• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1035-1040
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• 2012

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has been found to be effective treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aims to evaluate the effect of DBS for rigidity during DBS surgery. Six Parkinsonian patients who received STN-DBS surgery participated in this study. The examiner imposed flexion and extension of a patient's wrist randomly. Resistance to passive movement was quantified by viscoelastic properties (two damping constants for each of flexion and extension phase and one spring constant throughout both phases). All Viscoelastic constants decreased by DBS (p<0.01). Specifically, reduction in damping constant during flexion ($B_f$) was greater than those of damping constant during extension ($B_e$) and of spring constant (p<0.05). $B_f$ would be appropriate for evaluation of effect of DBS for rigidity during DBS surgery.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.351-356
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate the gait characteristics in Parkinson's disease patients. Specifically, the total stance time and the ratio of each stance phase (heel strike, mid-stance, propulsion) are analyzed from the foot-pressure measurement system which requires low cost and small space compared to the conventional gait analysis system. The gait characteristics were analyzed in 23 Parkinson's disease patients (before and after L-dopa medication), 34 elderly (sixties) normal subjects and 21 young (twenties) normal subjects. Bradykinesia global score (self-developed score of slowness of body movement) of patients before medication was determined to see the relationship between the score and the gait characteristics. The total stance time was greater in the erde. of patients, elderly, youngs (p<0.05). The phase ratio of heel strike and propulsion was smaller and that of mid-stance was greater in the order of patients, elderly, youngs (p<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the above gait characteristics of patients before and after medication. There was a tendency, though statistically non-significant, that the total stance time is longer and the propulsion phase ratio is shorter in patients with greater Bradikinesia global scale, and this tendency was relieved after medication.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.559-563
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• 2013

This study aims to quantify the effects of medication (Med) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) on resting rigidity in patients with Parkinson's disease. We tested 10 limbs of five patients under each of four treatment conditions: 1) baseline, 2) DBS, 3) Med, 4) DBS + Med. Rigidity at the wrist joint was assessed using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). The examiner randomly imposed flexion and extension movement on patient's wrist joint. Resistance to passive movement was quantified by viscoelastic properties. Not only rigidity score but also damping constant showed improvements in rigidity by DBS and Med treatments (p<0.05). This indicates that the viscosity can represent the change in rigidity due to DBS as well as Med, which was manifested by UPDRS score.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.161-170
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• 2004

Molecular Nuclear Neuro-Imaging in "CNS" drug discovery and development tan be divided into four categories that are clearly inter-related.(1) Neuroreceptor mapping to examine the involvement of specific neurotransmitter system in CNS diseases, drug occupancy characteristics and perhaps examine mechanisms of action;(2) Structural and spectroscopic imaging to examine morphological changes and their consequences;(3) Metabolic mapping to provide evidence of central activity and "CNS fingerprinting" the neuroanatomy of drug effects;(4) Functional mapping to examing disease-drug interactions. In addition, targeted delivery of therapeutic agents could be achieved by modifying stem cells to release specific drugs at the site of transplantation('stem cell pharmacology'). Future exploitation of stem cell biology, including enhanced release of therapeutic factors through genetic stem cell engineering, might thus constitute promising pharmaceutical approaches to treating diseases of the nervous system. With continued improvements in instrumentation, identification of better imaging probes by innovative chemistry, molecular nuclear neuro-imaging promise to play increasingly important roles in disease diagnosis and therapy.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.122-126
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• 2010

Purpose: F-18-FPCIT that shows strong familiarity with DAT located at a neural terminal site offers diagnostic information about DAT density state in the region of the striatum especially Parkinson's disease. In this study, we altered the iteration and subset and measured SUV${\pm}$SD and Contrasts from phantom images which set up to specific iteration and subset. So, we are going to suggest the appropriate range of the iteration and subset. Materials and Methods: This study has been performed with 10 normal volunteers who don't have any history of Parkinson's disease or cerebral disease and Flangeless Esser PET Phantom from Data Spectrum Corporation. $5.3{\pm}0.2$ mCi of F-18-FPCIT was injected to the normal group and PET Phantom was assembled by ACR PET Phantom Instructions and it's actual ratio between hot spheres and background was 2.35 to 1. Brain and Phantom images were acquired after 3 hours from the time of the injection and images were acquired for ten minutes. Basically, SIEMENS Bio graph 40 True-point was used and True-X method was applied for image reconstruction method. The iteration and Subset were set to 2 iterations, 8 subsets, 3 iterations, 16 subsets, 6 iterations, 16 subsets, 8 iterations, 16 subsets and 8 iterations, 21 subsets respectively. To measure SUVs on the brain images, ROIs were drawn on the right Putamen. Also, Coefficient of variance (CV) was calculated to indicate the uniformity at each iteration and subset combinations. On the phantom study, we measured the actual ratio between hot spheres and back ground at each combinations. Same size's ROIs were drawn on the same slide and location. Results: Mean SUVs were 10.60, 12.83, 13.87, 13.98 and 13.5 at each combination. The range of fluctuation by sets were 22.36%, 10.34%, 1.1%, and 4.8% respectively. The range of fluctuation of mean SUV was lowest between 6 iterations 16 subsets and 8 iterations 16 subsets. CV showed 9.07%, 11.46%, 13.56%, 14.91% and 19.47% respectively. This means that the numerical value of the iteration and subset gets higher the image's uniformity gets worse. The range of fluctuation of CV by sets were 2.39, 2.1, 1.35, and 4.56. The range of fluctuation of uniformity was lowest between 6 iterations, 16 subsets and 8 iterations, 16 subsets. In the contrast test, it showed 1.92:1, 2.12:1, 2.10:1, 2.13:1 and 2.11:1 at each iteration and subset combinations. A Setting of 8 iterations and 16 subsets reappeared most close ratio between hot spheres and background. Conclusion: Findings on this study, SUVs and uniformity might be calculated differently caused by variable reconstruction parameters like filter or FWHM. Mean SUV and uniformity showed the lowest range of fluctuation at 6 iterations 16 subsets and 8 iterations 16 subsets. Also, 8 iterations 16 subsets showed the nearest hot sphere to background ratio compared with others. But it can not be concluded that only 6 iterations 16 subsets and 8 iterations 16 subsets can make right images for the clinical diagnosis. There might be more factors that can make better images. For more exact clinical diagnosis through the quantitative analysis of DAT density in the region of striatum we need to secure healthy people's quantitative values.