• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.3 s.61
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• pp.273-277
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• 2000

The galvanostatic anodization of commercially Pure titanium plate (c.p.Ti, grade 2) was investigated in various concentrations of aqueous $H_3PO_4$ from 0.05M to 0.7M. The surfaces of anodic oxide films, formed by the current density in the range between 0.3 and $l.0 A/dm^2$. were analyzed by SEM and XRD. The voltage-time (V-T) curves displayed an initial linear part and a subsequent parabolic part, and the initial slopes increased with an increase in the current density in 0.05M $H_3PO_4$. As the concentration of the electrolyte increased, the V-T corves exhibit no change but the final voltage decreased. The anodic oxide film of titanium developed from fine grains to snowflake-like grains in a layered structure with an increase in the concentration of the electrolyte and current density. Sparking at the interface of the oxide/electrolyte accompanied the local deposition and dissolution of the oxide film through discharging. The crystallinity of the anodic oxide film increased with the anodizing voltage and decreased with an increase in the concentration of the electrolyte.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.531-536
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• 2004

In fracture treatment with external fixators, the inter-fragmentary movements at the fracture site affect the fracture healing process, and these movements are highly related to the stiffness of external fixation systems. Therefore, in order to provide the optimal fracture healing at the fracture site, it is essential to understand the relationship between the stiffness and the system configurations in external fixation system. In this study we investigated the influences of system configuration parameters on the stiffness in the finite element analysis of an external fixation system of a long bone. The system alignment, the geometric and the material non-linearity of the pin, the joint stiffness and the callus formation were considered in the finite element model. In the first, the system stiffness of the developed finite element model was compared with the experiment data for model validation. The consideration of the joint stiffness and nonlinearity of the model improved the system stiffness results. The joint stiffness, the non-alignment of the system decreased the system stiffness while the callus formation increased the system stiffness. The present results provided the biomechanical basis of rational guidelines for design improvements of external fixators and pre-op. planning to maximize the system stiffness in fracture surgery.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.611-615
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• 2004

A neural prostheses can be designed to permit stimulation of specific sites in the nervous system to restore their functions, lost due to disease or trauma. This study focuses on the feasibility of optoelecronic stimulation into nervous system. Optoelectronic stimulation supplies, power and signal into the implanted optical detector inside the body by optics. It can be effective strategy especially on the retinal prosthesis, because it enables the non-invasive connection between the external source and internal detector through natural optical window 'eye'. Therefore, we designed an effective neural stimulating setup by optically based stimulation. Stimulating on the sciatic nerve of a rat with proper depth probe through optical stimulation needs higher ratio of current spreading through the neural surface, because of high impedance of neural interface. To increase the insertion current spreading into the neuron, we used a parallel low resistance compared to load resistance organic interface and calculated the optimized outer parallel resistance for maximum insertion current with the assumption of limited current by photodiode. Optimized outer parallel resistance was at a range of 500Ω-700Ω and a current was at a level between 580uA and 650uA. Stimulating current efficiency from initial photodiode induced current was between 47.5 and 59.7%. Various amplitude and frequency of the optical stimulation on the sciatic nerve showed the reliable visual tremble, and the action potential was also recorded near the stimulating area. These result demonstrate that optoelectronic stimulation with no bias can be applied to the retinal prosthesis and other neuroprosthetic area.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.497-503
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• 2004

Numerical simulation of blood flow has been conducted based on real vessel geometries generated front DICOM medical images of abdominal and iliac bifurcated arteries of a healthy man. A program was developed to read cross sectional images of the three dimensional arteries and smoothly extract boundary coordinates of vessels. Commercial programs were employed for mesh generation and flow simulation. Pressures, velocities, and flow distributions were found to lie within normal physiological ranges. Peak velocity measured in the iliac artery by ultrasound was 20% smaller than that obtained by simulation. The trend of velocity variation in a cardiac cycle was fairly similar between the simulation and the ultrasonic measurements. Simulation based on real vessel geometry of individual patient provides information on pressure, velocity, and its distribution in the diseased arteries or arteries to be surgically treated. The results of simulation may help surgeons to better understand hemodynamic status and surgical need of the patient by revealing variation of the hemodynamic parameters. Futhermore, they may serve as basic data for surgical treatment of arteries. This research is expected to develop to a program in the future that early diagnose atherosclerosis by showing distribution of a hemodynamic index closely related to atherosclerosis in arteries.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.519-523
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• 2004

