• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.66-70
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• 2017

The lumbar sympathetic ganglion block (LSGB) is widely used for diagnosing and treating sympathetically maintained pain disorders. The LSGB has been conventionally carried out under fluoroscopy or computed tomography guidance. However, as ultrasound technology improved, ultrasound-guided interventions have been expanding their territory to deeper structures. Ultrasound guidance provides many benefits including protecting vascular injection, shortening procedure time in some cases, and reducing the emission of radiation. In this report, we describe a successful case of a US-guided LSGB without major complications. We expect that US-guided LSGBs can be implemented and furnished in the daily outpatient clinical setting by highly trained pain physicians.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.367-372
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• 2008

ZnO nanorod gas sensors were prepared by an ultrasound radiation method and their gas sensing properties were investigated for NO gas. For this procedure, 0.01, 0.005 and 0.001M of zinc nitrate hydrate [$Zn(NO_3)_2\;{\cdot}\;6H_2O$] and hexamethyleneteramine [$C_6H_{12}N_4$] aqueous solutions were prepared and then the solution was irradiated with high intensity ultrasound for 1 h. The lengths of ZnO nanorods ranged from 200 nm to 500 nm with diameters ranging from 40 nm to 80 nm. The size of the ZnO nanorods could be controlled by the concentration of solution. The sensing characteristics of these nanostructures were investigated for three kinds of sensor. The properties of the sensors were influenced by the morphology of the nanorods.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.264-269
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• 2011

To increase therapeutic efficiency and biological safety, it is important to precision control of acoustic output for therapeutic ultrasound equipment. In this paper, the electro-acoustic radiation conductance, one of electroacoustic characteristics of therapeutic ultrasound equipment, was measured by the radiation force balance method according to IEC 61161 standards and the acoustic output was estimated using the electro-acoustic radiation conductance. The estimation of acoustic output was conducted to continuous wave mode and pulse wave mode of duty cycle between 20% and 80%. The differences between prediction values and measurement results are within 5% of measurement uncertainty, which is a reasonably good agreement. The results show that acoustic output controlled by electro-acoustic radiation conductance was found to be an effective method.

• The Journal of Korean Orthopaedic Ultrasound Society
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2009

Prolotherapy, the technology for strengthening lax ligaments, has found increased acceptance in recent years. Prolotherapy involves the injection of the irritant solutions into the weakened or stretched ligaments which are a source of chronic pain. This induces an inflammatory response which mimics the normal repair sequence. Various musculoskeletal disorders of lower extremities such as degenerative arthrtitis, ligament and tendon injuries can be treated with prolotherapy. Prolotherapy is a very good, powerful nonsurgical conservative treatment in various musculoskeletal disorders. Ultrasound exam is very useful to find and confirm the exact location of disorders and check the progress in prolotherapy practices.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.369-374
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• 2022

Purpose: Focused ultrasound is an emerging technology for treating the brain locally in a noninvasive manner. In this study, we have investigated the influence of skull properties on simulating transcranial pressure field. Methods: A 3D computational model of transcranial focused ultrasound was constructed using female and male CT data to solve for intracranial pressure. For heterogeneous model, the acoustic properties were calculated from CT Hounsfield units based on a porosity. The homogeneous model assigned constant acoustic properties for the single-layered skull. Results: A computational model was validated against empirical data. The homogeneous models were then compared with the heterogeneous model, resulted in 10.87% and 7.19% differences in peak pressure for female and male models respectively. For the focal volume, homogeneous model demonstrated more than 94% overlap compared with the heterogeneous model. Conclusion: Homogeneous model can be constructed using MR images that are commonly used for the segmentation of the skull. We propose the possibility of the homogeneous model for the simulating transcranial pressure field owing to comparable focal volume between homogeneous model and heterogeneous model.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1084-1092
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• 2002

The frequency dependency of Rayleigh surface wave is investigated indirectly by measuring the angular dependency of the backward radiation of the incident ultrasonic wave in two kinds of degraded specimens by scuffing or corrosion. Then, the frequency dependency is compared with the residual stress distribution or the corrosion-fatigue characteristics for the scuffed or corroded specimens, respectively. The width of the backward radiation profile increases with the increase of the variation in residual stress distribution for the scuffed specimens. In the corroded specimens, the profile width decreases with the increase of the effective aging layer thickness and is inversely proportional to the exponent, m, in the Paris' law that can predict the crack size increase due to fatigue. The result observed in this study demonstrates high potential of backward radiated ultrasound as a tool for nondestructive evaluation of subsurface gradient of material degradation generated by scuffing or corrosion.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2011

Aluminum was electrochemically etched in acid solution and the surface area was magnified by the formation of etch pits. Etched aluminum was covered with a compact and dense dielectric oxide film by anodization and applied to the aluminum electrolytic capacitor electrode. Capacitance of aluminum electrolytic capacitor is closely related with surface area, which depends on size and number of etch pits. Size of etch pits need to be controlled because inside of the pits can be buried by the formation of dielectric oxide film. In this work, the effect of ultrasound pretreatment on the aluminum etch pit formation and capacitance were investigated. Additionally, the relationship between the second etching effect on pit size and capacitance was studied.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.2E
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• pp.73-85
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• 2010

In the diagnostic ultrasound (US) transducer technology, the high frequency US(HFUS) transducer over 20 MHz is one of the current issues to be pursued for better resolution with the expense of penetration. HFUS single element transducers and the mechanical scanning systems for imaging are reviewed, and HFUS array transducers are also briefly summarized. HFUS applications such as the human applications in ophthalmology and dermatology and small animal applications for research purposes are reviewed with vascular and blood imaging in this paper.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.430-437
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• 2018

Ultrasonic attenuation is an important parameter in Quantitative Ultrasound and many algorithms have been proposed to improve estimation accuracy and repeatability for multiple independent estimates. In this work, we propose an improved algorithm for estimating ultrasonic attenuation utilizing the optimal frequency compounding technique based on stochastic noise model. We formulate mathematical compounding equations in the AWGN channel model and solve optimization problems to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio for multiple frequency components. Individual estimates are calculated by the reference phantom method which provides very stable results in uniformly attenuating regions. We also propose the guideline to select frequency ranges of reflected RF signals. Simulation results using numerical phantoms show that the proposed optimal frequency compounding method provides improved accuracy while minimizing estimation bias. The estimation variance is reduced by only 16% for the un-compounding case, whereas it is reduced by 68% for the uniformly compounding case. The frequency range corresponding to the half-power for reflected signals also provides robust and efficient estimation performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.523-524
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• 2005