• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.213-221
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• 2020

Purpose : This study aimed to evaluate the changes in visual perception and daily life activities after simultaneously applying the visual perception training program and transcranial DC stimulation. Particularly, this study tried to understand what changes in abilities among daily life activities influenced cognition. Methods : This study selected 50 dementia patients to achieve the objective. This study applied transcranial DC stimulation and a visual perception training program to a treatment group (n=25) and a visual perception training program to a control group (n=25). The intervention was applied five times per week and 30 minutes per session (total of 30 intervention sessions). This study measured visual perception functions and daily life activities using MVPT and FIM before and after applying the intervention. Results : The visual perception, mobility of daily life activities, cognition, and total score of the treatment group (n=25), which received the visual perception training program and transcranial DC at the same time, were significantly (p<.05) different between before and after the intervention. Moreover, when the visual perception and daily life activities of the treatment group and those of the control group after implementing the intervention were compared, they were significantly (p<.05) different between the two groups. Conclusion : The results of this study showed that the simultaneous application of the visual perception training program and transcranial DC stimulation was an effective means to enhance the visual perception and daily life activities of dementia patients. The results implied that transcranial DC stimulation, as well as the application of visual perception training program, as well as a visual perception training program, was effective for improving the visual perception functions and daily life activities dementia patients and simultaneous application of the two interventions would increase the effect even further.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2023

Purpose : This study evaluated the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program on the depression, hand functions, cognitive function, and activities of daily living of patients with mild cognitive impairment by dividing 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment and depression. The 20 patients were divided into a treatment group (transcranial direct current stimulation + a virtual reality program) and a control group (placebo transcranial direct current stimulation + a placebo virtual reality program). Methods : This study allocated ten subjects to the treatment group and ten subjects to the control group. The treatment was given five times per week for six weeks (30 sessions), and each session was 30 minutes. This study screened depression by using SGDS-K, a short geriatric depression scale, to examine depression before and after treatment intervention. This study also used the box and block test, NCSE, and FIM to evaluate hand functions, cognitive function, and activities of daily living, respectively. Results : The results showed that depression significantly decreased, hand functions significantly increased, cognitive function significantly improved, and activities of daily living significantly increased after intervention in the treatment and control groups. The magnitude of changes in depression, hand functions, cognitive function, and activities of daily living was significantly different between the two groups after intervention (p>.05). Conclusion : The results showed that the application of transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program could improve cognitive function, hand functions, and activities of daily living by decreasing depression. Therefore, it can be concluded that the simultaneous application of transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program is an intervention method, which can be applied for decreasing depression, enhancing hand functions, improving cognitive function, and increasing activities of daily living in patients with mild cognitive impairment.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.167-175
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• 2023

Purpose : The study aim was to apply high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to and investigate the effects on upper extremity function and activities of daily living. Methods : This study was conducted at Hospital D in U City from April to June 2018. Thirty-two patients diagnosed with stroke according to prior research criteria were selected and divided into two groups. Sixteen people in the experimental group received high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and traditional occupational therapy, and sixteen people in the received sham stimulation and traditional occupational therapy. Both groups received 20 minutes of transcranial magnetic stimulation and 30 minutes of traditional occupational therapy per session, five times per week, for a total of 10 sessions over two weeks. Upper extremity functional evaluation, MFT and activities of daily living (Korean Version of the Modified Barthel Index, K-MBI) were conducted before and after the intervention, and an independent t test was used to confirm the effects of the intervention. Results : No statistically significant difference between the aforementioned groups' MFT and K-MBI scores was noted before the intervention. After the intervention, however, a statistically significant difference was found in K-MBI scores (p<.001). Additionally, after the intervention, a significant difference between the groups' MFT scores was found (p<.05). Conclusion : The results of this study showed that the combination of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and occupational therapy was effective in recovering upper extremity function and activities of daily living in patients diagnosed with acute stroke.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.7-18
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• 2019

Objective : This systematic review aimed to investigate the impact of transcranial direct current stimulation combined with constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) in patients with stroke Methods : PubMed and NDSL databases were employed to review literature published between January 2009 and December 2018. The main search terms were "Transcranial direct current stimulation" or "tDCS," "Constraint-induced movement therapy" or "CIMT," "Upper extremity function," "Upper limb," and "Stroke." Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 6 articles were selected. Furthermore, intervention effects on upper extremity function, activities of daily living, and cortical activity were assessed. Results : The current intensity, application time, and protocol of the CIMT varied the between studies. However, the intervention procedures to perform CIMT immediately after transcranial direct current stimulation was the same. Transcranial direct current stimulation combined with CIMT was effective in improving upper limb function and activities of daily living in patients with stoke and had a significant effect on cerebral cortex activation. Conclusions : This study provides information on transcranial direct current stimulation combined with CIMT for use by clinical therapists. Further studies are needed to standardize the stimulation time, current intensity, and electrode attachment position. Furthermore, randomized controlled trials, including long-term follow up, are needed for larger populations using the most appropriate CIMT protocol.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.709-716
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• 2007

