• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.82-87
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• 2008

In this paper, the study was carried out to design and implement the medical compound stimulator based on the preexisting individual medical stimulators with Low frequency, High frequency and cooling stimulation. The proposed equipment is designed to compound all the functions including a cooling stimulation with a range of $0{\sim}20^{\circ}C$ and the verified low and high frequencies of 250Hz, 500Hz, 1KHz and 1MHz respectively from the previous clinical experiment with a consideration of its credibility and efficiency. Also, it was constructed by using a new technique, thermoelectricity semiconductor with a consideration of miniaturization and stability. In accordance with patients' treatment purpose, the hand piece of low frequency/cooling stimulation and High frequency/cooling stimulation were separately designed for convenience. The frequency, accuracy and other factors of implemented medical compound stimulator was satisfied according to its measurement. It was also tested by Korean Testing Laboratory (KTL) for its stability and efficacy and it confirmed that the medical compound stimulator is suitable for use as it fits in with the medical equipment standards.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.462-466
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• 2002

This paper describes a low frequency electrical nerve stimulator for muscle care. The developed system consist of 8bit low power consumed MPU, voltage boosting circuit converting 9V input to 120V output, repairing circuit for distorted output pulse, LED and buttons for I/O, and electro-chemical pad. The pulse generation algorithm for the muscle care effect is developed with basic pulses such as a single phase rectangle pulse, symmetric rectangle pulse, and depolarized interrupt pulse.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.11c
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• pp.349-352
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• 2003

A personal low-frequency stimulator is a portable device to relax muscle pains of a person. The stimulator generates combined low-frequency pulses to be applied to pads attached to painful muscles. This paper reports a development of such device with its characteristic analyses. The major components of our stimulator are MCU, high-voltage generating circuit part, high-voltage switching circuit part, input switch part and display unit. High-voltage generating circuit is designed by using a boost converter circuit and allows user control of the output voltage. High-voltage switching circuit, controlled by MCU, generates output voltage to be applied to pads. Input switch part is composed of power supply, intensity selection, mode selection and memory. Display unit adopts a text LCD module to display modes, Intensity, output frequency and user set-up time. Our designed safety circuit, to protect human body from possible electric shock, slowly increases the output voltage to the selected output intensity. It continuously checks the output pulse shape and disable the output when dangerous pulses are detected. This paper also shows some experimental results.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.156-160
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• 2005

Background: Frozen shoulder is not an uncommon disease, which is associated with chronic pain and joint movement limitation. However, there are numerous devices to assist in the treatment of shoulder pain, but their efficacy has not been proven and their use remains immensely controversial. Therefore, a randomized clinical study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of a low-frequency stimulator for the treatment of frozen shoulder. Methods: A randomized clinical trial was carried out on 40 patients with frozen shoulder, with 40 patients assigned to two groups; a control treatment group (group C, n = 20) and a low frequency stimulator application group (group T, n = 20). Both groups were given a routine treatment modality, such as trigger point injection, intramuscular stimulation or suprascapular nerve block etc. The level of the shoulder pain was evaluated using a 100mm VAS (visual analog scale) at each visit, with the limitation in the range of motion simultaneously evaluated. Results: All the subjects improved after treatment, with the VAS scores after termination of treatment showed a statistically significant reduction (P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups. One month after termination of 5 cycles of treatment, group T maintained their improved state, whereas the pain in some of those in group C reemerged, which also showed a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). The limitation in the range of motion improved, with most subjects able to resume daily activity. Conclusions: Although the low frequency stimulation provided no more pain relief than routine treatment, the effect was significantly prolonged. From this result, low frequency stimulation can be considered to aide the therapeutic effect of classical frozen shoulder therapy.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.99-104
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• 2021

Treatment techniques that affect homeostasis by non-invasive regulation in peripheral organs will advance disease research. Here, we demonstrate a non-invasive method of conditioning within an organ using a low-frequency stimulator superposition of alternating microcurrent wave in stages. It is first applied to the inflammatory response in H3N2-infected sinusitis mice. To check the progress of the treatment, mice were sacrificed every week for 3 weeks, nasal tissue was removed, and the inflammatory response was investigated through H & E staining. The low-frequency stimulation treatment group was found to alleviate the proliferation of epithelial cells and invasion of inflammatory cells compared to the control group as the passage of treatment time. The reduction of inflammatory cytokines in the nasal lavage fluid was observed in H3N2-infected sinusitis mice treated with of low-frequency stimulation using superposition of alternating microcurrent wave compared to H3N2-infected sinusitis mice after 3 weeks. These data demonstrate that low-frequency stimulation device in the form of using alternating current wave superposition on within organs provides a new method to regulate specific physiological functions. Therefore, it is necessary to prove the inhibitory effect of low-frequency stimulation using alternating current wave superposition on inflammatory diseases by various methods through further studies and clinical studies.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.343-350
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• 2006

