• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.390-398
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• 2022

Ultrasound examination using ultrasound equipment is an ultrasound device that images human organs using sound waves and is used in various areas such as diagnosis, follow-up, and treatment of diseases. However, if the quality of ultrasound equipment is not guaranteed, the possibility of misdiagnosis increases, and the diagnosis rate decreases. Accordingly, The Korean Society of Radiology and Korea society of Ultrasound in Medicine presented guidelines for quality management of ultrasound equipment using ATS-539 phantom. The DenseNet201 classification algorithm shows 99.25% accuracy and 5.17% loss in the Dead Zone, 97.52% loss in Axial/Lateral Resolution, 96.98% accuracy and 20.64% loss in Sensitivity, 93.44% accuracy and 22.07% loss in the Gray scale and Dynamic Range. As a result, it is the best and is judged to be an algorithm that can be used for quantitative evaluation. Through this study, it can be seen that if quantitative evaluation using artificial intelligence is conducted in the qualitative evaluation item of ultrasonic equipment, the reliability of ultrasonic equipment can be increased with high accuracy.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.231-237
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• 2021

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the importance of hospital hygiene and infection control in hospital settings. To raise hygiene awareness among ultrasound technicians, we evaluated the hygiene status of an ultrasound room, in comparison with that of objects used in daily life. Using the swab method, the following surfaces were examined: eight surfaces in the ultrasound room including the ultrasound probes (convex, linear, sector, 3D), ultrasound track ball, ultrasound keyboard, ultrasound gel (sealed and in use) and pillow as well as four surfaces of everyday objects including subway handles, common computer keyboards, common computer mouse, and cell phones. The streak plate technique was used for inoculation into media, which was observed for the formation of bacterial colonies following incubation for 24 h. Six bacterial strains were detected from objects used in the ultrasound room, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Four strains of bacteria were detected on surfaces of everyday objects. The equipment and accessories used in an ultrasound room can act as vehicles for infecting patients. Establishment of standardized hygiene protocols and periodic training of the staff are recommended to avoid cross-infection.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.217-232
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• 1999

The ability to see the internal organs of the human body in a noninvasive way is a powerful diagnostic tool of modern medicine. Among these imaging modalities such as X-ray, MRI, and ultrasound. MRI and ultrasound are presenting much less risk of undesirable damage of both patient and examiner. In fact, no deleterious effects have been reported as a result of clinical examination by using MRI and ultrasound diagnostic equipment. As a result. their market volume has been rapidly increased. MRI has a good resolution. but there are a few disadvantages such as high price. non-real-time imaging capability. and expensive diagnostic cost. On the other hand, the ultrasound imaging system has inherently poor resolution as compared with X-ray and MRI. In spite of its poor resolution, the ultrasound diagnostic equipment is lower in price and has an ability of real-time imaging as compared with the others. As a result. the ultrasound imaging system has become general and essential modality for imaging the internal organs of human body. In this review various researches and developments to enhance the resolution of the ultrasound images are explained and future trends of the ultrasound imaging technology are described.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.221-225
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• 2017

To evaluate the performance of ultrasound imaging system, we investigated the change of spatial resolution according to changing sonic velocity change parameter provided by ultrasound equipment. Ultrasound phantom images were obtained using a 3.0 ~ 5.0 MHz convex transducer in an ultrasound diagnostic device used at a medical institution located at Iksan. N-365 multi-purpose ultrasound phantom was used to measure longitudinal distance measurement accuracy and longitudinal and transverse resolution. In the same manner, the sonic velocity of the ultrasound equipment was changed from 1580 m/sec to 1400 m/sec in six steps, and the full width at half maximum(FWHM) was measured using the image J program to determine whether the measured values were different. As a result, lateral resolution was measured from 1.91 mm to 5.3 mm according to the speed change, and the smallest FWHM was 1.91 mm at 1420 m/sec. The axial resolution was measured from 1.03 mm to 1.14 mm according to the speed change, and the smallest FWHM was 1.03 mm at 1400 m/sec. The slower the sound velocity of the ultrasound equipment, the shorter the length of longitudinal measurement.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.408-414
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• 2011

This study was carried out to analyze the utilization of ultrasound machines in animal hospitals and focused on surveying the present condition of diagnostic ultrasound on veterinary medicine in South Korea. Total 279 veterinary hospitals were surveyed with e-mail questionnaires or telephone survey. E-mail questionnaires consist of 17 items of questions including existence of ultrasound machine, types of ultrasound machine, ultrasound examination costs, frequency, purposes, other diagnostic imaging equipments, and referring system of ultrasound. Telephone surveys asked about the existence of the ultrasound machine and types of the ultrasound machine to 279 animal hospitals. Two hundred and seventy-one out of 279 animal hospitals holds ultrasound machine. Seventy-two percents clinics purchased used ultrasonographic machines and mean years after the date of manufacture is 7.5 years and the proportion of superannuated machines are relatively high. Also many clinicians prefer single organ scanning rather than general scan technique and more than 60% of clinics perform ultrasonographic examination less than 5 times a week. Clinics located in Seoul area tend to have more expensive and brand-new ultrasonographic machines and the distribution of radiology specialist are higher in this area. Problems associated with the present condition were oversupply of machines, unequal distribution of the medical equipment in different localities, ineffective use of the medical equipment, and high percentage of old poor-quality medical equipments. There should be a viable alternative proposal to control amount and quality of the ultrasound machines. Also, the improved management system for the ultrasound machine is required.

