• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2017

Purpose : The parameters used in architectural analysis are muscle thickness, fascicle length, pennation angle, etc. Pennation angle is an important muscle characteristic that plays a significant role in determining a fascicle's force contribution to movement. Ultrasonography has been widely used to obtain the image for measurement of a pennation angle since it is non-invasive and real-time. However, manual assessment in ultrasonographic images is time-consuming and subjective, making it difficult for using in muscle function analysis. Thus, in this study, I proposed an automatic method to extract the pennation angle from the ultrasonographic images of gastrocnemius muscle. Method : The ultrasonographic image obtained from 10 healthy participants's gastrocnemius muscle using for developed automatic measuring program. Automatic measuring program algorithm consists with preprocessing, line detection, line classification, and angle calculation. The resulting image was then used to detect the fascicles and aponeuroses for calculating the pennation angle with the consideration of their distribution in ultrasonographic image. Result : The proposed automatic measurement program showed the stable repeatability of pennation angle calculation. Conclusion : This study demonstrated that the proposed method was able to automatically measure the pennation angle of gastrocnemius, which made it possible to easily and reliably investigate pennation angle more.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.2382-2387
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• 2012

In this paper, we propose a new method to extract and analyze appendicitis from abdomen ultrasonographic image in order to measure the thickness of appendix and change of inflammation correctly. Since the ultrasonographic image has environmental effect in nature, we standardize the image first and the process of extracting appendicitis then extracts the bottom facia which has the critical role to find appendix area. The experiment with real appendicitis patient verifies that the proposed method is more effective than current field expert's naked eye inspection.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.1296-1301
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• 2008

Ultrasonography constructs pictures of areas inside the body needs in diagnosis by bouncing high-enorgy sound waves(ultrasound) off internal tissues or organs. In constructing an ultrasonographic image, the weakness of bounding signals induces noises and detailed differences of brightness, so that having a difficulty in detecting and diagnosing with the naked eyes in the analysis of ultrasonogram. Especially, the difficulty is extended when diagnosing muscle areas by using ultrasonographic images in the musculoskeletal test. In this paper, we propose a novel image processing method that computationally extracts a muscle area from an ultrasonographic image to assist in diagnosis. An ultrasonographic image consists of areas corresponding to various tissues and internal organs. The proposed method, based on features of intensity distribution, morphology and size of each area, extracts areas of the fascia, the subcutaneous fat and other internal organs, and then extracts a muscle area enclosed by areas of the fascia. In the extraction of areas of the fascia, a series of image processing methods such as histogram stretching, multiple operation, binarization and area connection by labeling is applied. A muscle area is extracted by using features on relative position and morphology of areas for the fascia and muscle areas. The performance evaluation using real ultrasonographic images and specialists' analysis show that the proposed method is able to extract target areas being approximate to real muscle areas.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.217-225
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• 2018

This study was to investigate the relationship between ultrasonographic examination and pattern identification classification on cinical studies in chinese medicine. We searched clinical studies related correlation between ultrasonographic examination and pattern identification classification in chinese medicine, that published from 2013 to 2016 in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases by keywords, 'ultrasound(超?)', 'chinese medicine(中?)', 'syndrome differentiation (辨?)'. Seventeen studies were found. There were 7 studies of gynecological diseases including polycystic ovary syndrome and uterine myoma, 5 studies of fatty liver, 3 studies of arthritis, and 1 studie of thyroid nodule and lymphadenopathy respectively. As a result, ii is thought that there was a certain degree of correlation between the change of the ultrasonographic image and the pathological types according to traditional chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome differentiation and ultrasonographic examination could be used as secondary means for the TCM syndrome differentiation classification. In conclusion, by using ultrasonograph device in a medicinal way of TCM and traditional korean medicine (TKM), it is thought that more detailed and accurate diagnosis and treatment are possible and the evidence for reasonableness of syndrome differentiation in TCM and TKM its validity can be secured.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2008

The present study proposed a method that dissolves ultrasonographic images into multiple resolutions using wavelet conversion and a boundary detection filter and improves the quality of ultrasonographic images through boundary detection filtering. In order to reduce noises and strengthen edges, the proposed method adjusted selectivity coefficient by area step by step from a low resolution image obtained from wavelet converted images to a high resolution image and performed edge filtering in consideration of direction. Through this method, we generated a selective low pass filtering effect in areas except edges by decreasing the wavelet coefficient for pixels in spot areas, improved continuity by smoothing edges in the tangential direction, and enhanced contrast by thinning in the normal direction. Through an experiment, we compared the filtering method using a non linear anisotropic expansion model and the filtering method using wavelet contraction structure in single resolution.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.159-167
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• 2009

