• Physical Therapy Korea
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.19-28
• /
• 1996

The purpose of this study was to asses and compare the effects of superficial heating on the pain threshold at limbs in healthy adult and adult hemiplegia. We used hot pack for superficial heat and applied to healthy adult(n=12) and adult hemiplegia(n=12) on lumbar region. Pain treshold was quantatively measured by an electrical stimulator and measured before hot pack application, immediatly and post 30 minutes after hot pack application on the distal parts of limbs(styloid process of radius, medial malleoulus of tibia). The results were as follows 1) A statically significant defference in pain treshold were not found at limbs of healthy adult and adult hemiplegia that have an affected side and a non-affected side before hot pack application, immediatly and post 30 minutes after hot pack apllication(p>0.05). 2) In comparance of pain threshold of upper and lower limbs in the all subjects, pain threshold was significantly increase at lower limbs(p<0.01). 3) In comparance of pain threshold of limbs between healthy adult and adult hemiplegia, pain threshold was showed a significant defferance at the upper and lower limbs of affected side before hot pack application(p<0.05, p<0.01).

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.65-73
• /
• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of electroacupuncture(EA) and transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation(TENS) after sciatic nerve crush injury in rats. Methods: The EA for experimental group I (Exp I, n=15) and TENS for experimental group II (Exp II, n=15) was applied from post-injury day(PD) 1 to PD 14 after sciatic nerve injury using low frequency stimulator that gave electrical stimulation(15min/60Hz). In order observe the effect of EA and TENS, this study examined GAP-43 expression in rat lumbar spinal cord at the PD 1, PD 7 and PD 14. In addition, the stride length(SL) and toe out angle(TOA) were measured at the PD 7 and PD 4. Results; Exp I and Exp II had higher GAP-43 immunoreactivity than control group(PD 1, 7, 14). The SL of Exp I and Exp II were significantly higher than control group(PD 7, 14). The TOA of Exp I and Exp II were significantly lower than control group(PD 7, 14). Conclusion: EA and TENS application increased motor nerve recovery and expression of GAP-43 immunoreactivity after sciatic nerve crush injury. Therefore effect of TENS and EA had similar effect on nerve regeneration and functional recovery.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.61-68
• /
• 2004

Electric stimulation of teeth has been used for assessing pulp vitality. The principle is based upon the assumption that a subject feels the pain produced by electrical current stimulation of intradental nerve. Because of very high and wide range of impedance of the enamel, it is very difficult to determine stimulation levels regardless of teeth status. Most pulp testers adopt voltage stimulation method and thus, their stimulating threshold levels significantly depend on each individual. Therefore, a constant current stimulator is necessary to minimize the effect of wide variation due to different enamel thickness. And it is also necessary to test teeth vitality with a wide current range regardless of tooth impedance. In this study, we constructed a burst-wave type pulp tester to reduce the pain using a current stabilizing circuit with the maximum current of 150 uA.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2002

This study set out to investigate what kind of effects the consistent visual stimuli and verbal and non verbal auditory stimuli have on pain alleviation, as well as to see the influence of joint application of visual and auditory stimuli at the same time on pain alleviation, according to lightness of 50lux and 200lux, ultimately providing basic data in setting up an environment in case of treating pain. The subject were comprised of 30 male and female adults with pain in the neck and back area. The subject were treated in their pain area with Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator(TENS) 100HZ for 20 minutes in the research set where each visual, auditory, and joint visual and auditory stimuli was given. For analysis methods, Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) and McGill Pain Questionnaire were adopted to see the changes before and after treatment, and the electrocardiogram, systolic and diastolic pressure, number of heart rate and breathing frequence and endorphin were compared and analyzed using the Wilcoxon singed-rank test. And The Kreskal-walllis test was used to compare the two subgroups from each group. Wilcoxon singed-rank test and the Kreskal-walllis test was used to compare the two subgroups from each group. The results were as follows: 1. The group of 50lux and 200lux were compared given varying degrees of visual stimuli. The group of 200lux showed more reduction in pain points, average systolic and diastolic pressure and average endorphin. 2. The group of verbal and non verbal were compared given varying degrees of auditory stimuli. The group of non-verbal showed more reduction in average systolic and diastolic pressure. 3. The group of 200lux+verbal and 200lux+non verbal were compared given varying degrees of joint visual and auditory stimuli. There was found a statistical significance(p<0.05) in endorphin between the two groups, with more endorphin reduction for 200lux+non verbal group. And there was a statistically significant reduction in VAS and McGill before and after the treatment between the two groups.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.227-234
• /
• 2012

Recently, the population of toxic and/or unusable jellyfish is increasing during summer along the east coast of Korea, causing massive economical and ecological damage to fisheries, nuclear power plant and marine environment. To solve this problem, this study was carried out using jellyfish as a potential soil additive for horticulture. The jellyfish was solidified and homogenized, then mixed with a commercial bed soil. Allium tuberosum ROTH was planted to control bed soil (BS) and jellyfish powder mixed bed soil groups (Mixed bed soil, MBS), and following parameters were measured during five weeks: water content, electrical conductivity and growth of leaves. At the end of the experiment, bacterial community structures of each pot were analyzed by DGGE. The relative water adsorption of jellyfish powder was about 2.5 times greater compared to its dry weight. The water content of MBS group was significantly higher than BS group 6.5 to 14.2%, and the electric conductivity of MBS group was measured around 2.8 dS/m where BS group was resulted average of 1.8 dS/m. However, the leaves of BS group were grown 30% longer compared to MBS group. DGGE analysis of MBS group was shown in high number of phylum Bacteroidetes and increased diversity of Sphingobacteriia compared to BS group. Jellyfish powder as a soil additive surely will be a good candidate as humectant and microbiota stimulator, although there are several obstacles such as high electrical conductivity and residual alum salt which used for solidification of jellyfish.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.55-62
• /
• 2013

