• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.3-42
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• 2023

The Supreme Court en banc decision on December 12, 2022 (docket number 2016Do21314) ruled that the diagnosis of endometrial hyperplasia by an oriental medical doctor using a diagnostic ultrasound device was not an unlicensed medical practice for an oriental medical doctor, which shall be scrutinized by the article 27 (1) of the Korean Medical Service Act. This ruling did not determine that a specific medical practice, especially diagnosis, based on the radiology, which is a part of western medicine, was not an unlicensed medical practice for an oriental medical doctor. Rather, it intended to clarify that the prosecutor should specify and prove the way of diagnosis and he should not prosecute mere the use of a diagnostic ultrasound device itself. To that extent, the ruling is agreeable because, as the oriental medicine community has argued, there is no regulation prohibiting the use of certain devices. It is probable, however, that the way of diagnosis established in radiology, which is a part of western medicine, was actually used in the case. In that case, there is undeniably an unlicensed medical practice for an oriental medical doctor. While many of the cases where the demarcation between (western) medicine and oriental medicine have been problematized thus far have been experimental treatment in nature, the above practice of using ultrasound appears to be frequently done in many oriental clinics, and so it is necessary to cope with the possibility of a disguised unlicensed medical practice. Another problem is the prevention of unfair practice or the protection of medical consumers. In fact, many oriental medical clinics' practice appear to have a tendency of inducing medical consumers' misunderstanding that a diagnosis based on radiology, which is a part of western medicine, were provided. It is hard to respond to this problem with demarcation between (western) medicine and oriental medicine. A new regulation against unfair practice might be necessary to implement.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.231-240
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• 2018

Automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) equipment is a new innovative technique for 3D automatic breast scanning, but limited for the examination in the concave axillary region. The purpose of this study was to determine feasible candidate materials for the ultrasonic wave propagation media in ABUS, enabling the evaluation of the axillary region. Ultrasonography was performed using an ABUS system ($Invenia^{TM}ABUS$, GE, USA) on the ultrasound-specific phantom (UC-551M-0.5, ATS Laboratories, USA) covered by different candidate materials. The validity of feasible candidate materials was evaluated by image quality. Three independent radiological technologists, with more than 10 years of experience, visually assessed on the images. The inter-observer agreements according to the candidate materials were tested using Cronbach's alpha. Unenveloped solidified carrageenan can be a feasible material for the use of ABUS with excellent test reliability. Therefore, the coverage of the axillary region with carrageenan may be effective for ABUS which was originally developed for the convex anatomic structure as female breast.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.719-726
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• 2001

Transdermal drug delivery offers various advantages over conventional drug delivery systems, such as avoidance gastrointestinal degradation and hepatic first-pass effect. encourages patient compliance. and possible sustained release of drugs. However, transdermal transport of drugs is low permeability of the stratum corneum, the superficial layer of the skin. Many physicochemical and biological factors influencing transdermal transport is described together with the corresponding experimental and clinical results. Phonophoresis is medical treatment with drugs introduced into the skin by ultrasound energy. Enhanced drug penetration is through to result from the biophysical alterations of skin structure by ultrasound waves. The frequency used for phonophoresis is usually from 20 kHz to 15MHz. Phonophoresis can be categorized in to three ranges: low-frequency range(below 1 MHz). therapeutic frequency range(1 to 3MHz), and high-frequency range(above 3 MHz). The depth of penetration of ultrasound into skin is inversely proportional to the frequency. Cavitation may cause mechanical stress. temperature elevation, or enhanced chemical reactivity causing drug transport. One theory is that ultrasound affects the permeation of the stratum corneum lipid structure as the limiting step in permeating through the skin. The range of indications for phonophoresis is wide. Aspecific classification of the range of indications is obtained by classification of pathological conditions. The continuous research is needed for many interesting issucs of phonophoretic transdermal delivory in new future.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.204-210
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• 2019

This study was performed to evaluate research studies utilizing ultrasound diagnostic units, the practitioners who performed the ultrasound assessments, and how they had been used primarily in tandem with the Korean Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System. This study identified 46 studies following a literature search, and discovered that a Korean medicine doctor led the ultrasonography in 13 studies, a medical technician was responsible in 6 studies, a roentgenologist carried it out in 5, and 19 of the studies did not specify who had conducted it. Ultrasonography had been actively used in the course of the clinical practice of Korean medicine, and it may serve as a useful and reliable diagnostic tool for evaluating the effectiveness of Korean medicine. The results of this study will help to promote more ultrasound studies in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.227-229
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• 2010

• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.510-512
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• 2018

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.82 no.3
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• pp.264-265
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• 2019

• 대한생식의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.120.1-120.1
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.238-239
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• 1999

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.43-51
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• 2010

Attenuation coefficients of medical ultrasound not only reflect the pathological information of tissues scanned but also provide the quantitative information to compensate the decay of backscattered signals for other medical ultrasound parameters. Based on the frequency-selective attenuation property of human tissues, attenuation estimation methods in spectral domain have difficulties for real-time implementation due to the complexicity while estimation methods in time domain do not achieve the compensation for the diffraction effect effectively. In this paper, we propose the modified VSA method, which compensates the diffraction with reference phantom in time domain, using adaptive bandpass filters with decreasing center frequencies along depths. The adaptive bandpass filtering technique minimizes the distortion of relative echogenicity of wideband transmit pulses and maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio due to the random scattering, especially at deeper depths. Since the filtering center frequencies change according to the accumulated attenuation, the proposed algorithm improves estimation accuracy and precision comparing to the fixed filtering method. Computer simulation and experimental results using tissue-mimicking phantoms demonstrate that the distortion of relative echogenicity is decreased at deeper depths, and the accuracy of attenuation estimation is improved by 5.1% and the standard deviation is decreased by 46.9% for the entire scan depth.