• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.417-420
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• 2017

Hookworm infections are rare causes of acute gastrointestinal bleeding. We report a middle aged man with primary nephrotic syndrome and pulmonary embolism. During the treatment with steroids and anticoagulants, the patient presented acute massive hemorrhage of the gastrointestinal tract. The results of gastroscopy showed red worms in the duodenum. Colonoscopy and CT angiogram of abdomen were unremarkable. Capsule endoscopy revealed fresh blood and multiple hookworms in the jejunum and ileum. Hookworms caused the acute intestinal bleeding. The patient responded well to albendazole. Hematochezia was markedly ameliorated after eliminating the parasites. Hence, hookworm infection should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a patient with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding. Capsule endoscopy may offer a better means of diagnosis for intestinal hookworm infections.

• Journal of Convergence Society for SMB
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2014

Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) was one of the most influential bio-medical electronic technologies to be developed at the beginning of the century. In comparison to traditional endoscopic diagnosis, this application is characterized as non-invasive and low-risk, thereby providing surgeons with a new alternative for inspecting the entire gastrointestinal (GI) track in a much more user friendly way. Apart from regular hardware upgrades, the frontier of WCE research basically lies in the miniaturization of the capsule and in active locomotion. In order to overcome the intrinsic drawback of current commercialized WCE products, which is that locomotion is generally a function of natural peristalsis, active locomotion is proposed as a series of strategies used to effectively navigate the device into different organs and conduct therapeutic functions within targeted human tissues. Reviews of several novel designs with respect to this aspect of research will be discussed in this article.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.16 no.8 s.99
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• pp.790-796
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• 2005

In order to accomplish a wireless communication of capsule endoscopy, an environment study in the human body and receiving antenna design have been performed. The proposed antenna is the loop antenna designed to minimize the propagation loss in multi-loss layer such as the human body and utilize the magnetic field. Considering the propagation loss in the human body, the frequency range is from 400 MHz to 500 MHz. Acorrrding to the FCC regulations, the permittivity and conductivity for each human tissue were extracted. We set up an equivalent model and make an aqueous solution which is replaced with the human body. Due to movement of capsule in the human body which propagation loss is extremly severe, an array antenna is required. Irrespective of the location of transmission antenna transmitting a signal of 1 mW, we confirme what it is possible for the enough signal detection as the average signal level of array antenna is -60 dBm.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.125-130
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• 2008

The object of this study is to measure the transit time and passage rate of capsule endoscopy (CE) in the gastrointestinal tract in medium sized beagle dogs ($7{\sim}13\;kg$). Animals were divided into four groups: only capsule (group 1, n=10), capsule+water (group 2, n=10), mettoclopramide+capsule (group 3, n=10), metoclopramide +capsule+water (group 4, n=10). The capsule transit times through the stomach and small bowel were evaluated by radiography findings. Gastric transit time (GTT), small intestinal transit time (SITT) and complete passage rate were measured in four groups. GTT's for each group were as follows; $45{\pm}20\;min$ (group 1), $117{\pm}35\;min$ (group 2), $150{\pm}40\;min$ (group 3), and $154{\pm}65\;min$ (group 4), while SITT's were $75{\pm}20\;min$ (group 1), $195{\pm}55\;min$ (group 2), $70{\pm}15\;min$ (group 3), and $76{\pm}15\;min$ (group 4). The complete passage rates were 20% (group 1), 40% (group 2), 20% (group 3), 50% (group 4). In all groups, if CE could pass through the pylorus, it passed all small intestinal tracts within 8 hours (battery life). Administration of water helped CE to pass pylori, except in case of metoclopramide administration. These results indicate that CE could be an useful tool for examining gastrointestinal diseases in the veterinary medicine.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.637-645
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• 2015

Common-mode noise (CMN) is an unresolved problem in wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) systems. In a WCE system, CMN originates from various electric currents found within the human body or external interference sources and causes critical demodulation performance degradation. The differential operation, a typical method for the removal of CMN rejection, can remove CMN by subtracting two signals simultaneously received by two reception sensors attached to a human body. However, when there is impedance mismatching between the two reception sensors, the differential operation method cannot completely remove CMN. Therefore, to overcome this problem, we propose an enhanced CMN rejection method. The proposed method performs not only subtraction but also addition between two received signals. Then a CMN ratio can be estimated by sufficient accumulation of division operation outcomes between the subtraction and addition outputs during the guard period. Finally, we can reject the residual CMN by combining the subtraction and addition outputs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.2-5
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• 2022

Human organs in the body have a complex structure, and in particular, the small intestine is about 7m long, so endoscopy is not easy and the risk of endoscopy is high. Currently, the test is performed with a capsule endoscope, and the test time is very long. The doctor connects the removed storage device to the computer to store the patient's capsule endoscope image and reads it using a program, but the capsule endoscope test results in a long image length, which takes a lot of time to read. In addition, in the case of the small intestine, there are many curves due to villi, so the occlusion area or light and shade of the image are clearly visible during the examination, and there may be cases where lesions and abnormal signs are missed during the examination. In this paper, we provide a method of assisting small intestine capsule endoscopic lesion examination using artificial neural networks to shorten the doctor's image reading time and improve diagnostic reliability.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.391-398
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• 2017

