• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.117-124
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• 2006

Recently, active research has been going on to measure the elastic modulus of human soft tissue with medical ultrasound imaging systems for the purpose of diagnosing cancers or tumors which have been difficult to detect with conventional B-mode imaging techniques. In this paper, a real-time ultrasonic elasticity imaging system is implemented in software on a Pentium processor-based ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system. Soft tissue is subjected to external vibration, and the resulting tissue displacements change the phase of received echoes, which is in turn used to estimate tissue elasticity. It was confirmed from experiment with a phantom that the implemented elasticity imaging system could differentiate between soft and hard regions, where the latter is twice harder than the former, while operating at an adequate frame rate of 20 frames/s.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.135-144
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• 2024

Ultrasonography examination has limitations in quantifying hepatic fat quantification. Therefore, this study aimed to experimentally demonstrate whether changes in signal attenuation during ultrasound imaging can be quantified using simulated hepatic phantoms to assess hepatic fat content. Additionally, we aimed to evaluate the potential of ultrasound imaging for diagnosing hepatic fatty liver by analyzing the relationship between hepatic fat content and signal intensity in ultrasound images. In this study, we developed a total of five stimulated hepatic phantoms by homogeneously mixing water and oil. We confirmed the fat content of the phantoms using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound imaging, and measured signal intensity according to distance in ultrasound images to analyze the correlation and mean comparison between fat content and signal intensity. We observed that as the fat content increased, the ultrasound penetration intensity decreased, confirming the potential for quantifying hepatic fat content using ultrasound. Additionally, the analysis of the correlation between the measured fat content using MRI and the signal intensity measured in ultrasound images showed a high correlation. Statistical analysis in our study confirmed that as the fat content increased, the slope representing signal during ultrasound imaging (US-GRE) decreased. In this study, it was statistically confirmed that the US-GRE value of ultrasound images gradually decreases as the fat content increases, and it is believed that US-GRE can serve as a biomarker expressing fatty liver content.

• Journal of The Korean Radiological Technologist Association
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.77-89
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• 2004

I. 목적 : 의료용 초음파 장비의 성능 관리 중 최적 화질의 기본이 되는 심부 투과 깊이에 대해 검증이 미흡한 장비 회사의 protocol setting 값이 현재 대부분의 병원에서 사용되고 있는 실정이다. 이러한 protocol에서 벗어나 국내 여러 모델의 장치에 공통적으로 환자 검사에 실제로 사용하고 있는 algorithm 인 parameters를 사용하여 초음파 영상에 영향을 미치는 빔 투과 깊이의 변화에 따른 최적영상을 평가하고자 한다. II.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.238-239
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• 1999

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.422-428
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• 2023

Ultrafast ultrasound imaging has been applied to various imaging approaches, including shear wave elastography, ultrafast Doppler, and super-resolution imaging. However, these methods are still challenging in real-time implementation for three Dimension (3D) or portable applications because of their massive data rate required. In this paper, we proposed an adaptive quantization method that effectively reduces the data rate of large Radio Frequency (RF) data. In soft tissue, ultrasound backscatter signals require a high dynamic range, and thus typical quantization used in the current systems uses the quantization level of 10 bits to 14 bits. To alleviate the quantization level to expand the application of ultrafast ultrasound imaging, this study proposed a depth-sectional quantization approach that reduces the quantization errors. For quantitative evaluation, Field II simulations, phantom experiments, and in vivo imaging were conducted and CNR, spatial resolution, and SSIM values were compared with the proposed method and fixed quantization method. We demonstrated that our proposed method is capable of effectively reducing the quantization level down to 3-bit while minimizing the image quality degradation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.751-759
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• 2023

Breast ultrasonography is difficult to image in fatty breasts and to find micro-calcification, but the discovery of micro-calcification is very important for breast cancer screening. Among the color Doppler artifact of ultrasound, twinkle artifact mainly occur on strong reflectors such as stones or calcification in images, and evaluation methods using them are clinically being used. In this study, we are conducting experiments on the color Doppler settings of ultrasound equipment, such as repetition frequency, ensemble, persist, wall filtering, smoothing, linear density, and dissociation value, by producing a breast simulation phantom using the largest amount of calcium phosphate among breast implants. The purpose of this study was to improve the contrast of twinkle artifact in breast ultrasound examinations and to maximize their use in clinical practice. As a result, the pulse repetition frequency occurred in the range of 3.6 kHz to 7.2 kHz, and did not occur above 10.5 kHz. For ensembles, twinkle artifact occurred in all sizes of calcification under low conditions, and in threshold settings, the twinkle artifact increased slightly only under 80 to 100 conditions, and did not occur in 1 mm size calcification. Persist, wall filter, smoothing, and line density settings did not have much meaning in the setting variable because conditions did not increase by condition, and pulse repetition frequency, ensemble, and thresholds had the greatest impact on the twinkling artifact image. This study is expected to help examiners select optimal conditions to effectively increase twinkle artifact by adjusting color Doppler settings.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.523-528
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• 2015

