• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.219-222
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• 2000

Renal inflammatory pseudotumor is a very rare benign condition of unknown etiology characterized by proliferative myofibroblasts, fibroblasts, histiocytes, and plasma cells. In the case we report, the lesion appeared on contrast-enhanced power Doppler US images as a well-defined hypoechoic mass with intratumoral vascularity, and on CT as a low-attenuated mass. Differentiation from malignant renal neoplasms was not possible.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.193-200
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• 2023

Purpose: Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic, idiopathic bowel disorder that can progress to partial or complete bowel obstruction. At present, there are no reliable diagnostic tests that can readily distinguish between acute inflammatory, purely fibrotic and mixed inflammatory and fibrotic. Our aim is to study the utility of contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in combination with shear wave elastography (SWE) to differentiate fibrotic from inflammatory strictures in children with obstructive CD of the terminal ileum. Methods: Twenty-five (19 male) children between 2016-2021 with CD of the terminal ileum were recruited into the study. Among these patients, 22 had CEUS kinetic measurements of tissue perfusion, including wash-in slope (dB/sec), peak intensity (dB), time to peak intensity (sec), area under the curve (AUC) (dB sec), and SWE. In total, 11 patients required surgery due to bowel obstruction. Histopathologic analysis was performed by a pathologist who was blinded to the CEUS and SWE test results. Results: Patients that underwent surgical resection had significantly higher mean area under the curve on CEUS compared to patients responsive to medical therapy (p=0.03). The AUC also correlated with the degree of hypertrophy and the percent fibrosis of the muscularis propria, as determined by histopathologic grading (p<0.01). There was no difference in the mean elastography measurements between these two patient groups. Conclusion: CEUS is a useful radiological technique that can help identify pediatric patients with medically refractory obstructive fibrotic strictures of the terminal ileum that should be considered for early surgical resection.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.482-497
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• 2023

Sonazoid, a second-generation ultrasound contrast agent, was introduced for the diagnosis of hepatic nodules. To clarify the issues with Sonazoid contrast-enhanced ultrasonography for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the Korean Society of Radiology and Korean Society of Abdominal Radiology collaborated on the guidelines. The guidelines are de novo, evidence-based, and selected using an electronic voting system for consensus. These include imaging protocols, diagnostic criteria for HCC, diagnostic value for lesions that are inconclusive on other imaging results, differentiation from non-HCC malignancies, surveillance of HCC, and treatment response after locoregional and systemic treatment for HCC.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.122-128
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• 2015

Background: Caudal epidural injections have been commonly performed in patients with low back pain and radiculopathy. Although caudal injection has generally been accepted as a safe procedure, serious complications such as inadvertent intravascular injection and dural puncture can occur. The present prospective study was designed to investigate the influence of the depth of the inserted needle on the success rate of caudal epidural blocks. Methods: A total of 49 adults scheduled to receive caudal epidural injections were randomly divided into 2 groups: Group 1 to receive the caudal injection through a conventional method, i.e., caudal injection after advancement of the needle 1 cm into the sacral canal (n = 25), and Group 2 to receive the injection through a new method, i.e., injection right after penetrating the sacrococcygeal ligament (n = 24). Ultrasound was used to identify the sacral hiatus and to achieve accurate needle placement according to the allocated groups. Contrast dyed fluoroscopy was obtained to evaluate the epidural spread of injected materials and to monitor the possible complications. Results: The success rates of the caudal injections were 68.0% in Group 1 and 95.8% in Group 2 (P = 0.023). The incidences of intravascular injections were 24.0% in Group 1 and 0% in Group 2 (P = 0.022). No intrathecal injection was found in either of the two groups. Conclusions: The new caudal epidural injection technique tested in this study is a reliable alternative, with a higher success rate and lower risk of accidental intravascular injection than the conventional technique.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.237-243
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• 2017

This study evaluated the applicability of computer-aided diagnosis by retrospective analysis of GLCM algorithm based on cytopathological diagnosis of normal and malignant nodules in thyroid ultrasound images. In the experiment, the recognition rate and ROC curve of thyroid malignant nodule were analyzed using 6 parameters of GLCM algorithm. Experimental results showed 97% energy, 93% contrast, 92% correlation, 92% homogeneity, 100% entropy and 100% variance. Statistical analysis showed that the area under the curve of each parameter was more than 0.947 (p = 0.001) in the ROC curve, which was significant in the recognition of thyroid malignant nodules. In the GLCM, the cut-off value of each parameter can be used to predict the disease through analysis of quantitative computer-aided diagnosis.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.429-440
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• 2007

