We investigated the resting-state fMRI signals of participants with Internet addiction disorder (IAD), in comparison with healthy control (HC), under informed consent given by the participants. Resting-state fMRI recordings were conducted using a 3T scanner. We performed functional connectivity (FC) analysis of the recorded fMRI signals, in a data driven way, for 90 brain areas (excluding the cerebellum) defined by Automated Analytical Labeling (AAL) atlas. Effort was put on how to find statistically significant FC-connections out of large number (4005) of possible connections between the 90 areas. Finally, we obtained several core AAL areas in the whole brain, to which multiple node pairs that showed significant decrement or increment of the FC in the IAD group were densely connected. Such alteration of the connectivity, which varied with the mean age of IAD group, may arguably be related to the disorder caused by Internet overuse.

The significance of the continuous daily healthcare monitoring through IoT devices has been widely recognized in order to maintain healthy and active mental state. In this study, we propose a method to examine if flow related psychological indices such as anxiety, self-esteem, will for meaningful life, resilience and self-efficacy could be associated with the heart rate daily rhythm to assess mental soundness. Continuous heart rate monitoring was made for 20 healthy subjects aged 25-57. We have found that two extracted heart rate rhythm parameters: 24-hour cosinor amplitude A24 and Autonomic Switching Rate ASR, defined as the maximum value of the derivative of the extracted double cosinor rhythm, are highly correlated with some of the psychological indices. Multiple regression analysis showed the highest correlation with the rhythm parameters (r=0.654). The result implies the heart rhythm parameters which IoT device provide could be objective indices for the assessment of mental health status.

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) might improve the controllability of mind-wandering (MW), that is, the ability to decrease MW frequency, to notice MW, and to shift attention from MW. This study investigated whether such controllability of MW mediates the effect of the mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on depression. Since the MBI, which instructs participants to be aware of the occurrence of, and their engagement in, MW, might bias self-reports of MW, a measurement method that does not rely on subjects' verbal report is needed. Therefore, we estimated MW intensity using one-second electroencephalogram (EEG) samples and a machine learning model developed previously. We recorded EEG before and after MBI, and observed fluctuations in mind-wandering during a 14-minute meditation and quantified the three types of MW trait. The magnitude of the change of depressive symptom and ability to shift attention from MW were correlated. This MW trait is a plausible mediator between MBI and depression.

The authers have provided a method to estimate the cortico-thalamo-cortical loop strength using EEG and showen its application to sleep EEG. This method provide high time resolution and robust estimation of the loop strength and is promissing for clinical use. Further investigation of the issues as below are now on going. A) Estimation dependence on sampling frequency B) dependence on time window width C) Dependence on electrode position D) combination with wearable EEG. In the lecture, we are going to show the latest result on the issues.[1] Yamaguchi et al. A Robust Method with High Time Resolution for Estimating the Cortico-Thalamo-Cortical Loop Strength and the Delay When Using a Scalp Electroencephalography Applied to the Wake-Sleep Transition. Method of Information in Medicine (in print).[2] Yamaguchi et al. Spectral analysis method for sleep-state cycle based on the cortico-thalamo-cortical loop strength estimation. International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations((ICNF) 2017.

Recently, we proposed a connectivity analysis using cross-correlation function which we realized to visualize quantitative connectivity structure from electrocorticogram (ECoG) of intractable epilepsy patients. The connectivity analysis is presented by the minimum spanning tree, whose edges are configured with connectivity strength which is defined by linear combination of maximum value of the correlation function and its delay time between the channels. In this report, the connectivity analysis was newly applied to ECoG data of initial, middle and terminal phase of two intractable temporal epilepsy patients Results of the connectivity analysis were in accordance with PET as well as physician's observation for the patient with improved prognosis. Also, results of tracking the average of the top 1% connectivity strength showed that the value was rising when epileptiform discharges propagated throughout the brain. However, it was reduced in despite the epileptiform activities continued. In the seizure termination, it increased again.