In this study, we evaluated the heating characteristics of single sonication and superposed two low-intensity ultrasonic sonication. Compare the results, the superposed sonication was showed a superior thermal effect than single sonication. And the maximum temperature was increased as 120-150%. The starting time of temperature rising has been shortened in superposed sonication. In addition, the time up to the maximum temperature has been shortened, too. In generally, as the ultrasonic intensity is higher, the more surface damage is occurred. However, in the case of superposed sonication, the same thermal effect had be confirmed without surface damage. Through the results of the study, we thought that the superposed sonication will be able to reduce the intensity of the ultrasonic treatment. And, by using the low-intensity, the more safe and more effect therapy will be possible in therapeutic ultrasound application.

• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.229-238
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• 2023

Background/Aims: Shear wave elastography (SWE) is used for liver fibrosis staging based on stiffness measurements. It can be performed using endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) or a transabdominal approach. Transabdominal accuracy can be limited in patients with obesity because of the thick abdomen. Theoretically, EUS-SWE overcomes this limitation by internally assessing the liver. We aimed to define the optimal technique for EUS-SWE for future research and clinical use and compare its accuracy with that of transabdominal SWE. Methods: Benchtop study: A standardized phantom model was used. The compared variables included the region of interest (ROI) size, depth, and orientation and transducer pressure. Porcine study: Phantom models with varying stiffness values were surgically implanted between the hepatic lobes. Results: For EUS-SWE, a larger ROI size of 1.5 cm and a smaller ROI depth of 1 cm demonstrated a significantly higher accuracy. For transabdominal SWE, the ROI size was nonadjustable, and the optimal ROI depth ranged from 2 to 4 cm. The transducer pressure and ROI orientation did not significantly affect the accuracy. There were no significant differences in the accuracy between transabdominal SWE and EUS-SWE in the animal model. The variability among the operators was more pronounced for the higher stiffness values. Small lesion measurements were accurate only when the ROI was entirely situated within the lesion. Conclusions: We defined the optimal viewing windows for EUS-SWE and transabdominal SWE. The accuracy was comparable in the non-obese porcine model. EUS-SWE may have a higher utility for evaluating small lesions than transabdominal SWE.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.576-584
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• 2020

In order to obtain basic information for using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel as a tissue mimicking phantom for temperature visualization, the temperature change characteristics due to the focused ultrasound were examined for different concentration of PVA. To obtain the basic acoustic characteristics, the speed of sound, the attenuation coefficient, and the density depending on the PVA concentration were measured, and the thermodynamic characteristics, such as thermal conductivity and heat capacity, were measured. The range of temperature rising in the vicinity of the focal point due to the focused ultrasound was observed using a thermochromic film that changes color at 30 degree or more, and the discolored area was obtained by image processing of the recorded image. As the concentration of PVA increases in the given range of 2 wt% ~ 16 wt%, the area that rises above 30 degree inside the gel increases linearly. It is confirmed that the discolored area increases as the power applied to the focused ultrasonic transducer increases. These results showed good agreement with the simulation results using the finite element method.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.418-427
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• 2009

As many people are westernizing their life style and food consumption habits, a number of patients who have malignant tumors which grow very rapidly and hazardously destroy the human body are increasing. Ultrasonic hyperthermia is not only one of the tumor treatment methods which employs the non-radioactive ultrasonic waves to increase the temperature at the tumor region up to $40\sim45^{\circ}C$ to destroy and suppress tumor cells but also has been proved by many studies. Due to the rapid development of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound(HIFU), the ultrasound hyperthemia extensively boosts its applications in clinical field. For those reasons, Computed simulation factor should be needed before inspection to patients. To prove efficiency of ultrasonic hyperthermia, precise acoustic field measurement considering tissue characteristics and a heating experiment with tissue mimicking material phantom were conducted for effectiveness of simulation program. Finally, in this study, the computer simulation program verified the anticipated temperature effects induced by ultrasound hyperthermia. In the near future, it is hoped that this simulation program could be utilized to improve the efficiency of ultrasound hyperthermia.