• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.107-115
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to demonstrate the presence of dental caries through a photoacoustic imaging system with visible and near-infrared wavelengths, highlighting the differences between the 2 spectral regions. The depth at which carious tissue could be detected was also verified. Materials and Methods: Fifteen permanent molars were selected and classified as being sound or having incipient or advanced caries by visual inspection, radiography, and optical coherence tomography analysis prior to photoacoustic scanning. A photoacoustic imaging system operating with a nanosecond pulsed laser as the light excitation source at either 532 nm or 1064 nm and an acoustic transducer at 5 MHz was developed, characterized, and used. En-face and lateral(depth) photoacoustic signals were detected. Results: The results confirmed the potential of the photoacoustic method to detect caries. At both wavelengths, photoacoustic imaging effectively detected incipient and advanced caries. The reconstructed photoacoustic images confirmed that a higher intensity of the photoacoustic signal could be observed in regions with lesions, while sound surfaces showed much less photoacoustic signal. Photoacoustic signals at depths up to 4 mm at both 532 nm and 1064 nm were measured. Conclusion: The results presented here are promising and corroborate that photoacoustic imaging can be applied as a diagnostic tool in caries research. New studies should focus on developing a clinical model of photoacoustic imaging applications in dentistry, including soft tissues. The use of inexpensive light-emitting diodes together with a miniaturized detector will make photoacoustic imaging systems more flexible, user-friendly, and technologically viable.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2015

The most common cause of a heart attack is known as coronary artery disease, which narrows the arteries and reduces the blood flow to the heart. To treat coronary artery stenosis, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (a nonsurgical procedure to install a stent, which holds the artery wall open) is performed. Intracoronary optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a catheter-based, invasive optical imaging system. To determine whether PCI is appropriate, and to perform stent evaluation in a catheterization laboratory, OCT examinations are carried out. This review details the fundamental principles and technological status of intracoronary OCT imaging, and discusses the ongoing clinical applications to determine the benefits of OCT-guided PCI.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.453-459
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• 2018

We have developed a high-performance signal-processing and image-rendering heterogeneous computation system for optical coherence tomography (OCT) on mobile processor. In this paper, we reveal it by demonstrating real-time OCT image processing using a Snapdragon 800 mobile processor, with the introduction of a heterogeneous image visualization architecture (HIVA) to accelerate the signal-processing and image-visualization procedures. HIVA has been designed to maximize the computational performances of a mobile processor by using a native language compiler, which targets mobile processor, to directly access mobile-processor computing resources and the open computing language (OpenCL) for heterogeneous computation. The developed mobile image processing platform requires only 25 ms to produce an OCT image from $512{\times}1024$ OCT data. This is 617 times faster than the naïve approach without HIVA, which requires more than 15 s. The developed platform can produce 40 OCT images per second, to facilitate real-time mobile OCT image visualization. We believe this study would facilitate the development of portable diagnostic image visualization with medical imaging modality, which requires computationally expensive procedures, using a mobile processor.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.171-176
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• 2019

The available methods for veneer evaluation are limited to clinical and radiographic examinations, which may not allow the appropriate identification of failure. In this report, we demonstrate the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a noninvasive diagnostic and follow-up method to evaluate gingival recovery and the adhesive interface in aesthetic oral rehabilitation involving periodontal plastic surgery and ceramic laminate veneers. OCT was efficient for evaluating both soft and hard tissues, as well as the quality of the adhesive interface. In conclusion, OCT was found to be a promising approach for the professional evaluation of aesthetic oral rehabilitation, as it was capable of generating images that enabled the analysis of gingival recovery and the adhesive interface.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.67-71
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• 2014

Intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) enables imaging of the three-dimensional (3D) microstructure of a blood vessel wall. While 3D vascular visualization provides detailed information of the vessel wall and intraluminal structures, a longitudinal imaging pitch that is several times bigger than the imaging resolution of the system has limited true high-resolution 3D imaging. In this paper we demonstrate high-speed intravascular OCT in vivo, acquiring images at a rate of 350 frames per second. A 47-mm-long rabbit aorta was imaged in 3.7 seconds, after a short flush with contrast agent. The longitudinal imaging pitch was 34 micrometers, comparable to the transverse imaging resolution of the system. Three-dimensional volume rendering showed greatly enhanced visualization of tissue microstructure and stent struts, relative to what is provided by conventional intravascular imaging speeds.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.154-158
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• 2015