Objective : We present reference values of flow velocities of intracranial and extracranial cerebral arteries and relation with change factor. Method : We checked transcranial Doppler ultrasonography on mean velocity, systolic velocity, pulsatility index, and resistance index of 252 patients. We also compared differences of change factor. Result : The result showed a difference by sex and age and relevance between vessels besides mean velocity of vessels related with past history and social history. Conclusion : According to the above results, females showed higher velocity of all vessels. With advancing age, subjects showed reduction in velocity and increase in pulsatility index and resistance index. Anterior cerebral, middle cerebral, and posterior cerebral artery increased in proportion to velocity of internal carotid artery and basilar artery. Vessel velocity correlated with diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hyperlipidemia.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.181-184
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• 2014

The aim of the present study was to examine whether motor imagery (MI) practice in conjunction with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) applied to stroke patients could improve theirgait ability. This study was conducted with 29 subjects diagnosed with hemiparesis due to stroke.The experimental group consisted of 15 members who were performed MI practice in conjunction with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, while the control group consisted of 14 members who were performed MI practice and sham therapy. Both groups received traditional physical therapy for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks; additionally, they received mental practice for 15 minutes. The experimental group was instructed to perform rTMS and the control group was instructed to apply sham stimulation for 15 minutes. Gait analysis was performed using a three-dimensional motion capture system, which is a real-time tracking device that delivers data via infrared reflective markers using six cameras. Results showed that the velocity, step length, and cadence of both groups were significantly improved after the practice (p<0.05). Significant differences were found between the groups in velocity and cadence (p<0.05) as well as with respect to the change rate (p<0.05) after practice. The results showed that MI practice in conjunction with rTMS is more effective in improving gait ability than MI practice alone.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.129-132
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• 2015

The aim of the present study was to examine whether repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can improve gait ability of acute stage stroke patients. This study was conducted with 39 subjects who were diagnosed as having a hemiparesis due to stroke. The experimental group included 20 subjects who underwent repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and the control group included 19 subjects who underwent sham therapy. The stroke patients in the experimental group underwent conventional rehabilitation therapy and rTMS was applied daily to the hotspot of the lesional hemisphere. The stroke patients in the control group underwent sham rTMS and conventional rehabilitation therapy. Participants in both groups received therapy five days per week for four weeks. Temporospatial gait characteristics, such as stance phase, swing phase, step length in affected side, velocity, and cadence, were assessed before and after the four week therapy period. A significant difference was observed in post-treatment gains for the step length in the affected side, velocity, and cadence between the experimental group and control group ( p < 0.05). However, no significant differences were observed between the two groups on stance phase and swing phase ( p > 0.05). We conclude that rTMS may be beneficial in improving the effects of acute stage stroke on gait ability.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.89-100
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• 2018

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation method that delivers 1-2 mA of current to the scalp. Several clinical studies have been conducted to confirm the therapeutic effect of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients with tDCS. Some studies have shown tDCS's antidepressant effect, while the others showed conflicting results in antidepressant effects. Our aim of this review is to understand the biological bases of tDCS's antidepressant effect and review the results of studies on tDCS's antidepressant effect. For the review and search process of MDD treatment using tDCS, the US National Library of Medicine search engine PubMed was used. In this review, we discuss the biological mechanism of tDCS's antidepressant effect and the existing published literature including meta-analysis, systematic review, control trial, open studies, and case reports of antidepressant effects and cognitive function improvement in patients with MDD are reviewed. We also discuss the appropriate tDCS protocol for MDD patients, factors predictive of response to tDCS treatment, the disadvantages of tDCS in MDD treatment, and side effects.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.369-374
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• 2022

Purpose: Focused ultrasound is an emerging technology for treating the brain locally in a noninvasive manner. In this study, we have investigated the influence of skull properties on simulating transcranial pressure field. Methods: A 3D computational model of transcranial focused ultrasound was constructed using female and male CT data to solve for intracranial pressure. For heterogeneous model, the acoustic properties were calculated from CT Hounsfield units based on a porosity. The homogeneous model assigned constant acoustic properties for the single-layered skull. Results: A computational model was validated against empirical data. The homogeneous models were then compared with the heterogeneous model, resulted in 10.87% and 7.19% differences in peak pressure for female and male models respectively. For the focal volume, homogeneous model demonstrated more than 94% overlap compared with the heterogeneous model. Conclusion: Homogeneous model can be constructed using MR images that are commonly used for the segmentation of the skull. We propose the possibility of the homogeneous model for the simulating transcranial pressure field owing to comparable focal volume between homogeneous model and heterogeneous model.

• The Journal of the Society of Stroke on Korean Medicine
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2005

Objective : This study was performed to examine the relationship between cerebral blood vessel with meridian by using Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography(TCD) Method : Monitoring of TCD was examined in 10 healthy people in their twenties (mean age was 26.5±1.00). Each examination was performed before & after acupuncture. Three Meridian were tested. Those were Stomach Meridian, Bladder Meridian & Gallbladder Meridian. Maximum velocity and Mean velocity were analyzed from TCD on different vessel. Result : The results showed significant(p<0.05; Wilcoxon signed rank test) change in some cerebral blood flow after acupuncture. Conclusion : There was the relationship between Meridian and cerebral blood vessel.