• PNF and Movement
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.329-337
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• 2019

Purpose: Ultrasound imaging is commonly used to measure the pennation angle of human skeletal muscles in vivo. However, manual assessment of the pennation angle using ultrasound images is subjective and time-consuming and requires a high level of examiner skill. The architectural analysis of human skeletal muscles is thus challenging. Automated approaches using image processing techniques are therefore required to estimate the pennation angle in ultrasound images. The purpose of this study was thus to assess the intra-tester and inter-tester reliability and validity of the pennation angle using an automatic measurement program. Methods: Twenty-two healthy young adults (mean age = 22.55 years) with no medical history of neurological or musculoskeletal disorders voluntarily participated in this study. Ultrasound imaging was used to measure the pennation angle of the gastrocnemius muscle at rest. One examiner acquired images from all the participants. The intra-tester and inter-tester reliability were evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to estimate reliability. Validity was measured using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: The intra-rater reliability was excellent for the automatic pennation angle measuring program and the manual pennation angle assessment method (ICC>0.95). The inter-rater reliability was also excellent for both methods (ICC>0.93). All the correlation coefficients for the automatic pennation angle measuring program and the manual pennation angle assessment method were 0.79, which indicated a significantly positive correlation (p<0.05). Conclusion: Pennation angle measurement using the automatic pennation angle measuring program showed acceptable reliability and validity. This study therefore demonstrated that the automatic measuring program was able to automatically measure the pennation angle of skeletal muscles using ultrasound images, and thus made it easy to investigate skeletal muscle architecture.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2010

Non-contacting, laser-based resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (L-RUS) was applied to characterize the microstructure of a material. L-RUS is widely used by virtue of its many features. Firstly, L-RUS can be used to measure mechanical damping which related to the microstructural variations (grain boundary, grain size, precipitation, defects, dislocations etc). Secondly, L-RUS technology can be applied to various areas, such as the noncontact and nondestructive quality test for precision components as well as noncontact and nondestructive materials characterization. In addition, L-RUS technology can measure the whole field resonant frequency at once. In this paper, we evaluated material characteristics such as resonant frequency, nonlinear propagation characteristic through the development of Laser-Based Resonant Ultrasound spectroscopy (Laser-RUS) System for the detection of Micro Crack in Materials.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2019

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a single most arthritic disease. Knee joint space width (JSW) is commonly used for grading severity of knee OA. However, previous studies did not established criterion validity and test-retest reliability of ultrasound (US) image for measuring JSW. Objects: The aim of this study was to establish criterion validity and test-retest reliability of US measurement of medial and lateral knee JSW. Methods: Twenty-nine subjects with knee OA were participated. The US and X-ray were used to measure knee JSW. One sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to confirm the data normal distribution. Pearson correlation coefficient and ICC were used to calculated and establish criterion validity and test-retest reliability, respectively. Results: US measurement of medial and lateral knee JSW was highly correlated with radiographic imaging measure (r=.714 and .704, respectively). Test-retest reliabilities of medial and lateral knee JSW were excellent correlated (ICC=.959 for medial side and .988 for lateral side, respectively). Conclusion: US may be valid tool to measure knee JSW.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.257-267
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• 2009

Purpose：The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of ultrasound and myofascial release in patients who have opening mouth limitation and temporomandibular disorder. Methods：Twenty students were randomly assigned to a myofascial release group(n=10) or an ultrasound group(n=7). Each group was treated for 15 minutes per a every treatment session for four weeks. Cervial range of motion(CROM) was used to measure cervical R.O.M., and a mm(millimeter) graduated ruler was used to measure opening mouth limitation. Results：Results of the follows : 1. The neck extension of range of motion of both groups was significantly increased in length of time (p<.05). 2. The neck flexion of range of motion of both groups was significantly increased (p<.05). 3. The quantity of opening mouth of temporomandibular joint of both groups was significantly increased (p<.05). Conclusion：These data suggest that myofascial release and ultrasound are beneficial to increasing a functional recovery of neck(flexion and extension) and opening mouth.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.55-61
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• 2023

