• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.22.1-22.9
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• 2021

Background: Standing surgery in horses combining intravenous sedatives, analgesics and local anaesthesia is becoming more popular. Ultrasound guided (USG) peribulbar nerve block (PB) has been described in dogs and humans for facial and ocular surgery, reducing the risk of complications versus retrobulbar nerve block (RB). Objective: To describe a technique for USG PB in horse cadavers. Methods: Landmarks and PB technique were described in two equine cadaver heads (Phase 1), with computed tomography (CT) imaging confirming contrast location and spread. In Phase 2, ten equine cadaver heads were randomised to two operators naive to the USG PB, with moderate experience with ultrasonography and conventional "blind" RB. Both techniques were demonstrated once. Subsequently, operators performed five USG PB and five RB each, unassisted. Contrast location and spread were evaluated by CT. Injection site success was defined for USG PB as extraconal contrast, and for RB intraconal contrast. Results: Success was 10/10 for USG PB and 0/10 for RB (p < 0.001). Of the RB injections, eight resulted in extraconal contrast and two in the masseter muscle (p = 0.47). Conclusions: The USG PB had a high injection site success rate compared with the RB technique; however, we cannot comment on clinical effect. The USG technique was easily learnt, and no potential complications were seen. The USG PB nerve block could have a wide application for use in horses for ocular surgeries (enucleations, eyelid, corneal, cataract surgeries, and ocular analgesia) due to reduced risk of iatrogenic damage. Further clinical studies are needed.

• The Journal of Korean Orthopaedic Ultrasound Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2011

To describe the background, mechanism, clinical results and complications of prolotheapy based on the literature review. Prolotherapy is a minimally invasive injection-based treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain, including ligament and joint laxity. The mechanism of this injection-based technique is to initiate a local inflammatory response with resultant tissue healing. The used proliferants are classified by bio-mechanism to act in three different ways as osmotic, irritants, and chemotatics. The most commonly used proliferant is hyperosmolar (10~25%) dextrose to act by osmotic rupture of cells. High resolution ultrasound imaging of musculoskeletal structure provide a more accurate diagnosis. Also ultrasound-guided intervention provides a more high efficacy and low rate of complications. The most common complication is local pain at the injected site, that is self-limited and good responsive to anti-inflammatory agents. Other complications are rare. It is reported that prolotherapy appears safe when performed by an experienced clinician. Prolotherapy has grown in popularity and has received significant recent attention. However there are limited evidence-based data supporting the indication and efficacy of prolotherapy in the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain or soft tissue injuries. Future studies are necessary to determine whether prolotherapy can play an independent and definitive role in a treatment for chronic musculoskeletal pain.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.935-940
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• 2013

Background: To evaluate the diagnostic utility of conventional ultrasonography and real time ultrasound elastography in differentiating degenerating cystic thyroid nodules mimicking malignancy from papillary thyroid carcinoma. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed conventional ultrasonographic and elastographic characteristics of 19 degenerating cystic thyroid nodules mimicking malignancy in 19 patients, with 30 surgically confirmed PTCs as controls. Based on size, the nodules had been grouped into less than 10mm (group A) and greater than 10 mm (group B). We evaluated conventional parameters and elasticity pattern. Color-scaled elastograms were graded as to stiffness of nodules using an elasticity pattern from I (soft) to IV (stiff). Results: Degenerating cystic thyroid nodules were similar to PTCs in conventional ultrasonographic findings, but the former frequently showed oval to round in shape (group A, 69.2% vs 18.8%, P=0.017; group B, 66.7% vs 7.14%, P=0.017) and punctuate hyperechoic foci (group A, 61.5% vs 0, P<0.001; group B, 50% vs 0, P<0.001). On real time ultrasound elastography, 7 of 13 degenerating cystic thyroid nodules in group A were pattern I, 5 were pattern II, 1 was pattern III. One degenerating cystic thyroid nodule in group B was pattern II, 5 were pattern III. The area under the curve for elastography was 0.98 in group A (sensitivity 92.3%, specificity 100%, P = 0.002), and 0.88 in group B (sensitivity 16.7%, specificity 100%, P = 0.014). Conclusions: As a dependable imaging technique, elastography helps increase the performance in differential diagnosis of degenerating cystic thyroid nodule and malignancy.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.151-154
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• 2001