Ultrasonographic examination was performed to observe the ultrasonographic image of Korean native cows' normal uterus in condition of in vitro and in vivo. The experiment was done 28 slaughtered cows' uterus using immersed in water in vitro, and 41 healthy breeding cows taken rectal ultrasonography in vivo. Ultrasonographic examination of uterine was taken on the reference of cross section of intercornual ligaments' cranial. Each uterus on the experiments was compared by estrous cycle and ultrasonographic frequency. The uterine structure using ultrasonography was 5 layers of uterine horn in vivo as well as in vitro. Uterine horn was observed to be distinguished from inside to outside as endometrium to inner echogenic layer, circular muscle layer to slightly echogenic elliptical layer, stratum vasculare to central echogenic layer, longitudinal muscle layer to slightly echogenic arched layer, and perimetrium to outer echogenic layer, respectively. According to the observation of uterus related to estrous cycle and ultrasonographic examination, uterine endometrium in vitro was constantly founded irrespective of estrous cycle and ultrasonographic frequency. On the low frequency, endometrium and circular muscle layer in estrus were prone to distinguished than in diestrus. On the high frequency, endometrium and circular muscle layer were always distinguished regardless of estrous cycle. In vivo, uterine endometrium and circular muscle layer were observed regardless of estrus and ultrasonographic frequency. On the low frequency, stratum vasculare and longitudinal muscle layer were not likely to be distinguished in diestrus, but estrus. On the high frequency, stratum vasculare and longitudinal muscle layer were observed regardless of estrous cycle. Also, every uterine structure was easily distinguished on high frequency than low frequency owing to precision of distinction in layers. The difference of results followed by the experiments conditions between in vitro and in vivo was that uterine endometrium and circular muscle layer in diestrus in vitro were difficult to be distinguished and uterine lumen was observed during whole estrous cycle. In vivo, It was founded that the distinction of stratum vasculare and logitudinal muscle layer in diestrus was complicated and uterine lumen was observed during only estrus. In view of the result so far achieved, normal uterine structure divided in 5 layers on ultrasonography was accorded with microscopic organization, uterine structure was likely to be observed during estrus than diestrus, high frequency checkup than low frequency, and uterine endometrium, circular muscle, stratum vasculare was easily observed regardless of estrous cycle and ultrasonographic frequency.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.302-307
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• 2018

This report describes the unusual ultrasonography features of chronic hypertrophic pyloric gastropathy in two dogs - a 12-year-old neutered male Pekingese (case 1) and an 11-year-old spayed female Shih Tzu (case 2) - with chronic vomiting and weight loss. Chronic hypertrophic pyloric gastropathy can be observed as the focal thickening of the pyloric wall with normal layers on ultrasonography images. However, in case 1, gastric neoplasia could not be ruled out because of the presence of regional lymph node enlargement; in case 2, an intussusception was tentatively diagnosed because of a mass within the pylorus, which appeared to be connected to the descending duodenum on the longitudinal image. In both cases, focally thickened pyloric walls were demonstrated through exploratory laparotomy, and the histopathological diagnosis of chronic hypertrophic pyloric gastropathy was made. Ultrasonography is useful for imaging the gastrointestinal tract, and the typical ultrasonographic features of chronic hypertrophic pyloric gastropathy have been reported. However, the possibility, that chronic hypertrophic pyloric gastropathy can present unusual ultrasonographic findings similar to those of tumors or intussusception, should also be considered.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1281-1285
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• 2013

In this paper, we propose a method to extract the area of appendix from ultrasonographic image via computational vision. A series of image processing techniques such as Ends-in search stretching for enhancing the brightness contrast, block binarization, grassfire algorithm for extracting lower part of fascia, and fuzzy sigma binarization method to finalize the appendix area are used to achieve our goal. The strength of this paper is using fuzzy sigma binarization instead of other binarization technique to handle the sensitivity of extracting the target area from regio hypogastrica. The experiment verifies the efficacy of the proposed method successfully.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 2001

Present study was undertaken in order to document early renal ultrasonographic changes of gentamicin nephrotoxicosis and to show the value of renal ultrasonography as a contributory means of early diagnosis of acute renal failure in dogs. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design with six treatments in two blocks (gentamicin-treated & saline-treated). Acute renal failure was induced by toxic dosage of gentamicin (30 mg/kg) and saline solution sham equivalent in volume to that of the toxic dosage of gentamicin (1.5-3ml). Subjective visualization of increased renal cortex was visible as homogenous echoes that were hypoechoic relative to the surrounding tissues, whereas the renal medulla was anechoic to slightly hypoechoic. After treatment, the renal cortex was hyperechoic relative to the surrounding tissue. Increased renal cortex echogenicity was associated with significant nephrotoxicosis and was superior to serum creatinine elevation in nephrotoxicosis detection. Urine GGT was superior to other clinicopathological data utilized in the diagnosis of nephrotoxicosis. Based on the above results, increased renal cortex echogenicity seemed to be of use in detecting of acute renal failure.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 1982

The objective of this phantom study is to develop a digital method for improving the lateral resolution of B-scan ultrasonographic images irs medical application of ultrasound. By utilizing a discrete state-space modeling approach and Kalman-Buch method for analysis of the transducer's beam profile and the measurement and sampling noise, a stable recursive restoration of the object image was obtained for improved lateral resolution. The point spread function (PSF) was measured for the reflective signals after scanning the small pins located along the depth of interest. One major advantage of the present recursive scheme over the transform method is in its applicability for the space-variant imaging, such as in the case of the rotational movement of transducer.