Medical magnetic stimulator generates strong magnetic field pulses. Clinical applications of the magnetic pulse are the stimulation of nervous system and the contraction of muscle. The unique source of the strong magnetic pulse is a capacitor-inductor resonator and this inductor generates a strong sinusoidal magnetic pulse by discharging the capacitor with high initial voltage. Continuous muscle contraction needs sequential generation of the magnetic pulses. However, to keep the magnitude of sequential pulses identical, an expensive high-voltage power supply have to support voltage drop of the capacitor between the pulses. A protection circuit between the supply and the resonator is necessary to protect the supply from reverse current caused by capacitor voltage reversal. In this paper, a new circuit structure of the magnetic stimulator adopting a low-frequency fly-back switching is proposed. The new circuit supports sequential pulse generation and allows the reverse current without damage. Performance of the new circuit is examined and a low-cost magnetic stimulator for urinary incontinence therapy is being developed using the presented method.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.4768-4772
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• 2012

To prevent electric shock accidents, an experience education is more effective than indoctrination education. But an electric shock experience education system required a proper physical stimulation on human body to experience electric shock. This paper experiment threshold values of a human body by using Interferential Current Type Low Frequency Stimulator in order to apply to an electric shock experience education system. And the proper stimulation values are calculated according to age (divided child and adult) and gender. Results of this study could be applied to an electric shock experience education system.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.703-710
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• 2010

In this study, a tactile stimulator was developed to resolve some problems from the previous version of the system such as system configuration, inappropriate stimulation control and additional problems. The developed tactile stimulator consists of control unit, drive unit and vibrator unit. The control unit was controlled by E-Prime software to generate appropriate vibration pulses. The drive unit supplies enough energy to the vibrator to generate effective stimulation pulses. The vibrator unit consists of small coin type vibrator and velcro, and was made to be attached at the hand easily. The developed tactile stimulator was designed by small-size, light-weight, low-power, simple-fabrication, max 35 channels and little delay time from instruction signal of E-Prime software to vibrator. The duration and magnitude of stimulation was controlled by 10 grades and the problems concerning stimulation control were compensated by wideband frequency ranges. Additionally, the electrical safety was ensured by low voltage operation. Vibrator was made to be attached on finger as well as on any part of the subject. Since this tactile stimulator is developed based on E-Prime software which is widely used in cognitive science, it is believed that this stimulator be suitable for the wide application of cognitive science study.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 2013

Core muscle is the most crucial for rehabilitation of patients with musculoskeletal and nervous problem, there is pain, imbalance and functional movement disorder of upper and lower extremities. In this study, low-frequency electrical stimulator was developed for the purpose increasing the activity of rectus abdominis (RA) and the thickness of transverse abdominis (TrA), internal obliquus abdominis (IO), and external obliquus abdominis (EO). Fifteen female in their 20's was divided into a experiment groups (traditional electrical stimulation group, developed electrical stimulation group) and control group. Low-frequency electrical stimulation was performed in experimental groups for 4 times a week, 4 weeks. The muscle activities (RA) by EMG and muscle thickness (TrA, IO, EO) by Ultrasonogrphy imaging were measured, respectively. In the result, the muscle activity of RA and muscle thickness of TrA and EO were significantly increased at developed electrical stimulation group (p<.05). Therefore, the developed low-frequency electrical stimulation is useful for rehabilitation with CNS and PNS subjects.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.17-27
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• 2003

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) modulates cortical excitability beyond the duration of the rTMS trains themselves. Depending on rTMS parameters, a lasting inhibition or facilitation of cortical excitability can be induced. Therefore, rTMS of high or low frequency over motor cortex may change certain aspects of motor learning performance and cortical activation. This study investigated the effect of high and low frequency subthreshold rTMS applied to the motor cortex on motor learning of sequential finger movements and brain activation using functional MRI (fMRI). Three healthy right-handed subjects (mean age 23.3) were enrolled. All subjects were trained with sequences of seven-digit rapid sequential finger movements, 30 minutes per day for 5 consecutive days using their left hand. 10 Hz (high frequency) and 1 Hz (low frequency) trains of rTMS with 80% of resting motor threshold and sham stimulation were applied for each subject during the period of motor learning. rTMS was delivered on the scalp over the right primary motor cortex using a figure-eight shaped coil and a Rapid(R) stimulator with two Booster Modules (Magstim Co. Ltd, UK). Functional MRI (fMRI) was performed on a 3T ISOL Forte scanner before and after training in all subjects (35 slices per one brain volume TR/TE = 3000/30 ms, Flip angle $60^{\circ}$, FOV 220 mm, $64{\times}64$ matrix, slice thickness 4 mm). Response time (RT) and target scores (TS) of sequential finger movements were monitored during the training period and fMRl scanning. All subjects showed decreased RT and increased TS which reflecting learning effects over the training session. The subject who received high frequency rTMS showed better performance in TS and RT than those of the subjects with low frequency or sham stimulation of rTMS. In fMRI, the subject who received high frequency rTMS showed increased activation of primary motor cortex, premotor, and medial cerebellar areas after the motor sequence learning after the training, but the subject with low frequency rTMS showed decreased activation in above areas. High frequency subthreshold rTMS on the motor cortex may facilitate the excitability of motor cortex and improve the performance of motor sequence learning in normal subject.