Noninvasive EEG measurement is an effective method to elucidate brain functions in immediate natural environment. However, the number of electrodes is limited, and the spatial resolution of the EEG is insufficient deteriorates due to the influence from the low conductivity of the skull. Therefore, noninvasive cortex potential imaging has been proposed as a method for improving the spatial resolution of EEG. In the EEG inverse problem, the accuracy of cortex potential imaging is important how to reduce the influence from measurement noise and transfer matrix errors. In this study, we aim to improve the accuracy of cortical potential imaging, using an inverse filter combining TTLS (Truncated Total Least Squares) and sigmoid function .We proposed a solution of EEG inverse problem that can suppress noise and error and apply without the information about noise and error. It was applied to the visual evoked potential and visualized the signal propagation path way.

The objective of this study was to investigate whether the estimation accuracy of the parameters in one-memory self-exciting point process (SEPP) of the von Mises type with a known hazard function could be approximately evaluated by the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) in inhomogeneous Poisson processes (IHPP) of the von Mises type, as it would be impossible to analytically calculate the CRLB in SEPP.In this study, in order to understand the properties of the accuracy in the maximum likelihood estimation, computer simulations were performed for 100 sample realizations.The results of computer simulations suggest that the variance of the estimated parameters of SEPP would be agreed well with that of the CRLB of IHPP.In conclusion, it is implied that an optimum parameter space in neural spike trains could be constituted with the CRLB of IHPP in terms of minimizing the variance of the parameter estimates, i.e., maximizing Fisher's information.

The traffic accidents of elderly people in our country has been rising while the other age tends to decrease or level off. Since the causes were mainly to be dementia, the Metropolitan Police Department applied new Road Traffic Act on March 21,2017. Nowadays the future tasks such as conflicting tasks, economic problems, diagnostic technical issues and so on.were found out. To solve them with the extension of conventional methods is difficult and it is the mission of BME. So this lecture shows you the signposts.Conflicting tasks: 1. Lives supported system instead of driving license . 2. Any guard system against road accidents.Economic issues: 1. On-road driving test. 2. Methods to detect violations of 18 items. 3. A method to detect wandering.Diagnostic Technical Issues: 1. Advancement of the cognitive function test. 2. Correspondence for different types of MCI. 3. Normalization of the level of family doctor.

Effects of music therapy and playing musical instrument on prevention of dementia were reviewed , with utilizing effective size written in the published literature; the results of dementia were obtained from random controlled trials and clinically controlled trials. Effects on people of MCI and normal elderly peoples were also examined.

Recently, the population ratio of the elderly people is increasing rapidly in Japan. Therefore, to improve the QOL (quality of life) of the elderly people is a today's important social issue. Most urgent problem is how to prevent fall. In clinical gait analysis, a quantitative and effective evaluation of a human lower limb movement is very important to provide an appropriate training and rehabilitation program which matches the individual walking condition. In this presentation, we will propose a gait measurement and diagnosis system which can automatically analyze and clarify the gait condition of each elderly by using measured feature values. And in addition to that, we will propose a training assist tool using the augmented reality to improve the gait condition.

In addition to fall prevention of the elderly people, it is important to improve the functions of their daily lives. As a countermeasure, it is effective that they maintain more than the required number of steps. In this study, we developed an activity support system, using ICT, for the purpose of improving health consciousness, and we investigated its effect on walking for 18 months. The subjects consisted of 563 elderly people (72.3±5.1 years old) who were classified into two groups, based on dementia and non-dementia whose data were thereby analyzed.On average, the number of steps for non-dementia groups was 8,000 steps, and the dementia group maintained 7,000 steps. Based on the fact that the number of steps of more than 3 Mets were 60%, it was inferred that the quality of walking had improved. These results suggested that this system was effective in number of steps.