We experimentally demonstrated a novel wavelength-swept laser using a cascaded Raman gain around 1310 nm. A 1064/1310 wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) coupler and coupled fiber Bragg gratings mirrors at 1064, 1117, 1175, 1240 nm are effectively used to increase the power efficiency in a laser ring cavity with highly non-linear fiber (HNLF) of 2 km. Linear wavelength sweeping is demonstrated with the 100 Hz triangular driving signal to fiber Fabry-Perot tunable filter (FFP-TF) around the 1310 nm region. The measured sweeping range and output power were 27 nm and 2.1 mW, respectively, which are suitable for optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging.

• Proceedings of the Optical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2008.07a
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• pp.161-162
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• 2008

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.173-178
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• 2016

Purpose: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been investigated as a novel diagnostic imaging tool. The utilisation of this equipment has been evaluated through several studies in the field of dentistry. The aim of this preliminary study was to determine through basic experiments the effectiveness of OCT in implant dentistry. Materials and Methods: To assess detection ability, we captured OCT images of implants in each of the following situations: (1) implants covered with mucosae of various thicknesses that were harvested from the mandibles of pigs; (2) implants installed in the mandibles of pigs; and (3) implants with abutments and crowns fixed with temporary cement. The OCT images were captured before cementation, after cementation, and after removing the excess submucosal cement. Results: If the thickness of the mucosa covering the implant body was less than 1 mm, the images of the implants were clearly detected by OCT. In the implants were installed in pigs' mandibles, it was difficult to capture clear images of the implant and alveolar bone in most of the samples. Remnants of excess cement around the implants were visible in most samples that had a mucosa thickness of less than 3 mm. Conclusion: Currently, OCT imaging of implants is limited. Cement remnants at the submucosal area can be detected in some cases, which can be helpful in preventing peri-implant diseases. Still, though there are some restrictions to its application, OCT could have potential as an effective diagnostic instrument in the field of implant dentistry as well.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.30-40
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• 2017

Purpose: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive diagnostic technique that may be useful for both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the periodontium. Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is another noninvasive imaging technique capable of providing submicron spatial resolution. The purpose of this study was to present periodontal images obtained using ex vivo dental OCT and to compare OCT images with micro-CT images and histologic sections. Methods: Images of ex vivo canine periodontal structures were obtained using OCT. Biologic depth measurements made using OCT were compared to measurements made on histologic sections prepared from the same sites. Visual comparisons were made among OCT, micro-CT, and histologic sections to evaluate whether anatomical details were accurately revealed by OCT. Results: The periodontal tissue contour, gingival sulcus, and the presence of supragingival and subgingival calculus could be visualized using OCT. OCT was able to depict the surface topography of the dentogingival complex with higher resolution than micro-CT, but the imaging depth was typically limited to 1.2-1.5 mm. Biologic depth measurements made using OCT were a mean of 0.51 mm shallower than the histologic measurements. Conclusions: Dental OCT as used in this study was able to generate high-resolution, cross-sectional images of the superficial portions of periodontal structures. Improvements in imaging depth and the development of an intraoral sensor are likely to make OCT a useful technique for periodontal applications.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.42 no.5 s.305
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• pp.1-10
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• 2005

Content-based image retrieval systems are being actively investigated owing to their ability to retrieve images based on the actual visual content rather than by manually associated textual descriptions. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for image retrieval based on edge structural features using edge correlogram and color coherence vector. After color vector angle is applied in the pre-processing stage, an image is divided into two image parts (high frequency image and low frequency image). In low frequency image, the global color distribution of smooth pixels is extracted by color coherence vector, thereby incorporating spatial information into the proposed color descriptor. Meanwhile, in high frequency image, the distribution of the gray pairs at an edge is extracted by edge correlogram. Since the proposed algorithm includes the spatial and edge information between colors, it can robustly reduce the effect of the significant change in appearance and shape in image analysis. The proposed method provides a simple and flexible description for the image with complex scene in terms of structural features of the image contents. Experimental evidence suggests that our algorithm outperforms the recently histogram refinement methods for image indexing and retrieval. To index the multidimensional feature vectors, we use R*-tree structure.