This study investigates micro-structural and mechanical properties of trabecular bone in human femoral head with and without osteoporosis using Micro-CT and finite element-model. 15 cored trabecular bone specimens with 20min of diameter were obtained from femoral heads with osteoporosis (T-score > -2.5 ) resected for total hip arthroplasty, and 5 specimens were removed from femoral head of cadavers, which has no history of musculoskeletal diseases. A high-resolution micro-CT system was used to scan each specimen to obtain histomorphometry indices. Based on obtained micro-images(pixel size=21.31㎛), a FE-model was created to determine mechanical property indices. While non-osteoporosis group had increases trabecular thickness, bone volume, bone volume fraction, degree of anisotropy and trabecular number compared with those of non-osteoporotic group, the non-osteoporotic group showed decreases in trabecular separation and structure model index. Regarding the mechanical property indices, reaction force, apparent stress and young's modulus were 1ower in osteoporotic group than in non-osteoporotic group. Our data shows salient deteriorations in trabecular micro-structural and mechanical properties in human femoral head with osteoporosis.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.551-556
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to suggest a systematic and scientific method for measurement of children's growth development, in which the accuracy of existing diagnosis method has not been concretely examined yet. The most popular method for diagnosis of children's growth is to analyze the opening degree of growth plate in each joint by X-ray image. However, X-ray method has some disadvantages; it is impossible to measure the diagnosis of growth periodically and repeatedly due to the radiation problem. Hence, this study introduced a profile analysis and the algorithm of analyzing the image of growth plate with the BUA(Broadband Ultrasound Attenuation) of calcaneus, to verify the possibility of alternative ultrasonic method harmless to human body. We obtained the images of growth plate in proximal tibiae, phalanges, and calcanei of 269 children (7∼16 years old) with X-ray. And the image of growth plate in calcanei was also obtained front those children with ultrasound. The results showed that the time of the opening degree of growth plate in each joint was almost consistent between X-ray and ultrasonic images. Also, the images of growth plate measured by X-ray and ultrasound showed the high correlation. Therefore, it is expected that the algorithm of ultrasonic profile analysis introduced in this study can replace the existing X-ray method to measure the growth plate correctly.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.431-438
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• 2004

Medical ultrasonic imaging is a useful imaging facility known to be most safe and easy. It enables physicians to observe the inside structures of the bodies, blood flow, and motions of internal organs. Some physical properties of biologic tissues can also be estimated from backscattered sounds. However, the ultrasonic pulses interrogating the living organisms leave their footprints in the returning signals during imaging. Some significant details are buried in the footprints and their overlaps from adjacent particles. These distortions also decrease the quality of the images. Many research efforts have been made to enhance the image quality and to recover the acoustic information in various ways. In this study, a new interrogation method based on the wavelet and subband filter bank is proposed. It adopts the subband wavelet filters satisfying the perfect-reconstruction (PR) conditions as the interrogating pulses to restore the details useful in tissue characterization and to enhance the image quality. The proposed method was applied to two types of simulations of ultrasonic imaging. The results showed its ability to restore the detailsin the simulated interrogation of biologic tissues, and verified the improved image quality in the simulated imaging of general ultrasonic phantom compared with the conventional method.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.575-580
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• 2004

In this work, a method is presented to find an anatomical site of a current source crudely in a standard brain using grand average of MEG data. Minimum norm estimation algorithm and truncated singular value decomposition were applied to calculate the distributed sources that can reproduce the measured signals. Grand average over all subjects was obtained from the transformed signals, which would be detected in a standard sensor plane by the obtained distributed current sources. In the simulation study, it was shown that the localized dipole using the grand average is consistent with the mean location of localized dipoles of all subjects within several mm even with large inter-individual differences of sensor positions. This result suggests that the mean location of low level signal source can be estimated as a dipole source in grand average and it was confirmed in the localization of the current source of N100m. when the localized dipole is registered on a standard brain. This result also suggests that the activity region obtained from grand average can be crudely estimated on a standard brain using the source location of the N100m as a reference point.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.439-445
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• 2004

Diffusion tensor image(DTI) exploits the random diffusional motion of water molecules. This method is useful for the characterization of the architecture of tissues. In some tissues, such as muscle or cerebral white matter, cellular arrangement shows a strongly preferred direction of water diffusion, i.e., the diffusion is anisotropic. The degree of anisotropy is often represented using diffusion anisotropy indices (relative anisotropy(RA), fractional anisotropy(FA), volume ratio(VR)). In this study, FA images were obtained using different gradient schemes(N=6, 11, 23, 35. 47). Mean values and the standard deviations of FA were then measured at several anatomic locations for each scheme. The results showed that both mean values and the standard deviations of FA were decreased as the number of gradient directions were increased. Also, the standard error of ADC measurement decreased as the number of diffusion gradient directions increased. In conclusion, different gradient schemes showed a significantly different noise performance and the schem with more gradient directions clearly improved the quality of the FA images. But considering acquisition time of image and standard deviation of FA, 23 gradient directions is clinically optimal.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.447-453
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• 2004

In the case of a capsule that can acquire and transmit images from the intestines, the size of the module and the battery capacity in the capsule are subject to restriction. The capsule must be swallowable and the battery must maintain the stable power during the capsule travels in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, it is important to control the endoscope using bi-directional wireless communication. In this study, encoder and decoder CPLD modules for bi-directional capsule endoscopes were designed and implemented. The designed controller for capsule endoscope can transmit the images of GI-track from inside to outside of the body and the capsules can be controlled by external controller simultaneously. The designed and implemented controller was verified by an in-vivo animal experiments. From these experiments, it was verified that the CPLD module for bi-directional capsule endoscope satisfied the design specifications.