• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.82-87
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• 2016

The photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal is one of the mainly considered bio signals along with the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. PPG signals can be used to estimate the speed of flow of blood in vein, saturation of peripheral oxygen and etc. The heartbeat rate is a common feature in order to evaluate those checkup lists. To estimate the correct heartbeat rate, dynamic noises must be removed in the PPG signal. Conventionally, the acceleration signal is used to remove dynamic noises. This method, however, increases the computational complexity. In this paper, we proposes a solution that uses only PPG signals to calculate the heartbeat rate, and which can be used as a basement in real-time healthcare solution.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.52-55
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• 2014

Protein S deficiency is one of the several risk factors for thrombophilia and can cause blood clotting disorders such as deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. A 54-year-old man was admitted with the complaint of dyspnea and was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism. The patient had very low level of free protein S, total protein S antigen, and protein S activity (type I protein S deficiency). In history taking, we found that his mother, 78 year old, had a history of same disease 10 years ago, and confirmed the pronounced low level of protein S. The patient's son also had very low level of protein S, however there had not been any history of pulmonary embolism yet. This case study suggests that asymptomatic persons with a family history of protein S deficiency and pulmonary embolism should be checked regularly for early detection of the disease, as protein S deficiency can be suspected.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.216-220
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• 2005

Pulmonary arteriovenous fistulas(PAVFs) is a rare disorder that occurs in two to three children per 100,000 population. It is presented as absence of intervening capillary beds between the pulmonary artery and vein with resultant persistent right to left shunt. Other causes include trauma, liver cirrhosis, malignancy and schistosomiasis. It is mostly asymptomatic, but it may present with respiratory difficulty, cyanosis, clubbed fingers induced by right to left shunt or hemoptysis, polycythemia and epistaxis. Major complications, such as brain abscess, brain embolism, paradoxical embolism and subacute infective endocarditis can be devastating, so therapeutic intervention is recommended in all patients. However, removal of low-resistance fistulas can aggrevate pulmonary hypertension, so detection of increased pulmonary pressure is important. We report two patients : One a 42 year-old male with PAVFs treated with coil embolization, and a 42 year-old female who was treated with anticoagulants due to pulmonary hypertension.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.22-25
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• 2013

Severe blunt abdominal trauma frequently involves the liver. The development of nonsurgical treatment of liver trauma has led to more frequent appearance of unusual complications. A hepatic arterioportal fistula (APF) is a rare complication of liver trauma. We present a case of traumatic APF in a patient with liver trauma. A 31-year-old male visited our emergency department with pain in the right upper abdomen following a traffic accident. Initial physical exam and abdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed liver laceration with hemoperitoneum. An abdominal CT obtained on day 11 revealed early opacification of the right portal vein on the arterial phase. After we had come to suspect an APF of the liver, its presence was confirmed on angiography. It was subsequently managed by using transcatheter coil embolization. In patients with portal hypertension and no evidence or history of cirrhosis, one should consider an APF as a potential etiology if history of liver biopsy or penetrating trauma exists. In a patient with liver trauma, serial abdominal CT is important for early detection and treatment of an APF.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.84-92
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• 2022

To understand the microcircuitry of the brain, the anatomical and functional connectivity among neurons must be resolved. One of the technical hurdles to achieving this goal is that the anatomical connections, or synapses, are often smaller than the diffraction limit of light and thus are difficult to resolve by conventional microscopy, while the microcircuitry of the brain is on the scale of 1 mm or larger. To date, the gold standard method for microcircuit reconstruction has been electron microscopy (EM). However, despite its rapid development, EM has clear shortcomings as a method for microcircuit reconstruction. The greatest weakness of this method is arguably its incompatibility with functional and molecular analysis. Fluorescence microscopy, on the other hand, is readily compatible with numerous physiological and molecular analyses. We believe that recent advances in various fluorescence microscopy techniques offer a new possibility for reliable synapse detection in large volumes of neural circuits. In this minireview, we summarize recent advances in fluorescence-based microcircuit reconstruction. In the same vein as these studies, we introduce our recent efforts to analyze the long-range connectivity among brain areas and the subcellular distribution of synapses of interest in relatively large volumes of cortical tissue with array tomography and superresolution microscopy.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.238-245
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• 2006

To assess the ability of an extravasation defection accessory (EDA) to detect the clinically important extravascular Injection of iodinated contrast material that was delivered with an automated mechanical power injector. The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of this device during clinically important episodes of extravasation. The EDA system was composed of a strain gage, an amplifier and a computer-based system. In the rabbit experimental cases, there were seven true-positive cases (range of the extravasation volumes: $14{\sim}23 ml$). The algorithm results showed seven true-positive cases (range of the extravasation volumes: $7{\sim}16ml$), nineteen true-negative cases, two false-positive cases and no false-negative cases. The EDA system had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 90% for the detection of clinically important extravasation. The EDA system had good sensitivity for the detection of clinically important extravasation and the EDA system has the clinical potential for the early detection of extravasation of the contrast medium that is administered with power injectors.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.265-271
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• 2001

