• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.291-298
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• 2016

The aim of the study was to investigate the diagnostic value of the color Doppler twinkling artifact in disease of urinary system. The intensity of twinkling artifact(TA) with color Doppler was classified into 3 levels, 0(non-TA) to 3(distinct TA). In the in vitro study, acorn jelly with various materials on top was examined using color Doppler at B-mode sonography in a water bath for TA. 31 patients with diagnosis of urinary calculi(renal stones 16, urinary stones 15) based on B-mode sonography were studied in vivo for TA. The materials with rough surfaces such as salt, screw and cubics at B-mode sonography with color Doppler contributed to causing TA. At B-mode sonography without color Doppler 37% of renal stones and 60% of ureter stones were detected. but at B-mode sonography with color Doppler TA was demonstrated for all cases. Superficial roughness of materials affected occurrence of TA at B-mode sonography with color Doppler. Therefore, TA at B-mode sonography without color Doppler could play a role in confident diagnosis of the disease of urinary system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.637-642
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• 2021

Kidney stones are largely classified into kidney stones, ureter stones, and urolithiasis depending on the location of their occurrence. Therefore, in this study, from January 2019 to June 2021, kidney stones found in 112 patients with flank pain or who visited for abdominal ultrasonography at a general hospital located in Daegu were diagnosed with urolithiasis. We wanted to investigate the effect on twinkling artifacts. As a result of the study, the incidence of twinkling artifacts due to kidney stones was relatively high in the longitudinal scan among the scan methods. As the number of kidney stones increased, the incidence of twinkling artifacts increased by 1.296 times (p<0.05). As the kidney stone size increased, the incidence of twinkling artifacts increased by 0.086-fold (p<0.05). It was found that the number and size of kidney stones are factors affecting twinkling artifacts. Since the effect of kidney stones on twinkling artifacts is related to the number and size of kidney stones, continuous attention should be paid to helping the detection of kidney stones by using variables affecting twinkling artifacts.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.1049-1055
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of twinkling artifacts according to the types of urinary stones in color Doppler ultrasound. For two types of urinary stones with different colors, the degree of occurrence of color Doppler twinkling artifact in water tank was analyzed, and the surface condition and composition of the stones were analyzed. The composition of Calcium and phosphorus were the most frequent components in white and brown stones excluding carbon and oxygen. Twinkling artifacts of color Doppler appear stronger in brown stone. The higher the phosphorus content of the stones, the shorter the twinkling artifact appears, so it is possible to predict the main composition of stones.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.120-128
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• 2017

Acute flank pain from urolithiasis is the most common condition in people visiting emergency rooms. This study is to evaluate the usefulness of color Doppler in detecting ureteral stones in patients without hydronephrosis. We performed ultrasonography and retrospective analysis on 161 patients who were suspected of urinary stones through plain radiography of the kidney, ureter, and bladder examination or urine tests that showed positive signs of hematuria. In ultrasonography, a total of 154 (95.6%) cases from the 161 patients were diagnosed with ureteral stones. In color Doppler, ureteral stones with twinkling artifact (TA) in the absence of hydronephrosis was shown in 18 (85.7%) cases of the 21 patients(p<0.001). The use of color Doppler has a high diagnostic efficacy for the detection of indistinguishable stones, non-dilatational ureteral stones, and middle ureter stones.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.751-759
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• 2023

Breast ultrasonography is difficult to image in fatty breasts and to find micro-calcification, but the discovery of micro-calcification is very important for breast cancer screening. Among the color Doppler artifact of ultrasound, twinkle artifact mainly occur on strong reflectors such as stones or calcification in images, and evaluation methods using them are clinically being used. In this study, we are conducting experiments on the color Doppler settings of ultrasound equipment, such as repetition frequency, ensemble, persist, wall filtering, smoothing, linear density, and dissociation value, by producing a breast simulation phantom using the largest amount of calcium phosphate among breast implants. The purpose of this study was to improve the contrast of twinkle artifact in breast ultrasound examinations and to maximize their use in clinical practice. As a result, the pulse repetition frequency occurred in the range of 3.6 kHz to 7.2 kHz, and did not occur above 10.5 kHz. For ensembles, twinkle artifact occurred in all sizes of calcification under low conditions, and in threshold settings, the twinkle artifact increased slightly only under 80 to 100 conditions, and did not occur in 1 mm size calcification. Persist, wall filter, smoothing, and line density settings did not have much meaning in the setting variable because conditions did not increase by condition, and pulse repetition frequency, ensemble, and thresholds had the greatest impact on the twinkling artifact image. This study is expected to help examiners select optimal conditions to effectively increase twinkle artifact by adjusting color Doppler settings.