Hookworm infections are widely prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas, especially in low income regions. In the body, hookworms parasitize the proximal small intestine, leading to chronic intestinal hemorrhage and iron deficiency anemia. Occasionally, hookworms can cause overt gastrointestinal bleeding, but this is often ignored in heavily burdened individuals from endemic infectious areas. A total of 424 patients with overt obscure gastrointestinal bleeding were diagnosed by numerous blood tests or stool examinations as well as esophagogastroduodenoscopy, colonoscopy, capsule endoscopy or double-balloon enteroscopy. All of the patients lived in hookworm endemic areas and were not screened for hookworm infection using sensitive tests before the final diagnosis. The patients recovered after albendazole treatment, blood transfusion, and iron replacement, and none of the patients experienced recurrent bleeding in the follow-up. All the 31 patients were diagnosed with hookworm infections without other concomitant bleeding lesions, a rate of 7.3% (31/424). Seventeen out of 227 patients were diagnosed with hookworm infections in the capsule endoscopy (CE), and 14 out of 197 patients were diagnosed with hookworm infections in the double balloon enteroscopy (DBE). Hookworm infections can cause overt gastrointestinal bleeding and should be screened in patients with overt obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) in endemic infectious areas with sensitive methods. Specifically, the examination of stool specimens is clinically warranted for most patients, and the proper examination for stool eggs relies on staff's communication.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.98-105
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• 2020

Background: Little is known about capsule endoscopy (CE) findings in patients with intestinal tuberculosis who exhibit small bowel lesions. The aim of the present study was to distinguish between Crohn's disease (CD) and intestinal tuberculosis based on CE findings. Methods: Findings from 55 patients, who underwent CE using PillCam SB CE (Given Imaging, Yoqneam, Israel) between February 2003 and June 2015, were retrospectively analyzed. Results: CE revealed small bowel lesions in 35 of the 55 patients: 19 with CD and 16 with intestinal tuberculosis. The median age at diagnosis for patients with CD was 26 years and 36 years for those with intestinal tuberculosis. On CE, three parameters, ≥10 ulcers, >3 involved segments and aphthous ulcers, were more common in patients with CD than in those intestinal tuberculosis. Cobblestoning was observed in five patients with CD and in none with intestinal tuberculosis. The authors hypothesized that a diagnosis of small bowel CD could be made when the number of parameters in CD patients was higher than that for intestinal tuberculosis. The authors calculated that the diagnosis of either CD or intestinal tuberculosis would have been made in 34 of the 35 patients (97%). Conclusion: The number of ulcers and involved segments, and the presence of aphthous ulcers, were significantly higher and more common, respectively, in patients with CD than in those with intestinal tuberculosis. Cobblestoning in the small bowel may highly favor a diagnosis of CD on CE.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2006

Background: This study was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of capsule endoscopy (CE) for the diagnosis of small bowel diseases. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 66 patients (mean age: 52.1 years, male/female: 39/27), who underwent CE at Yeungnam University Hospital from August 2003 to March 2006. Results: Suspicious gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding presenting as anemia or history of gross bleeding was the most common reason to perform CE (71.2%). Other indications included GI symptoms (21.2%) such as abdominal pain/discomfort, nausea, diarrhea, and others (7.6%). In studies performed for GI bleeding (n=47), ulcer/erosion was the most common finding (n=22, 46.8%) followed by tumor (n=5, 10.6%), angiodysplasia (n=3, 6.4%), polyp (n=3, 6.4%), active bleeding (n=1, 2.1 %), ulcer with stenosis (n=1, 2.1%), and normal findings (n=12, 25.5%). Of these, a bleeding focus was detected in 32 cases (68.1%) undergoing CE studies. Among 14 patients with GI symptoms, only two patients had typical findings related with symptoms. Surgical resection was performed in five cases with tumor. Of these, four were diagnosed as gastrointestinal stromal tumor and the other one was a lymphangioma. There were no complications associated with the CE procedure. Conclusion: Capsule endoscopy is a safe, noninvasive diagnostic tool for small bowel diseases and may be useful for the diagnosis of small bowel hemorrhage including obscure bleeding. However, further studies are needed to confirm its utility for abdominal symptoms other than hemorrhage because of the low diagnostic yield.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.33-48
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• 2009

Capsule endoscopy is one of the most remarkable inventions in last ten years. Causing less pain for patients, diagnosis for entire digestive system has been considered as a most convenience method over a normal endoscope. However, it is known that the diagnosis process typically requires very long inspection time for clinical experts because of considerably many duplicate images of same areas in human digestive system due to uncontrollable movement of a capsule endoscope. In this paper, we propose a method for clinical diagnosticians to get highly valuable information from capsule-endoscopy video. Our software system consists of three global maps, such as movement map, characteristic map, and brightness map, in temporal domain for entire sequence of the input video. The movement map can be used for effectively removing duplicated adjacent images. The characteristic and brightness maps provide frame content analyses that can be quickly used for segmenting regions or locating some features(such as blood) in the stream. Our experiments show the results of four patients having different health conditions. The result maps clearly capture the movements and characteristics from the image frames. Our method may help the diagnosticians quickly search the locations of lesion, bleeding, or some other interesting areas.