In order to elucidate the influence of intestinal and hepatic first-pass effect on the pharmacokinetics of triflusal, the biotransformation of triflusal in the gastrointestinal tract and liver was designed. Moreover, we tried to establish an HPLC method applicable for bioassay and available to pharmacokinetics, not only with the simultaneous determination of triflusal and its active metabolite, 2-hydroxy-4-trifluoromethyl benzoic acid (HTB), but also with improving sensitivity. After the administration of triflusal (10 mg/kg) and HTB (10 mg/kg) into femoral vein, portal vein (only triflusal) and oral route (only triflusal), pharmacokinetic parameters were investigated from the plasma concentration-time profiles of triflusal and HTB in rats. An HPLC method was developed for the simultaneous determination of triflusal and HTB in rat plasma, urine and bile. The HPLC analysis was carried out using a C18 column and acetonitrile-methanol-water (25:10:65, v/v/v) as the mobile phase and UV detection at 234 nm. Furosemide was used as the internal standard. The calibration curves were linear over the concentration range $0.05-5.0\;{\mu}g/ml$ for triflusal and $0.2-200.0\;{\mu}g/ml$ for HTB with correlation coefficients greater than 0.999 and with intra-day or inter-day coefficients of variation not exceeding 10.0%. This assay procedure was applied to the study of metabolite pharmacokinetics of triflusal and HTB in rats. It was supposed that triflusal was almost metabolized in vivo because urinary and biliary excreted amounts of triflusal could be ignored as it was lower than 1.2% of the administered dose. According to the gastrointestinal and hepatic biotransformation pathways of triflusal, it was found that triflusal was hydrolyzed by about 5% in intestine and metabolized by about 53% in liver, and that the bioavailability of triflusal after oral administration of triflusal was 0.44, and also that the fraction of total elimination rate of triflusal which formed HTB in liver $(F_{mi},\;%)$ was about 98%. These results showed that triflusal was almost metabolized in liver, and the total elimination of triflusal in the body was dependent to the formation rate of HTB from triflusal in liver.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.122-132
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• 1998

SB-31 which contains Pursatilla, Licoris and Ginseng extracts was recently proved as an anticancer agent. In a preclinical effort to be applied this drug to human, pharmacokinetics of SB-31 was carried out in rats and rabbits. Glycyrrhizin(GZ), a saponin of Licoris was used as a standard ingradient for the pharmacokinetics of SB-31. The rat's blood, bile and urine samples were serially collected in femoral vein, common bile duct and bladder, respectively, after bolus i.v. injection at a dose of 1 or 1/5 ampul/rat and rabbit's blood samples from the marginal ear vein at a dose of 1 or 3 amp./rabbit. GZ and glycyrrhetic acid(GA), a major metabolite of GZ in the physiological samples were analysed by HPLC with UV detection. The decline of GZ in plasma concentration was generally biexponential at each dose. GZ was almost completely recovered in bile within 18 hour. GA wasn't detected in the samples with UV detector. In the rat, Vss and Kel at a dose of 1 and 1/5 ampul of SB-31 were $98.06\pm6.07\;ml,\;0.33\pm0.05\;hr^{-1}\;and\;65.46\pm11.19\;ml,\;0.68\pm0.25\;hr^{-1}$, respectively. Those in rabbits at a dose of 3 and 1 ampul of SB-31 were $235.24\pm30.72\;ml,\;0.13\pm0.36\;hr^{-1}\;and\;341.32\pm28.58\;ml,\;0.27\pm0.04\;hr^{-1}$, respectively. 'WinNonlin' was utilized for the compartmental analysis. A two-compartment model was chosen as the most appropriate pbarmaco-kinetic model. The data were best described by using a weighting factor of $1/y^2$. To evaluate the effect of SB-31 on cardiovascular system, serially diluted SB-31 was directly injected into coronary artery in the isolated perfused rat heart and the effect of PSF, PSH, saponins of Pursatilla, and SB-31 on PT, APTT of healthy human plasma was examined. Except the positive inotropic effect of ten times diluted solution of SB-31, there was no significant effect on LVDP, (- dp/dt)/(+dp/dt), heart rate and coronary flow in comparision with that of vehicle. SB-31 had no effect on PT but slightly delayed APTT about $6.9{\sim}11.5\%$. There was no significant effect of PSF and PSH on PT & APTT. Conclusively, SB-31 did not show any notable toxic effects on cardiovascular system.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.441-447
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• 2023

Intravenous infusion therapy is a standard nursing procedure in medical institutions that provides patients with drugs, fluids, blood, and nutrients into the patient's mucus. It is mainly performed and managed by nurses. Additionally, it is an injection method that injects drugs directly into the blood vessels, and is used to achieve rapid results in emergency situations, and quick and accurate effects can be expected. Even experienced nurses through education and training often make mistakes, which can not only cause discomfort to patients but also cause various problems that threaten patient safety. Various studies are being conducted to reduce the pain caused by these mistakes. This paper acquired images of veins on the back of the hands of three subjects through an image detection device and conducted a study to derive an algorithm to provide clear vein images through image processing of the collected images. To sharpen the acquired vein images, existing algorithms Histogram Equalization, CLAHE, and Unsharp Masking were selected and combined. A histogram graph was used to compare images derived by applying individual algorithms and algorithm combinations to images. The histogram graph was checked by calculating the difference between the minimum and maximum values of distributed pixels and averaging them. The algorithm combination presented in this paper was 209.1, which was higher than the average values of individual algorithms of 138.7, 132.3, and 126.2, and it was confirmed that visibility was good even in actual images.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 2006

Catheter fragment and embolism are both potentially serious complications associated with the use of an intravenous (IV) catheter for contrast media bolus injection, and may be followed by serious or lethal sequelae. Though catheter fragment is a rare complication of IV catheter insertion, especially in peripheral veins, CT can be used to detect residual fragment. This study demonstrates the utility of MDCT to localize a small, subtle peripheral venous catheter, which can be easily reformatted of MDCT reformations. Various 3D techniques such as MPR and MIP, volume rendering, and shaded-surface displays are currently available for reconstructing MDCT data. Advances in MDCT technology contribute substantially to the detection and accurate localization of smaller IV catheter fragment.