• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.181-192
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• 2014

In this paper, we propose a robust real-time myocardial border tracking algorithm for echocardiography. Commonly, after an initial contour of LV border is traced at one or two frame from the entire cardiac cycle, LV contour tracking is performed over the remaining frames. Among a variety of tracking techniques, optical flow method is the most widely used for motion estimation of moving objects. However, when echocardiography data is heavily corrupted in some local regions, the errors bring the tracking point out of the endocardial border, resulting in distorted LV contours. This shape distortion often occurs in practice since the data acquisition is affected by ultrasound artifacts, dropout or shadowing phenomena of cardiac walls. The proposed method deals with this shape distortion problem and reflects the motion realistic LV shape by applying global deformation modeled as affine transform partitively to the contour. We partition the tracking points on the contour into a few groups and determine each affine transform governing the motion of the partitioned contour points. To compute the coefficients of each affine transform, we use the least squares method with equality constraints that are given by the relationship between the coefficients and a few contour points showing good tracking results. Many real experiments show that the proposed method supports better performance than existing methods.

• 한국가시화정보학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.40-45
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• 2005

Velocity and density distributions of a high-speed and initial $CO_{2}$ jet flow have been analyzed simultaneously by a developed three-dimensional digital speckle tomography and a particle image velocimetry(PIV). Three high-speed cameras have been used for tomography and PIV since a shape of a nozzle for the jet flow is asymmetric and the initial flow is fast and unsteady, The speckle movements between no flow and $CO_{2}$ jet flow have been obtained by a cross-correlation tracking method so that those distances can be transferred to deflection angles of laser rays for density gradients. The three-dimensional density fields for the high-speed $CO_{2}$ jet flow have been reconstructed from the deflection angles by a real-time tomography method and the two-dimensional velocity fields have been calculated by a PIV method simultaneously and instantaneously.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.141-149
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• 2003

This paper proposes a method of measuring and imaging the stiffness of human soft tissue to diagnose cancers or tumors which have been difficult to detect in ultrasound B-mode imaging systems. To measure the soft tissue stiffness, sinusoidal vibrations are applied to it, and the magnitude of its mechanical vibration is determined by estimating the temporal variation of speckle pattern brightness in ultrasound B-mode images. It is verified by simulation and experiment that the proposed method can estimate the relative tissue stiffness from B-mode images with a relatively small amount of computation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.108-114
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• 2006

Transient and asymmetric density distributions of butane flow have been investigated from laser image signals by developed three-dimensional digital speckle tomography. Moved signals of speckles have been captured by multiple CCD images in three angles of view simultaneously because the flows were asymmetric and transient. The signals of speckle movements between no flow and downward butane flow from a circular half opening have been calculated by a cross-correlation tracking method so that those distances can be transferred to deflection angles of laser rays fur density gradients. The three-dimensional density fields have been reconstructed from the fringe shift signal which is integrated from the deflection angle by a real-time multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique (MART).

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.190-195
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• 2016

Purpose: Severe aplastic anemia (SAA), a fatal disease, requires multiple transfusion, immunosuppressive therapy, and finally, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) as the definitive treatment. We hypothesized that iron overloading associated with multiple transfusions and HSCT-related complications may adversely affect cardiac function. Left ventricular (LV) function was assessed in children after HSCT for SAA. Methods: Forty-six consecutive patients with a median age of 9.8 years (range, 1.5-18 years), who received HSCT for SAA and who underwent comprehensive echocardiography before and after HSCT, were included in this study. The data of LV functional parameters obtained using conventional echocardiography, tissue Doppler imaging (TDI), and speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) were collected from pre- and post-HSCT echocardiography. These data were compared to those of 40 age-matched normal controls. Results: In patients, the LV ejection fraction, shortening fraction, end-diastolic dimension, mitral early diastolic E velocity, TDI mitral septal E' velocity, and STE LV longitudinal systolic strain rate (SSR) decreased significantly after HSCT. Compared to normal controls, patients had significantly lower post-HSCT early diastolic E velocity and E/A ratio. On STE, patients had significantly decreased LV deformational parameters including LV longitudinal systolic strain (SS), SSR, and diastolic SR (DSR), and circumferential SS and DSR. Serum ferritin levels showed weak but significant correlations (P<0.05) with LV longitudinal SS and SSR and circumferential SS and DSR. Conclusion: Subclinical LV dysfunction is evident in patients after HSCT for SAA, and was associated with increased iron load. Serial monitoring of cardiac function is mandatory in this population.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.64.1-64.12
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• 2021

