the tail immersion test, ACHA stimulations under all of the conditions had markedly relieved the warm allodynia signs. Conclusion : Automatically controlled heating acupul1cture produced analgesic effecs in acute and neuropathic pains.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1585-1587
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• 2008

Fibroblast is constantly subjected to mechanical loads in connective tissues where mechanical signals are converted to intercellular biochemical events. The aim of this study is to understand the effects of tensile stress on the neurotrophin (NT) and transforming growth factor (TGF) expression of fibroblast in vitro. Nerve growth factor (NGF) stimulates fibroblast migration, and TGF is related to tissue repair. In this study, at the uniaxial stretch of 10% strain and frequency of 0.5 Hz, different resting times of 0, 20, and 60 min are placed in between 10 min stimulations periods. Results show increase in NGF mRNA levels and a substantial decrease in NT3 mRNA after 1 hr of stimulation, indicating that the tensile stress may regulate NGF and NT3, key factors for the neurocosmetic applications. The mRNA level for TGF-${\alpha}$ and TGF-${\beta}2$ had increased up to two-folds after 1 hr of stimulation, showing that the tensile stress may control TGF, an important part of wound healing.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.155-163
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• 1998

The purpose of present study was to compare the effects of somatostatin (SOM) and morphine (Mor) on the responses of wide dynamic range (WDR) cells to peripheral noxious stimulation. Single neuronal activity was recorded with a carbon-filament electrode at the lumbosacral enlargement of cat spinal cord. After identifying WDR cells, their responses to peripheral noxious mechanical or thermal stimuli were characterized and the effects of SOM and Mor, applied either iontophoretically or intrathecally, were studied. In most cells SOM and Mor suppressed noxious stimulus-evoked WDR neuronal activity, though a few WDR neurons showed no change or were excited by SOM and Mor. Systemically applied naloxone, a non-specific opioid antagonist, always reversed the Mor induced suppression of neuronal activity evoked by noxious mechanical stimuli, but did not always reverse the suppression of neuronal activity elicited by SOM. The suppressive effect of Mor on thermal stimulus-evoked neuronal activity was partially reversed by naloxone, while that of SOM were not reversed at all. The above results suggest that both Mor and SOM exert an inhibitory effect on thermal and mechanical stimulus-evoked WDR neuronal activity in cat spinal dorsal horn, but the mechanisms are dependent upon the functional populations of dorsal horn nociceptive neurons.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1914-1919
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• 2006

Recently, the microrobots powered by biological muscle actuators were proposed. Among the biological muscle actuators, frog muscle is well known as a good muscle actuator and has a large displacement, actuation forces and piezoelectric properties. Therefore, for the application of the biomimetic microrobot, this paper reports the electromechanical properties of frog muscle. First of all, the experimental setup has been established for measuring generative force of the frog muscle. Through the various electrical stimulating inputs to the frog muscle, we measured the contractile force of the frog muscle. From the measuring results, we found that the actuating contractile force responses of the frog muscle are determined by the amplitude, frequency, duty ratio, and wave form of the stimulation signal. This study will be beneficial for the development of the microrobot actuated by frog muscle.