In this Paper, a new harmonic imaging technique is proposed and evaluated experimentally. In the proposed method, a weighted chin signal with a hanning window is transmitted. The RF samples obtained on each array element are individually compressed by correlating with the reference signal defined as the 2nd harmonic (2f0) component of a transmitted chirp signal generated in a square-law system. The proposed method uses the compressed 2f0 component to form an image, for which the crosscorrelation term with f0 component should be suppressed below at least -60dB. After experiment, the 6dB pulse width and peak sidelobe level of the compressed 2f0 component were 0.7us and -60dB, respectively. This result shows that the proposed method can successfully eliminate the f0 component with a single transmit-receive event and therefore is more efficient than the conventional pulse inversion (PI) method in terms of frame rate. We also observed that the 2nd harmonic compont starts to decrease for source pressure higher than 210kPa in water, which implies that SNR of the 2nd harmonic imaging using short pulses cnanot be incresed beyond a certain limit.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1567-1572
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• 2004

Although accurate measurement of velocity profiles, multiple velocity vectors, and shear stress in arteries is important, there is still no easy method to obtain such information in vivo. This study shows the utility of combining ultrasound contrast imaging with particle image velocimetry (PIV) for non-invasive measurement of velocity vectors. The steady flow analytical solution and optical PIV measurements (for pulsatile flow) were used for comparison. When compared to the analytical solution, both echo PIV and optical PIV resolved the steady velocity profile well. Error in shear rate as measured by echo PIV (8%) was comparable to the error of optical PIV (6.5%). In pulsatile flow, echo PIV velocity profiles agreed well with optical PIV profiles. Echo PIV followed the general profile of pulsatile shear stress across the artery but underestimated wall shear at certain time points. These studies indicate that echo PIV is a promising technique for the non-invasive measurement of velocity profiles and shear stress.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.7291-7294
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• 2015

Purpsoe: To investigate the diagnostic value of quantitative analysis of a tissue diffusion and virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) technique with acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography for assessing enlarged cervical lymph nodes. Materials and Methods: Fifty-six enlarged cervical lymph nodes confirmed by pathologic diagnoses were covered in the study. According to the results of pathologic diagnosis, patients were classified into benign and malignant groups. All the patients were examined by both conventional ultrasonography and elastography. AREA% and shear wave velocity (SWV) in ROI of different groups were calculated and compared using ROC curves. Cut-off points of AREA% and SWV were determined with receiver operating characteristic curves. Results: Final histopathological results revealed 21 cases of benign and 35 cases of malignant lymph nodes. The mean values of AREA% and SWV in benign and malignant groups were $45.0{\pm}17.9%$ and $2.32{\pm}0.57m/s$, and $61.3{\pm}21.29%$ and $4.36{\pm}1.25$)m/s, respectively. For the parameters of elastography, "AREA%" and SWV demonstrated significant differences between groups (p=0.002). AREA% was positively correlated with SWV with a correlation coefficient of 0.809 (P<0.001). Conclusions: Stiffness of different lymph node diseases in patients may differ. Elastography can evaluate changes sensitively and provide valuable information to doctors. The study proved that the VTIQ elastography technique can play an important role in differential diagnosis of lymph nodes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8619-8623
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• 2016

