A New Design of the Interrogating Waves for Medical Ultrasonic Imaging Based on Wavelets and Subband Filter Banks: A Simulation Study

양윤석,Yang Yoon Seok The Korea Society of Medical and Biological Engine 2004 의공학회지 Vol.25 No.6

의료용 초음파 영상 장비는 안전하면서도 사용이 편리할 뿐 아니라, 인체 내부의 구조적 영상을 포함하여 혈류나 내부 장기의 움직임에 이르기까지 진단을 위한 다양한 정보를 제공한다. 뿐만 아니라 조직 특성화 영상에서는 반사된 초음파 신호로부터 생체 조직의 물리적인 특성을 파악하여 진단에 활용하기도 한다. 하지만 영상의 획득을 위해 사용하는 탐침용 초음파 펄스 신호는 인체내부를 거쳐 그 흔적이 반사신호에 남게 되고, 이는 영상의 화질 저하로 이어져 미세한 조직이나 인접한 부분의 세밀한 관찰이 어려운 단점이 있다. 이를 해결하기 위한 다양한 연구가 시도 되었으나, 한정된 반사 신호로부터 탐침 펄스의 영향을 제거하고 매질의 특성을 복원하는 데에는 어려움이 있었다. 본 연구에서는 wavelet 과 subband filter bank 에 기반한 새로운 탐침용 초음파 펄스 및 그에 따른 영상획득 방법을 제안하였다. Perfect reconstruction (PR) 조건을 만족하는 일련의 wavelet filter 세트를 초음파 펄스로 구현하여 탐침에 사용하고, 반사되어온 신호를 적절히 재조합 하면 탐침 펄스의 영향이 배제되어, 매질의 세밀한 특성을 복원한 영상을 얻게 된다. 이는 조직 특성화 영상등을 위해 중요한 정보가 된다. 검증을 위해 2종류 (A-mode 와 B-mode) 의 초음파 영상 시뮬레이션에서, 제안된 방법으로 영상을 획득하였다. 그 결과, 탐침 대상의 주파수 특성을 복원할 수 있었으며, 기존의 방법에 비해 향상된 화질의 초음파 영상을 얻을 수 있었다. 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.

Evaluation of Image qualify in Super-resolution Image Guide for Ultrathin Endoscope

최원영,오창현,이봉수,Choi W.Y.,Oh C.H.,Lee B.S. The Korea Society of Medical and Biological Engine 2000 의공학회지 Vol.21 No.3

In general. fiber-optic medical endoscopes are made from glass step index (SI) fibers. These endoscopes have limitations in both image quality and mechanical properties. In particular. the image resolution of the SI endoscopes is limited to about 5$\mu$m. In this study the image resolution of plastic graded index (GRIN) super-resolution image guides with pixel sizes from 7 to 2.5 $\mu$m were measured and compared with those of 91ass SI image guides. There is an improvement in resolution of the plastic GRIN image guides as the microfiber diameter is reduced from 7 $\mu$m to 2.5 $\mu$m. The measured resolution of plastic GRIN image guide with 2.5 $\mu$m microfibers is more than a factor of two higher than that of g1ass SI image guide with 5$\mu$m microfibers. This new design of optical systems could have a major impact on a wide array of future optical systems used in defense. industrial, and medical applications. 현재 의료용으로 사용되고 있는 광섬유를 이용한 내시경은 굴절률이 다른 두 가지 유리로써(Step Index SI) 제작되고 있다. 이와 같은 내시경은 취급에 주의하여야 하는 근본적인 재료상의 문제점 외에도 영상 가이드의 최고 분해능이 5$\mu$m으로 제약되고 있는 실정이다. 본 연구에서는 플라스틱을 이용하여 고 영상 분해능($7\mu\;m\~2.5\mu$m)을 가진 미세 내시경(Ultrathin Endoscope)용 영상 가이드의 분해능을 측정하였다. 그 각각의 플라스틱 광섬유 굴절률은 광섬유 중심으로부터 외곽까지 점차 감소하는 특성 (Graded Index GRIN)을 가지고 있다. 플라스틱 GRIN 영상가이드의 분해능 측정 결과. 마이크로 광섬유의 지름이 작아질수록 그 분해능이 증가되었고, 유리를 이용한 SI 영상 가이드 분해능과의 비교 연구 결과, 2배의 분해능을 가진 (2.5$\mu$m) 플라스틱 GRIN 영상가이드 제작이 가능함을 보였다. 이와 같은 플라스틱 GRIN 광섬유 다발은 의료 분야뿐 아니라 국방 및 산업분야의 새로운 광학적 설계에 많은 영향을 줄 것으로 기대된다.

Biomechanical Analysis of Body Balance

Jeong, Byung-Yong The Korea Society of Medical and Biological Engine 1988 의공학회지 Vol.9 No.2

Human body sways continuously to maintain balance during upright stance. A computer-aided instrumentation system using a force platform has been developed to investigate the body balance. The Kistler force platform and amplifiers were only used to obtain the precise measurements, and the data acquisition and analysis software operating on an IBM PC with A/D converter was developed. This study presents methods for the display of platform center of pressure data on stability study. This system can be used as a tool in evaluating the man's ability to balance and disorders of the nervous system.