Background: Pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), a neurodegenerative disease leading to reduced dopamine production, is a common disease in aged horses. The treatment is based on administration of the dopamine agonist pergolide. This drug has been related to valvular fibrosis in humans, but the cardiovascular effect of this drug has not yet been investigated in horses. Objectives: To determine whether pergolide induces valvular disease in horses or affects the cardiac function. Methods: Standard, tissue Doppler (TDE) and two-dimensional speckle tracking (STE) echocardiography were performed in horses with diagnosed PPID based on adrenocorticotropic hormone dosage. Measurements taken in horses treated with pergolide were compared with those from untreated horses with nonparametric t-tests. Furthermore, measurements from follow-up examinations performed at least three months after the initial exam were compared with a Wilcoxon signed rank test for repeated measurements in each group. Results: Twenty-three horses were included. None of the 12 horses under treatment developed valvular regurgitation. Furthermore, no differences in the measurements of the left ventricular systolic or diastolic function could be seen between the group of horses with treatment and those without treatment. Measurements taken in the follow-up exam did not differ compared to those taken in the initial exam in both groups. Conclusions: No changes of the left ventricular function assessed by TDE and STE could be shown in a small population of horses with confirmed PPID. Treatment with pergolide did not affect the ventricular function nor induce valvular disease.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.191-199
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• 2023

BACKGROUND: Assessment of left ventricular (LV) function plays a pivotal role in the management of patients with valvular heart disease, including those caused by rheumatic heart disease. Noninvasive LV pressure-strain loop analysis is emerging as a new echocardiographic method to evaluate global LV systolic function, integrating longitudinal strain by speckle-tracking analysis and noninvasively measured blood pressure to estimate myocardial work. The aim of this study was to characterize global LV myocardial work efficiency in patients with severe rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS) with preserved ejection fraction (EF). METHODS: We retrospectively included adult patients with severe rheumatic MS with preserved EF (> 50%) and sinus rhythm. Healthy individuals without structural heart disease were included as a control group. Global LV myocardial work efficiency was estimated with a proprietary algorithm from speckle-tracking strain analyses, as well as noninvasive blood pressure measurements. RESULTS: A total of 45 individuals with isolated severe rheumatic MS with sinus rhythm and 45 healthy individuals were included. In healthy individuals without structural heart disease, the mean global LV myocardial work efficiency was 96% (standard deviation [SD], 2), Compared with healthy individuals, median global LV myocardial work efficiency was significantly worse in MS patients (89%; SD, 4; p < 0.001) although the LVEF was similar. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with isolated severe rheumatic MS and preserved EF, had global LV myocardial work efficiencies lower than normal controls.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.2401-2408
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• 1997

The measured pulse shapes provided in the given data package demonstrated pulse distortions due to laser speckle. the distorted pulse shapes were carefully analyzed, modeled, and then applied to the DTTL(Digital-data Transition Tracking Loop)[1] bit synchronizer simulator to measure the mean time delay and its delay variation performance. The result showed that the maximum mean time delay variation with the modeled data was 12.5% when window size equals 1. All the data given were located within this modeled boundary and the maximum eman time delay variation was 7% in this case. The mean time delay variation was known to be smaller by reducing the window size [2][5][6]. The mitigated delay variation was 2.5% in the modeled case and 1.4% in the data set given when the windown size equals 0.1. With the digital DTTL insteal of analog DTTL, similar results was obtained.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.1E
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• pp.11-27
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• 2010

Nowadays, ultrasound Doppler imaging is widely used in assessing cardiovascular functions in the human body. However, a major drawback of ultrasonic Doppler methods is that they can provide information on blood flow velocity along the ultrasound beam propagation direction only. Thus, the blood flow velocity is estimated differently depending on the angle between the ultrasound beam and the flow direction. In order to overcome this limitation, there have been many researches devoted to estimating both axial and lateral velocities. The purpose of this article is to survey various two-dimensional velocity estimation methods in the context of Doppler imaging. Some velocity vector estimation methods can also be applied to determine tissue motion as required in elastography. The discussion is mainly concerned with the case of estimating a two-dimensional in-plane velocity vector involving the axial and lateral directions.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.125-132
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• 2023

BACKGROUND: There is limited data on the residual echocardiographic findings including strain analysis among post-coronavirus disease (COVID) patients. The aim of our study is to prospectively phenotype post-COVID patients. METHODS: All patients discharged following acute COVID infection were systematically followed in the post-COVID-19 Recovery Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul's Hospital. At 4-18 weeks post diagnosis, patients underwent comprehensive echocardiographic assessment. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was assessed by 3D, 2D Biplane Simpson's, or visual estimate. LV global longitudinal strain (GLS) was measured using a vendor-independent 2D speckle-tracking software (TomTec). RESULTS: A total of 127 patients (53% female, mean age 58 years) were included in our analyses. At baseline, cardiac conditions were present in 58% of the patients (15% coronary artery disease, 4% heart failure, 44% hypertension, 10% atrial fibrillation) while the remainder were free of cardiac conditions. COVID-19 serious complications were present in 79% of the patients (76% pneumonia, 37% intensive care unit admission, 21% intubation, 1% myocarditis). Normal LVEF was seen in 96% of the cohort and 97% had normal right ventricular systolic function. A high proportion (53%) had abnormal LV GLS defined as < 18%. Average LV GLS of septal and inferior segments were lower compared to that of other segments. Among patients without pre-existing cardiac conditions, LVEF was abnormal in only 1.9%, but LV GLS was abnormal in 46% of the patients. CONCLUSIONS: Most post-COVID patients had normal LVEF at 4-18 weeks post diagnosis, but over half had abnormal LV GLS.