Biomedical subjects

Kang Kim

Publications and source records attributed to Kang Kim.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Direct numerical simulations of electrophoresis of charged colloids.

We propose a numerical method to simulate electrohydrodynamic phenomena in charged colloidal dispersions. This method enables us to compute the time evolutions of colloidal particles, ions, and host fluids simultaneously by solving Newton, advection-diffusion, and Navier-Stokes equations so that the electrohydrodynamic couplings can be fully taken into account. The electrophoretic mobilities of charged spherical particles are calculated in several situations. The comparisons with approximation theories show quantitative agreements for dilute dispersions without any empirical parameters; however, our simulation predicts notable deviations in the case of dense dispersions.

Colloids↗

PubMed2006

Sonographic elasticity imaging of acute and chronic deep venous thrombosis in humans.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of sonographic elasticity imaging to distinguish acute from chronic deep venous thrombosis (DVT). METHODS: Fifty-four patients, 26 with acute DVT and 28 with chronic DVT, were studied, and we analyzed the data in 46 patients, 23 with acute (mean age, 5.7 days) and 23 with chronic (>8 months) DVT. Scanning was performed with a 5-MHz linear array transducer during continuous freehand external deformation of each thrombus using the ultrasound scan head. The strains in the thrombi were normalized to the average strain between the skin surface and the back wall of the vein. Relative thrombus echogenicity was measured by comparing the echogenicity of the thrombus with that of the adjacent arterial lumen. Statistical analyses were performed with the Mann-Whitney U test and receiver operating characteristic analysis. RESULTS: The median normalized strain magnitude for the acute cases was 2.75, with an interquartile range of 2.4 to 3.71, whereas the median normalized strain magnitude for the chronic cases was 0.94, with interquartile range of 0.48 to 1.36. The difference was highly significant (P < 10(-7)). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (A(z)) was 0.97 +/- 0.02 (SE). The echogenicity difference between the populations was highly significant (P < 10(-5)), with A(z) of 0.92 +/- 0.04. The difference between the A(z) values was not significant (P > .05). CONCLUSIONS: In this population, sonographic elasticity imaging performs at least as well as thrombus echogenicity. Thrombus aging using elasticity imaging would be particularly helpful in evaluating symptoms in patients with post-thrombotic syndrome.

Acute Disease↗

PubMed2005

Correspondence of ultrasound elasticity imaging to direct mechanical measurement in aging DVT in rats.

Previous ultrasound elasticity imaging experiments supported a generally accepted concept that the hardness of deep venous thrombi increases with thrombus aging. Results also showed that this noninvasive imaging technique can accurately predict thrombus age through strain estimates, in a well-controlled animal study. In the present study, as an alternative means to characterize elastic properties of thrombi, we used a direct mechanical measurement system to estimate Young's modulus of ex vivo thrombi. Unlike conventional indentation tests, the device uses a specific compression geometry for cylindrical tissue specimens. We also proposed an approximation scheme to retrieve Young's modulus from force-displacement measurements made using the device. Finite element simulations and calibrations on tissue-mimicking phantoms validated the system. Then, using two groups of rats with surgically-induced thrombi, we further investigated the correlation between Young's modulus measured ex vivo and elasticity images reconstructed in vivo. This comparison was accomplished by converting the intrathrombus strains measured in the in vivo studies into Young's modulus estimates using a model-based approach. Good agreement between time-dependent Young's modulus estimates observed in vivo and direct measurements of Young's modulus using the mechanical device helps to confirm the ability of elasticity imaging to age deep venous thrombi for efficient treatment.

Aging↗

PubMed2004

Vascular intramural strain imaging using arterial pressure equalization.

Peripheral vascular strain imaging has limited strain dynamic range because arterial wall deformations only exhibit small strains under physiologic pressures. A noninvasive freehand ultrasound (US) scanning procedure was performed to apply external force, comparable to the force generated in measuring a subject's blood pressure, to achieve higher strains by equalizing the internal arterial baseline pressure. When the applied pressure matched the internal baseline diastolic pressure, intramural strain and strain rate increased by a factor of 10 over a cardiac cycle. Radial arterial strain was assessed within the vessel wall over the entire deformation procedure using a phase-sensitive 2-D speckle-tracking algorithm. The feasibility of this technique to assess vascular nonlinear elastic properties is demonstrated in an ex vivo experiment and further supported by in vivo measurements. With some uncertainty associated with the elastic properties of surrounding tissue, an elastic modulus reconstruction procedure was developed to estimate the nonlinear elastic properties of the vascular wall.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Staging deep venous thrombosis using ultrasound elasticity imaging: animal model.