Background: Breast cancer is a common disorder in women, constituting one of the main causes of death all over the world. The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic value of the breast tissue diseases by the help of thermography. Materials and Methods: In this paper, we applied non-contact infrared camera, INFREC R500 for evaluating the capabilities of thermography. The study was conducted on 60 patients suspected of breast disease, who were referred to Imam Khomeini Imaging Center. Information obtained from the questionnaires and clinical examinations along with the obtained diagnostic results from ultrasound images, biopsies and thermography, were analyzed. The results indicated that the use of thermography as well as the asymmetry technique is useful in identifying hypoechoic as well as cystic masses. It should be noted that the patient should not suffer from breast discharge. Results: The accuracy of asymmetry technique identification is respectively 91/89% and 92/30%. Also the accuracy of the exact location of identification is on the 61/53% and 75%. The approach also proved effective in identifying heterogeneous lesions, fibroadenomas, and intraductal masses, but not ISO-echoes and calcified masses. Conclusions: According to the results of the investigation, thermography may be useful in the initial screening and supplementation of diagnostic procedures due to its safety (its non-radiation properties), low cost and the good recognition of breast tissue disease.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.115-122
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• 2013

Disease diagnostics based on medical imaging is getting popularity day by day. Presence of the atherosclerosis is one of the causes of narrowing of carotid arteries which may block partially or fully blood flow into the brain. Serious brain strokes may occur due to such types of blockages in blood flow. Early detection of the plaque and taking precautionary steps in this regard may prevent from such type of serious strokes. In this paper, we present an automatic image segmentation technique for carotid artery ultrasound images based on active contour approach. In our experimental study, we assume that ultrasound images are properly aligned before applying automatic image segmentation. We have successfully applied the automatic segmentation of carotid artery ultrasound images using snake based model. Qualitative comparison of the proposed approach has been made with the manual initialization of snakes for carotid artery image segmentation. Our proposed approach successfully segments the carotid artery images in an automated way to help radiologists to detect plaque easily. Obtained results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2005

There are many tube and pipeline in nuclear power plant under high temperature and high pressure. Erosion and corrosion defects were expected on these tube and pipe-line by environmental and mechanical factors. These erosion and corrosion defects ran be evaluated by ultrasonic technique. In these study, Scanning Laser Source(SLS) technique was applied to detect defect and construct image. This technique also makes detection possible on rough and curved surfaces such as tube and pipe-line by scanning. Conventional ultrasonic scanning technique requires immersion of specimen or water jet for transferring ultrasonic wave between transducer and specimen. However, this SLS technique does not need contacting and couplant to generate surface wave and to get flaw images. Therefore, this SLS technique has several advantages, for complicated production inspection, non-contact, remote from specimen, and high resolution. In this study, SLS images were obtained with various conditions of generation laser ultrasound and receiving in order to enhance detectability of flaws on the tube. Stress corrosion cracks were produced on tube and images of stress corrosion cracks were constructed by using SLS technique.

• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.229-238
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• 2023

Background/Aims: Shear wave elastography (SWE) is used for liver fibrosis staging based on stiffness measurements. It can be performed using endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) or a transabdominal approach. Transabdominal accuracy can be limited in patients with obesity because of the thick abdomen. Theoretically, EUS-SWE overcomes this limitation by internally assessing the liver. We aimed to define the optimal technique for EUS-SWE for future research and clinical use and compare its accuracy with that of transabdominal SWE. Methods: Benchtop study: A standardized phantom model was used. The compared variables included the region of interest (ROI) size, depth, and orientation and transducer pressure. Porcine study: Phantom models with varying stiffness values were surgically implanted between the hepatic lobes. Results: For EUS-SWE, a larger ROI size of 1.5 cm and a smaller ROI depth of 1 cm demonstrated a significantly higher accuracy. For transabdominal SWE, the ROI size was nonadjustable, and the optimal ROI depth ranged from 2 to 4 cm. The transducer pressure and ROI orientation did not significantly affect the accuracy. There were no significant differences in the accuracy between transabdominal SWE and EUS-SWE in the animal model. The variability among the operators was more pronounced for the higher stiffness values. Small lesion measurements were accurate only when the ROI was entirely situated within the lesion. Conclusions: We defined the optimal viewing windows for EUS-SWE and transabdominal SWE. The accuracy was comparable in the non-obese porcine model. EUS-SWE may have a higher utility for evaluating small lesions than transabdominal SWE.