• Biomedical Engineering Letters
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.355-364
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• 2018

When focusing using an ultrasonic transducer array, a main lobe is formed in the focal region of an ultrasound field, but side lobes also arise around the focal region due to the leakage. Since the side lobes cannot be completely eliminated in the focusing process, they are responsible for subsequent ultrasound image quality degradation. To improve ultrasound image quality, a signal processing strategy to reduce side lobes is definitely in demand. To this end, quantitative determination of main and side lobes is necessary. We propose a theoretically and actually error-free method of exactly discriminating and separately computing the main lobe and side lobe parts in ultrasound image by computer simulation. We refer to images constructed using the main and side lobe signals as the main and side lobe images, respectively. Since the main and side lobe images exactly represent their main and side lobe components, respectively, they can be used to evaluate ultrasound image quality. Defining the average brightness of the main and side lobe images, the conventional to side lobe image ratio, and the main to side lobe image ratio as image quality metrics, we can evaluate image characteristics in speckle images. The proposed method is also applied in assessing the performance of side lobe suppression filtering. We show that the proposed method may greatly aid in the evaluation of medical ultrasonic images using computer simulations, albeit lacking the use of actual experimental data.

• 대한방사선기술학회지:방사선기술과학
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• 제38권3호
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• pp.213-220
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• 2015

본 연구는 3차원 입체정위 유방생검술의 정확도를 알아보고, 심부침생검을 이용하여 Stereotactic biopsy과 Sonoguided biopsy의 정확도와 정밀도를 평가하고자 한다. Stereotactic QC phantom을 이용하여 실제 5개의 target 위치로 3D sterotactic machine의 정확도를 측정하고, CT장비로 Scan하여 실측을 구해 X, Y, Z의 길이의 정밀도를 비교한다. 유방조직과 유사하게 제작한 Agar power phantom을 이용하여 5개의 각기 다른 needle tip Target을 통해 3D sterotactic machine과 2D ultrasound machine의 정확도를 비교하고, Z축을 장비별로 실측하여 정밀도와 신뢰도를 비교하며, 6개의 모조병소 Target을 심어놓은 Medical application phantom으로 표적하여 육안검사와 Specimen검사를 통해 정확도를 확인하였다. Stereotactic QC phantom으로 측정한 3D sterotactic machine의 정확도는 100%였으며, CT와 비교한 정밀도는 X, Y, Z축이 모두 p>0.05로 나타났다. Agar powder phantom으로 측정한 두 장비의 정확도는 100%의 정확도를 보였으며, CT와 두 장비 사이에는 p > 0.05로 차이가 없었다. 그러나 2명의 방사선사가 측정한 신뢰도분석에서 3D sterotactic machine은 ICC가 0.954였고, 2D ultrasound machine은 0.785로 2D ultrasound machine이 술자에 따라 차이가 있었다. Medical application phantom의 실험에서 3D sterotactic machine은 Sliced boneless ham을, 2D ultrasound machine은 small chalk powder group를 찾을 수 없었다. Phantom을 이용한 3차원 입체정위 유방생검술의 정확성은 우수하게 나타났고, 인체조직과 비슷한 Agar powder phantom과 유방 조직과 비슷한 Medical application phantom을 이용하여 Stereotactic biopsy과 Sonoguided biopsy의 정확도와 정밀도 모두 우수하게 나타났다. 또한 Medical application phantom의 심부침생검의 정확성 평가에서 각 검사에 따라 생검 표본이 병소의 형태에 따라 상이하게 채취되었고, 3차원 입체정위 유방생검술의 재현성이 유방 초음파검사보다 술자의 영향없이 우수하였다.

• 대한방사선협회지
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.157-174
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• 2001

Ⅰ. Purpose : To evaluate the usefulness of ultrasound-guided, radiologic placement of tunneled hemodialysis catheters via internal jugular vein(IJV). Ⅱ. Materials and Methods : In 32 patients(31 chronic renal failure, 1 acute renal failure), We performed

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제37권4호
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• pp.140-146
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• 2016

The ultrasound imaging in medical diagnosis has become a popular modality because of its safe, noninvasive, portable, relatively inexpensive, and provides a real-time image formation. However, usefulness of ultrasound imaging is at times limited due to the presence of signal-dependent noise like as speckle. Therefore, noise reduction is very important, as various types of noise generated limits the effectiveness of medical image diagnosis. This paper introduces a speckle noise reduce algorithm using total variation denoising (TVD) in Laplacian pyramid. With this method, speckle is removed by TVD of bandpass ultrasound images in Laplacian pyramid domain. For TVD in each pyramid layer, a ${\lambda}$ is selected by trial-and-error method. The visual comparison of despeckled 'in vivo' ultrasound images from pancreas shows that the proposed method could effectively preserve edges and detailed structures while thoroughly suppressing speckle. For a Simulated B-mode image, contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR) and signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) were obtained like 4.65 dB and 14.11 dB, respectively. The results show that the proposed method can conduct better than some of the existing methods in terms of the CNR and the SNR.

• Clinical Pain
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.74-85
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• 2021

Ultrasound (US) can depict of various anatomical structures, such as muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerve roots, and vessels, around the neck. The usage of US around the neck is increasing due to its quick and easy application for guided injection for nerves, tendons, and joints. This article elaborates the degenerative diseases causing neck pain, sonoanatomy, and the use of US for diagnosis and intervention; for example, small nerves around the neck, cervical root, stellate ganglion, medial branches, greater occipital nerve (GON), and third occipital nerve (TON). The aim of this review article is to lead readers to understand the anatomy around the neck and structural relations, and to get to know about several US-guided intervention of the neck.