The exoskeleton robot to assist walking of hemiplegia patients or disabled persons has been studied in this paper. The exoskeleton robot with degrees of freedom of 2 axis has been developed and tested for joint motion. The obtained EMG signal from normal person was analyzed and the control signal was extracted from it for convenient and automotive performance of assistance robot to help hemiplegia patient walks as normal person does. the purpose of using FES(Functional Electrical Stimulation) for hemiplegia patient's walk is to restore damaged body function by this, but this could give fatal electrical shock to patients by wrong use or cause quick fatigue in muscle by continuous stimulation. The convenient movement of hemiplegia patients with minimum muscle fatigue was looked possibly by operation of assistance robot exoskeleton using control signal. and the walking assistance exoskeleton robot seemed works more efficiently than using FES stimulator. The experiment in this study was performed based on usual motion in our life like walking, standing-up, sitting-down, and particularly feedback control system using Piezo sensor along with button switch was applied for smooth swing motion in walking. The experiment also shows that hemiplegia patients can move conveniently by using electromyogram signal of healthy leg for the operation signal of assistance robot system attached at damaged symmetrical leg.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.2617-2624
• /
• 2012

Interferential currents (IFC) and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) are used for pain management. This study compared the analgesic effects of IFC and TENS on experimentally induced ischemic pain in otherwise pain-free subjects using a modified version of the submaximal-effort tourniquet technique. The subjects were 14 volunteers (7 male, 7 female) without known pathology that could cause pain. Their mean age was $26.7{\pm}2.0$ years. A single-blind, sham controlled, parallel-group method was used. The primary outcome measure was the change in the self-report of pain intensity during 1 of 3 possible interventions: (1) IFC, (2) TENS, or (3) sham electrotherapy. The IFC and TENS were administered on the forearm, and the sham electrotherapy group received no current output via a dummy stimulator. The results show that a 2-way repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed that there was no change in pain intensity during treatment when all 3 groups were considered together. The mean to pain intensity with the IFC intervention was no different than with TENS. Thus, Statistical analysis showed that both interventions decreased the pain intensity ratings significantly and the difference between interventions was not simply insignificant. IFC has been shown to be more comfortable than TENS in present studies and is likely to be better accepted and tolerated by patients, clinical investigation is warranted.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.115-122
• /
• 2009

The following results were obtained, after experimenting on change of masseter muscle and bloodstream epithelium with Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator(TENS), among 16 male adults. 1. According to applying TENS, it was observed that bloodstream in muscle increases at 1.5, 3.0 Hz. 2. According to applying TENS, it was observed that concentration of moving blood cells in muscle increase at 1.5, 3.0, 6.0 Hz. 3. According to applying TENS, it was observed that velocity of bloodstream in muscle increases only at 1.5 Hz 4. Through experiment, applying TENS at level of 6.0 and 10.0 Hz, all bloodstream, concentration of moving blood cells, and velocity of bloodstream increasing rates were lower in muscle compared to of them in overlying epithelium; and especially increasing bloodstream and its velocity were most frequent at 6.0 Hz, and bloodstream of 10.0 Hz. From the results above when a physical therapy of TENS is carried out the frequency of 1.5, 3.0 H is effective, and as the frequency increases it is disadvantageous to the muscle.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.156-168
• /
• 2023

Objectives : This study aimed to determine the status of thermal stimulation devices approved in Korea for medical applications over the past 10 years, and based on this, to obtain insight for future thermal treatment in Korean medical institutions. Methods : We searched the item classification list entitled "Regulations on Medical Device Items and Rating by Item" from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety Notice No. 2021-24, 2021 (Enforced March 19, 2021; www.mfds.go.kr) for individually licensed heaters using the terms "heat" and "heating". Results : We identified 17 items of thermal stimulation product group, of which 1,308 devices were licensed by February 4, 2022, and 53.2% of them (n=696) were devices with valid permits for distribution in Korea. Among the licensed devices, heating pad systems under/overlay (electric, home use) were approved the most, but combinational stimulator (for medical use, home use; Grade 2) accounted for the highest percentage among the current valid permission. Moxibustion apparatuses were licensed separately for electrical use and non-electrical use, and occupied a low percentage of the total devices. We analyzed 307 devices that were accompanied by technical documents and found that the heat sources were wires in 145 (47.2%), infrared rays in 44 (14.3%) and ultrasonic waves in 42 (13.7%) devices. Most (83.1%) devices were used for pain relief, while other applications included beauty, cancer treatment, maintenance of infant body temperature, and healing fractures. Conclusions : Thermal stimulation devices accounted for about 0.9% of all medical devices, and among them, combinational stimulators and heating pad systems under/overlay had the most valid permits. Thermal stimulation devices using heating wires and infrared rays were the most prevalent, and most were used to relieve pain. In order to develop a range of thermal stimulation devices that can be utilized in Korean medical institutions, it is imperative that they have potential applications beyond pain management, addressing various medical purposes. To achieve this, foundational research is necessary to effectively apply diverse heat sources based on medical objectives.