• 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.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2023

This study was purpose to assessment of the resolution characteristics by using ATS 535H Basic quality assurance (QA) phantom for ultrasound. The ultrasound equipment was used Logiq P6 (Ultrasound, GE Healthcare System, Chicago, IL, USA). And the ultrasound transducer were used Convex 4C (4~5.5 MHz), Linear 11L (10~13 MHz), Sector 3SP (3~5.5 MHz) probe. As for the noise power spectrum (NPS) comparison results by using ATS 535H Basic QA ultrasound phantom and Convex 4C, Linear 11L, Sector 3SP probe. The NPS value of the Convex 4C probe image was 0.0049, Linear 11L probe image was 0.0049, Sector 3SP probe image was 0.1422 when the frequency is 1.0 mm^-1. The modulation transfer function (MTF) comparison results by using ATS 535H Basic QA ultrasound phantom and Linear 11L probe the MTF value of the 3 cm focus image was 0.7511 and 4 cm focus image was 0.9001 when the frequency is 1.0 mm^-1. This study was presented characteristics of spatial resolution a quantitative evaluation methods by using ultrasound medical images for QA of ultrasound medical QA phantom. The quality control (QC) for equipment maintenance can be efficiently used in the clinic due to the quantitative evaluation of the NPS and MTF as the standard methods. It is meaningful in that it is applied mutatis mutandis and presented the results of physical resolution characteristics of the ultrasound medical image.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.75 no.4
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• pp.135-139
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• 2013

Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is becoming a standard method for invasive mediastinal staging and for the diagnosis of paratracheal and peribronchial lesions. It is essential to understand the technical aspects of EBUS-TBNA to ensure safe and efficient procedures. In this review, we discuss the practical aspects to be considered during EBUS-TBNA, including anesthesia, manipulation of equipment, understanding mediastinal ultrasound images, target selection, number of aspirations needed per target, sample handling, and complications.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.231-240
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• 2018

Automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) equipment is a new innovative technique for 3D automatic breast scanning, but limited for the examination in the concave axillary region. The purpose of this study was to determine feasible candidate materials for the ultrasonic wave propagation media in ABUS, enabling the evaluation of the axillary region. Ultrasonography was performed using an ABUS system ($Invenia^{TM}ABUS$, GE, USA) on the ultrasound-specific phantom (UC-551M-0.5, ATS Laboratories, USA) covered by different candidate materials. The validity of feasible candidate materials was evaluated by image quality. Three independent radiological technologists, with more than 10 years of experience, visually assessed on the images. The inter-observer agreements according to the candidate materials were tested using Cronbach's alpha. Unenveloped solidified carrageenan can be a feasible material for the use of ABUS with excellent test reliability. Therefore, the coverage of the axillary region with carrageenan may be effective for ABUS which was originally developed for the convex anatomic structure as female breast.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.124-129
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• 2014

The piping system accounts for a large portion of the machinery structure of a plant, and is considered as a very important mechanical structure for plant safety. Accordingly, it is used in most energy plants in the nuclear, gas, and heavy chemical industries. In particular, the piping system for a nuclear plant is generally complicated and uses the reactor and its cooling system. The piping equipment is exposed to diverse loads such as weight, temperature, pressure, and seismic load from pipes and fluids, and is used to transfer steam, oil, and gas. In ultrasound infrared thermography, which is an active thermography technology, a 15-100 kHz ultrasound wave is applied to the subject, and the resulting heat from the defective parts is measured using a thermography camera. Because this technique can inspect a large area simultaneously and detect defects such as cracks and delamination in real time, it is used to detect defects in the new and renewable energy, car, and aerospace industries, and recently, in piping defect detection. In this study, ultrasound infrared thermography is used to detect information for the diagnosis of nuclear equipment and structures. Test specimens are prepared with piping materials for nuclear plants, and the optimally designed ultrasound horn and ultrasound vibration system is used to determine damages on nuclear plant piping and detect defects. Additionally, the detected images are used to improve the reliability of the surface and internal defect detection for nuclear piping materials, and their field applicability and reliability is verified.