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine whether applying ultrasound after stretching the erector spinae muscle is an effective method for normal adults as a way to restore reduced back flexibility that causes back pain. Methods: The study was conducted on 60 healthy volunteers divided randomly into four groups (control group, stretching group, ultrasound group, ultrasound after stretching group). The flexibility-promoting effects were determined by assessing, each group, at the time of treatment, pre and post by modified fingertip to-floor (MFTF) and active straight leg raising (ASLR). The data were analyzed using the two-way ANOVA repeated measure with significant level α=.05. Results: Each group showed statistically significant changes in MFTF distance and ASLR degree. In the post-hoc test about this result, the length of MFTF and degree of ASLR in ultrasound after stretching group increased significantly compared to the others. Conclusion: The results suggest that using ultrasound after stretching is far more effective in increasing the flexibility of the erector spinae than using stretching or ultrasound intervention.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.66-78
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• 2009

A mobile ultrasound scanner developed for use in point-of-care applications is introduced, which can not only provide ultrasound images but can also measure various bio-signals. The mobile ultrasound scanner is also designed to meet the demanding requirements for point-of-care diagnosis, such as battery-powered operation, portability in terms of size and weigh, and real-time wireless communications capability for remote diagnosis. To meet these requirements, an efficient beamforming method for high resolution imaging with a small number of active elements, a hardware efficient beamformer architecture, and echo processing algorithms with greatly reduced computational complexity have been developed. Experimental results show that the prototype mobile ultrasound scanner is fully functional and satisfies most of the design requirements.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.147-152
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• 2022

This research is to measure real-time temperature distribution inside a tissue-mimicking phantom for the safety and effectiveness evaluations of focused ultrasound (FUS) device capable of linear scanning stimulation. Since the focusing area of the FUS stimulation device is smaller than diameter of conventional thermal probe and keeps moving, it is impossible to monitor temperature distribution inside the phantom. By using the phantom with a thin film temperature sensor array inserted, real-time temperature change caused by the FUS device was measured. The translation of the measured temperature peak was also tracked successfully. The present phantom had been experimentally proven to be applicable to validate the performance and safety of the therapeutic ultrasound devices.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.13-19
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was designed to measure the effects of weight, abdominal girth, body fat, abdominal fat and cholesterol levels in combination with electrical stimulation, ultrasound and aerobic exercise on obesity and local lipolysis. Methods: Subjects were 30 obese adults who volunteered to take part in the experiment and had no physical diseases. They were randomly divided into three groups: (1) an aerobic exercise group (n=10), (2) an electrical stimulation group with aerobic exercise (n=10), and (3) an ultrasound stimulation group with aerobic exercise (n=10). Each experimental group went through 8 weeks of training. Results: All measured items including weight, girth of the abdomen, body fat, and cholesterol levels showed significant differences among groups. All three groups showed decreases for all items. The electrical stimulation + aerobic exercise group (group II) showed greater effects than the aerobic exercise group (group I) and the ultrasound stimulation group with aerobic exercise (group III). Conclusion: Electrical stimulation + aerobic exercise and ultrasound stimulation + aerobic exercise cause decreases in weight, girth of the abdomen, body fat and cholesterol level compared to aerobic exercise alone. These methods can be considered to be effective adjuvants to aerobic exercise in obese adults.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.470-473
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• 2021

In this study, we developed the biometric ultrasound transducer, residual thickness measurement algorithm and optimized ultrasound operation methods to diagnose precise conditions of implanted medical prosthetic material inserted during total hip artificial joint replacement. In detail, ultrasound transducers having 8 MHz and 20 MHz center frequencies with similar sensitivity and bandwidth were fabricated to measure various thicknesses of commercial polyethylene-based artificial hip liners, resulting in a comparative analysis of signal-to-noise ratio and axial resolution to conduct an optimization study of ultrasound operations in vivo.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.215-221
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• 2005

It is required to evaluate nondestructively depth of surface-breaking cracks in structures. In this paper, the self-compensated technique by laser-based ultrasound is used to measure the depth of surface-breaking defect. Optical generation of ultrasound produces a well defined pulse with reliable frequency content. It is broad banded and suitable for measurement of attenuation and scattering over a wide frequency range. The self-calibrated signal transmission data of surface wave shows good sensitivity as a practical tool far assessment of surface-breaking defect depth. It is suggested that the relationship between the signal transmission and crack depth can be used to predict the surface-breaking crack depths in structures.