Deep venous thrombi undergo progressive hardening with age. However, the evolution rate remains poorly characterized by both invasive and noninvasive techniques. In a previous study (Emelianov et al. 2002), we demonstrated the potential of ultrasound elasticity imaging to noninvasively detect and age thrombus using a rat-based model. Knowing that thrombi harden over time is useful, but the value of the technique relies on whether the age of a thrombus can be predicted from strain estimates, and how accurate these predictions are. The objective of the present study is to answer these two questions. In the previous study, thrombus elasticity changes were monitored only on day 3, 6 and 9 after surgically induced formation of thrombosis in rat inferior vena cavas. In this study, ultrasound elasticity imaging was performed on two independent groups of rats (16 in total) starting from day 3 through day 10 with more temporal samples through the thrombus maturation process. For each rat, thrombus hardness was quantified at each scan interval by measures of normalized strains and reconstructed relative Young's moduli. In both groups, strain magnitudes exhibit progressive decrease as clots age. The relationship between the normalized strain and the clot age was developed from the first group and evaluated by the second group. Statistical analysis showed that the age estimation accuracy is within 0.8 day. If further research can successfully transfer the animal clot-hardening model to human patients, we believe that elasticity imaging will become a key component of venous compression ultrasound for effective diagnosis and treatment of deep venous thrombosis.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Feasibility of applying ultrasound strain imaging to detect renal transplant chronic allograft nephropathy.

Chronic renal transplantation fibrosis, often termed Chronic Allograft Nephropathy, may progress undetected. Since renal fibrosis may be accompanied by a change in measurable elastic tissue properties, ultrasound strain management may be useful in it detection. Ultrasound strain imaging was performed for two subjects with renal transplants; one with normal renal function and one with mild renal insufficiency and biopsy demonstrated fibrosis. Subjects underwent ultrasound examination with application of a controlled deformation using phase-sensitive, two-dimensional speckle tracking to evaluate internal tissue motion to measure tissue displacement and strain. Measurements over multiple beams for an equivalent deformational stress showed there was a threefold difference in renal cortical strain between the two subjects. These data suggest that ultrasound elasticity imaging may prove useful in measuring mechanical changes related to fibrosis with the transplant kidney.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Development of an accelerometer-based underwater acoustic intensity sensor.

An underwater acoustic intensity sensor is described. This sensor derives acoustic intensity from simultaneous, co-located measurement of the acoustic pressure and one component of the acoustic particle acceleration vector. The sensor consists of a pressure transducer in the form of a hollow piezoceramic cylinder and a pair of miniature accelerometers mounted inside the cylinder. Since this sensor derives acoustic intensity from measurement of acoustic pressure and acoustic particle acceleration, it is called a p-a intensity probe. The sensor is ballasted to be nearly neutrally buoyant. It is desirable for the accelerometers to measure only the rigid body motion of the assembled probe and for the effective centers of the pressure sensor and accelerometer to be coincident. This is achieved by symmetric disposition of a pair of accelerometers inside the ceramic cylinder. The response of the intensity probe is determined by comparison with a reference hydrophone in a predominantly reactive acoustic field.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Glass transition of hard sphere systems: molecular dynamics and density functional theory.

The glass transition of a hard sphere system is investigated within the framework of the density functional theory (DFT). Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed to study the dynamical behavior of the system on the one hand and to provide the data to produce the density field for the DFT on the other hand. Energy landscape analysis based on the DFT shows that there appears a metastable (local) free energy minimum representing an amorphous state as the density is increased. This state turns out to become stable, compared with the uniform liquid, at some density around which we also observe a sharp slowing down of the alpha relaxation in the MD simulations.

Journal Article↗