A coded excitation has been studied to improve the performance for ultrasound imaging in term of SNR, imaging frame rate, contrast to tissue ratio, and so forth. However, it requires a complicated arbitrary waveform transmitter for each active channel that is typically composed of a multi-bit Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) and a linear power amplifier (LPA). Not only does the LPA increase the cost and size of a transmitter block, but it consumes much power, increasing the system complexity further and causing a heating-up problem. This paper proposes an optimized 1.5bit fourth order sigma-delta modulation technique applicable to design an efficient arbitrary waveform generator with greatly reduced power dissipation and hardware. The proposed SDM can provide a required SQNR with a low over-sampling ratio of 4. To this end, the loop coefficients are optimized to minimize the quantization noise power in signal band while maintaining system stability. In addition, the decision level for the 1.5 bit quantizer is optimized for a given input waveform, which results in the SQNR improvement of more than 5dB. Computer simulation results show that the SQNR of a FM(frequency modulated) signal generated by using the proposed method is about 26dB, and the peak side-lobe level (PSL) of its compressed waveform on receive is -48dB.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.4
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• pp.889-902
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• 2021

Purpose To assess the diagnostic performance of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for additional MR-detected enhancing lesions and to determine whether or not kinetic pattern results comparable to dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) of the breast can be obtained using the quantitative analysis of CEUS. Materials and Methods In this single-center prospective study, a total of 71 additional MR-detected breast lesions were included. CEUS examination was performed, and lesions were categorized according to the Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS). The sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of CEUS were calculated by comparing the BI-RADS category to the final pathology results. The degree of agreement between CEUS and DCE-MRI kinetic patterns was evaluated using weighted kappa. Results On CEUS, 46 lesions were assigned as BI-RADS category 4B, 4C, or 5, while 25 lesions category 3 or 4A. The diagnostic performance of CEUS for enhancing lesions on DCE-MRI was excellent, with 84.9% sensitivity, 94.4% specificity, and 97.8% positive predictive value. A total of 57/71 (80%) lesions had correlating kinetic patterns and showed good agreement (weighted kappa = 0.66) between CEUS and DCE-MRI. Benign lesions showed excellent agreement (weighted kappa = 0.84), and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) showed good agreement (weighted kappa = 0.69). Conclusion The diagnostic performance of CEUS for additional MR-detected breast lesions was excellent. Accurate kinetic pattern assessment, fairly comparable to DCE-MRI, can be obtained for benign and IDC lesions using CEUS.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.123-130
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• 2015

This study examines the effects of different types of bridge exercises on the thickness of trunk muscles through ultrasound fusion imaging on 32 students. The thickness of the internal oblique (IO), external oblique (EO), transverse abdominis (TrA), and multifidus (Mf) muscles were measured in three different bridge exercises. The exercises included a supine bridge exercise, which was performed on a fixed support surface (Exercise A), a gym ball bridge exercise (Exercise B), and a sling bridge exercise (Exercise C). There were significant differences among the three bridge exercises in the IO, TrA, and Mf muscles. The IO was thickest in Exercise B followed by Exercise A and C. In contrast, the TrA and the Mf muscles were thickest in Exercise C followed by Exercise A and B. Therefore, the sling bridge exercise may be a more effective method of enhancing trunk muscle thickness than the exercises performed in other positions. Until recently, no previous studies had observed substantial changes in muscle thickness using ultrasound fusion imaging. This study suggests that sling bridge exercises contribute most to the activation of trunk muscles. Therefore, the research can contribute to the prescription and application of bridge exercises in clinical practices.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to compare the MI using SonoVue along with different machines output and to infer the meaning of the signal difference under the same condition. All of the comparative instruments showed strong signal values at early stage as MI value increased. Over time, the inter-instrumental signal values showed signal attenuation under all conditions except for 10 min of the condition of MI 0.1 of RS85A. E9 and EPIQ7 showed signal degradation due to microbubble collapse over time at all MI values. In the comparison of equipment, the signal strengths of MI 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4 were high in order of EPIQ7, RS85A and E9. In the quantitative analysis, there were statistically significant from the SNR and CNR that were obtained from RS85A and E9 (P-value<0.05). In the quantitative analysis, Epiq7 was statistically significant except for CNR as the MI value was changed In the contrast-enhanced ultrasound, even though MI value was low (MI <0.05), it will be helpful for diagnosis, controlling the MI and scan time because a difference in signal intensity was shown between the three machines.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.598-614
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• 2022

While ultrasound (US) is considered an important tool for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance, it has limited sensitivity for detecting early-stage HCC. Abbreviated MRI (AMRI) has recently gained popularity owing to better sensitivity in its detection of early-stage HCC than US, while also minimizing the time and cost in comparison to complete contrast-enhanced MRI, as AMRI includes only a few essential sequences tailored for detecting HCC. Currently, three AMRI protocols exist, namely gadoxetic acid-enhanced hepatobiliary-phase AMRI, dynamic contrast-enhanced AMRI, and non-enhanced AMRI. In this study, we discussed the rationale and technical details of AMRI techniques for achieving optimal surveillance performance. The strengths, weaknesses, and current issues of each AMRI protocol were also elucidated. Moreover, we scrutinized previously performed AMRI studies regarding clinical and technical factors. Reporting and recall strategies were discussed while considering the differences in AMRI protocols. A risk-stratified approach for the target population should be taken to maximize the benefits of AMRI and the cost-effectiveness should be considered. In the era of multiple HCC surveillance tools, patients need to be fully informed about their choices for better adherence to a surveillance program.