• 한국의학물리학회지:의학물리
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.172-178
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• 2007

가로축 방식이 아닌 세로축 방식으로 초음파를 송수신하여 골밀도 측정을 하는 장치를 개발하였다. 반사된 초음파의 시간 차이를 이용하는 speed of sound (SOS) 방식은 주파수 차이를 비교하는 broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) 방식에 비하여 더욱 정확한 결과를 얻을 수 있다. 측정부위의 경우 엄지는 초음파 수신율이 좋으나 피부 두께의 변위가 많은 단점을 고려하여 중지를 채택하여 정확성을 높였다. SOS 방식만을 사용하여 측정한 결과 기존의 dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) 방식과 비교하여 거의 동일한 정확도를 얻을 수 있었다.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.80-85
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• 2020

Background: Atelocollagen has been studied for restoration of rotator cuff tendon. In this study, we attempted to evaluate the clinical outcome of ultrasound-guided atelocollagen injection in an outpatient clinic for patients with partial rotator cuff tear. Methods: We recruited 42 outpatients who visited our hospital from May 2019 to September 2019. Atelocollagen injection was performed in patients with partial rotator cuff tear diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound. American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES), Constant, Korean Shoulder Score (KSS) and Simple Shoulder Test (SST) scores, and range of motion were assessed before injection and after 2 months. Statistically, we analyzed the clinical results using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: Finally, 15 patients were enrolled for analysis. There was no significant difference between pre- and post-injection in terms of range of motion, ASES (57.0 vs. 60.4), Constant (56.4 vs. 58.9), KSS (64.6 vs. 68.5), and pain-visual analog scale (4.2 vs. 3.7), except function-visual analog scale (F-VAS; 6.3 vs. 7.1) and SST (6.6 vs. 6.9). A significant difference was found in SST (P=0.046) and F-VAS (P=0.009). According to the ultrasound results at 2 months, we found hyperechoic materials in three of seven patients. The most common complication of atelocollagen injection was post-injection pain (53%, 8/15). Conclusions: Ultrasound-guided atelocollagen injection for partial rotator cuff tear showed no significant change in terms of clinical outcomes, except for F-vas and SST score. Tendon regeneration was not clear due to the remnants of atelocollagen present at 2-month follow-up ultrasound. There seems to be alarming post-injection pain for 2 to 3 days in the patients who received atelocollagen injection in an outpatient clinic.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• 제65권2호
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• pp.365-376
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• 2023

Pig breeding management directly contributes to the profitability of pig farms, and pregnancy diagnosis is an important factor in breeding management. Therefore, the need to diagnose pregnancy in sows is emphasized, and various studies have been conducted in this area. We propose a computer-aided diagnosis system to assist livestock farmers to diagnose sow pregnancy through ultrasound. Methods for diagnosing pregnancy in sows through ultrasound include the Doppler method, which measures the heart rate and pulse status, and the echo method, which diagnoses by amplitude depth technique. We propose a method that uses deep learning algorithms on ultrasonography, which is part of the echo method. As deep learning-based classification algorithms, Inception-v4, Xception, and EfficientNetV2 were used and compared to find the optimal algorithm for pregnancy diagnosis in sows. Gaussian and speckle noises were added to the ultrasound images according to the characteristics of the ultrasonography, which is easily affected by noise from the surrounding environments. Both the original and noise added ultrasound images of sows were tested together to determine the suitability of the proposed method on farms. The pregnancy diagnosis performance on the original ultrasound images achieved 0.99 in accuracy in the highest case and on the ultrasound images with noises, the performance achieved 0.98 in accuracy. The diagnosis performance achieved 0.96 in accuracy even when the intensity of noise was strong, proving its robustness against noise.

• Clinical Pain
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.86-92
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• 2021

Ultrasound imaging in clinical practice is one of the widely used diagnostic methods because there is no radiation risk, more cost- effective compared to MRI or CT, and possible to perform an intervention through fast real-time imaging. In order to increase the diagnostic value, the studies of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) using an ultrasound contrast agent have been actively conducted since about 50 years ago and are being used clinically in vascularity and microcirculation of internal organs. Although ultrasound is actively used for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases in musculoskeletal disorders, there are some limitations in diagnosing mild or small lesions, inflammatory reactions, or abnormalities at the molecular level. In this review, the principles, types, and research, and clinical applications of ultrasound contrast agents have been summarized and introduced. If we understand the characteristics of the ultrasound contrast agents and anatomical knowledge, as well as molecular changes, the ultrasound contrast agents are widely applied in musculoskeletal disorders and have tremendous potential for diagnosis and treatment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.2929-2932
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• 2014

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic performances of risk of malignancy index (RMI), CA-125 and ultrasound score in differentiating between benign and borderline or malignant ovarian tumors and find the best diagnostic test for referral of suspected malignant ovarian cases to gynaecologic oncologists. Materials and Methods: This prospective study covered 467 women with pelvic tumors scheduled for surgery at our hospital between July 2011 and July 2013. The RMI was obtained from ultrasound score, CA125 and menopausal status. The diagnostic values of each parameter and the RMI were determined and compared using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences Version 14.0.1. Results: In our study, 61% of ovarian tumors were malignant in the post-menopausal age group. RMI with a cut-off 150 had sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 97% in detecting ovarian cancer. CA-125>30 had a sensitivity of 84% and a specificity of 83%. An ultrasound score more than 2 had a sensitivity of 96% and specificity of 81%. RMI had the least false malignant cases thus avoiding unnecessary laparotomies. Ultrasound when used individually had the best sensitivity but poor specificity. Conclusions: Our study has demonstrated the RMI to be an easy, simple and applicable method in the primary evaluation of patients with pelvic masses. It can be used to refer suspected malignant patients to be operated by a gynaecologic oncologist. Other models of preoperative evaluation should be developed to improve the detection of early stage invasive, borderline and non-epithelial ovarian cancers.