Functional Exploration of Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex by a Rotatory Stimulation

Kim, Nam-Gyun,Kim, Bu-Gil,Cho, Jin-Ho The Korea Society of Medical and Biological Engine 1988 의공학회지 Vol.9 No.2

In this study, we proposed a test to explore the function of Vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) which subjected to an angular head acceleration using pseudo random binary stimulus. Resultant eye movements(horizontal vestibular nystagmus) were digitized, filtered and transformed into the frequency domain. At first we evaluated the transfer function of V.0.R(gain and phase) and the coherence function between stimulus and response by linear frequency methods in view of the quantitative analysis since the vestibulo-ocular reflex can be considered as a linear system. at least, in normals. Secondly. with the proposed test, we showed a direct possibility that we could interpret the pathological situation quantitatively as an illustration of clinical application.

The Possible Discovery of a Reagent for Cancer Diagnosis by Urine NMR Analysis

Kim, Yong-Jin,Lee, Jong-Hwa,Lee, Hee-J. The Korea Society of Medical and Biological Engine 1988 의공학회지 Vol.9 No.2

From the analysis of proton NMR signals of human urine it is found that the signals corresponding to a phenolic compound of tyrosine are more frequently observed in cancer urine than in non-cancer urine. An effective reagent is obtained to detect the substance excreted in the urine and to find out a close connection with the result of the NMR analysis. An attempt is made to determine the reagent sensitivity and specificity for cancer diagnosis. The results of the attempt are respectively above 75% for both on an average.

A Recursive Restoration Scheme of B-Scan Ultrasonographic Images in Noisy Case

Kim, Sun-I.,Min, Byoung-G.,Ko, Myoung-S. The Korea Society of Medical and Biological Engine 1982 의공학회지 Vol.3 No.1

The objective of this phantom study is to develop a digital method for improving the lateral resolution of B-scan ultrasonographic images irs medical application of ultrasound. By utilizing a discrete state-space modeling approach and Kalman-Buch method for analysis of the transducer's beam profile and the measurement and sampling noise, a stable recursive restoration of the object image was obtained for improved lateral resolution. The point spread function (PSF) was measured for the reflective signals after scanning the small pins located along the depth of interest. One major advantage of the present recursive scheme over the transform method is in its applicability for the space-variant imaging, such as in the case of the rotational movement of transducer.

Equivalent Circuit Model of Glucose Kinetics

Yun, Jang-H.,Kim, Min-Chong The Korea Society of Medical and Biological Engine 1981 의공학회지 Vol.2 No.1

The objective of the present study was to develop an equivalent circuit model of glucose kinetics including the hepatic glucose balance functions which were neglected in the previous compartmental models. Using this circuit model, the insulin resistivity parameter and hepatic glucose sensitivity parameter were estimated in optimal fitting of the model based data of glucose and insulin concentration to the reported clinical intravenous glucose tolerance test(IVGTT) data in normal and diabetic subjects. The addition of the hepatic function in the model has improved the overall performance of the simulation. Also, the computed tissue insulin resistivity and the hepatic glucose sensitivity are shown to be significant in distinguishin four clinical groups of normal and diabetic groups.

Left Ventricular Image Processing and Displays of Cardiac Function

Kuwahara, Michiyoshi The Korea Society of Medical and Biological Engine 1985 의공학회지 Vol.6 No.1

Background EEG signals can be represented as the sum of a conventional AR process and an innovation process. It is know that conventional estimation techniques, such as least square estimates (LSE) or Gauasian maximum likelihood estimates (MLE-G) are optimal when the innovation process satisfies the Gaussian or presumed distribution. When the data are contaminated by outliers, however, these assumptions are not met and the power spectrum estimated by conventional estimation techniques may be fatally biased. EEG signal may be affected by artifacts, which are outliers in the statistical term. So the robust filtering estimation technique is used against those artifacts and it performs well for the contaminated EEG signal.

The Possible Reagents for a Cancer Diagnosis by a Urine Color Reaction

Kim, Yong-Jin,Yoon, Dong-Jun The Korea Society of Medical and Biological Engine 1987 의공학회지 Vol.8 No.2

Urine NMR analyses made by use of an 80 MHz proton NMR spectrometer show that aromatic proton NMR signals appear in most censer patients'urine. On the assumption that the signals may be caused by the phenolic compound of tyrosine excreted in the urine, a jellied reagent is used for identifying them by observing the urine color reaction. It is observed that the reagent reacted to the cancer urine becomes red. Such a change of the urine color seems to indicate the substance of tyrosine. Recently an attempt to determine the reagent sensitivity an specificity of the urine of 69 persons including cancer and noncancer patients has been made. The results of the attempt are respectively 85.3% for sensitivity and 91.4% for specificity. This seems to show a possibility that the reagent can be used for the diagnosis.

Image Restoration in Dual Energy Digital Radiography using Wiener Filtering Method

Min, Byoung-Goo,Park, Kwang-Suk The Korea Society of Medical and Biological Engine 1987 의공학회지 Vol.8 No.2

Wiener filtering method was applied to the dual energy imaging procedure in digital radiography(D.R.). A linear scanning photodiode arrays with 1024 elements(0.6mm H 1.3mm pixel size) were used to obtain chest images in 0.7 sec. For high energy image acquisition, X-ray tube was set at 140KVp, 100mA with a rare-earth phosphor screen. Low energy image was obtained with X-ray tube setting at 70KVp, 150mA. These measured dual energy images are represented in the vector matrix notation as a linear discrete model including the additive random noise. Then, the object images are restored in the minimum mean square error sense using Wiener filtering method in the transformed domain. These restored high and low energy images are used for computation of the basis image decomposition. Then the basis images are linearly combined to produce bone or tissue selective images. Using this process, we could improve the signal to noise ratio characteristics in the material selective images.