In Japan, Society 5.0 policy to balance the solution to social problem with economic development was devised in the problem of the economic drop with low birthrate and aging and the local depopulation.It becomes a new social system following a hunting social (1.0) agrarian society (2.0), industrial social (3.0) information-intensive society (4.0) with Society 5.0 . Internet of All people and things are connected in Internet of Things and various knowledge and information are shared and bring about unprecedented new value and are the action that the problems such as low birthrate and aging, the local depopulation, the difference of the poverty and wealth overcome in the techniques such as a robot or the automatic running car, is intended that I wrestle for the preventive measures against injuries by the training load false adjustment of the elderly person based on this Society 5.0

Japanese Society for the Biomecical Engineering is the one part of the Japanese Association for the Medical Sciences. So, JSMBE must cooperate with the New system of the Medical Specialist.However, newly born dorctors from Medical Schools must have the education of the medical intern, and new system of Specialist.One of the most important issue for the Women Doctor is the limitation of the Age.

Recently, attention has been drawn to working women. It is expected that women will be active in society such as promoting women to managerial positions and increasing number of female lecturers at various meetings. In such societal movements, various systems such as nursing cares for children and seniors have been improved, so that life events of the female can be compatible with work. However, the working women still cannot get enough understanding or encounter painful situations. Ladies' Association of The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (LAJ) is actively aiming to spread the Meka Jo network that can provide opportunities to talk, dissipate stress, and sometimes find solutions. In this talk, I will introduce various activities of LAJ and Support office for Female Researchers in Hokkaido University. I will also introduce my research of Origami engineering for medical devices and regeneration medicines.

Becoming a parent is one of the biggest events occurred among the young researchers and taking care of children tends to depress times for research activities. As an example for good balance between work and childcare, practical challenges that authors demonstrated will be introduced.

The Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society positions realization of a gender-equal society as "the most important issue of the 21st century" and is aimed at establishing social systems without gender bias. In 2009, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan initiated the program "Supporting Positive Activities for Female Researchers". Japan is well-qualified as a country that promotes scientific advancement. However, the ratio of female professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics field is at only 14.7% in 2016, which is far behind other developed countries. We need to rethink our prejudiced notions of gender-based roles, so that we may realize a society where men and women can participate together at the workplace and at home. This panel discussion aims to enhance the understanding of gender equality and gender-related issues in Japan, and to review and debate how we could close gender gaps.

Purpose of this study was to evaluate taper structure related to adverse local tissue reaction (ALTR) for femoral neck in total hip arthroplasty.Methods: 197 cases for 6 degree taper averaged 15-year follow up and 48 large metal head and 2486 cases with 12/14 taper were clinically evaluated.Results: We had no revision cases caused by ALTR from trunnion part with 6 degree taper. Forty eight cases extra-large CoCr femoral head (40 mm or more) had 5 ALTR (10.4%) during first 5 years and 12/14 taper technology combined with 26~28mm (titanium body & titanium neck) occurred 3/2486 (0.12%).Discussion: Trunnion part of locking mechanisms were better with polished structure had no problems for 15 years with uncemented titanium stem. These data suggest that polished taper with 6 degree trunnion part of femoral neck had better results compared to other taper junction regarding metal debris or corrosion products induced ALTR.

We have developed and evaluated the surface modification of titanium(Ti) surfaces for promoting the cell adhesion and the neointimal growth improvement, as the implant for targeting soft tissues. In this study, we applied those works to the Ti implant for hard tissues. Polished Ti specimens were hydrolyzed and treated with the collagen solution for the modification of the urethane-like modification. Mouse osteoblast-like cell, MC3T3-E1, were cultured on the specimens for 24 and 48 hours. After periods, cultured cells on the specimens were observed by the fluorescence microscope and studied by cell proliferation assay.From the results of cell proliferation assay, the Ti with urethane-like group showed the highest adhesion of live cells, and the ratio was one-half at 24 hours and twice at 48 hours compared to the non-treated group. Our Ti surface modification indicated the increase of cell adhesion in early stages and that would promote the fine neointima.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) is a biomaterial applied to medical and bio devices. To use HA anisotropy efficiently, we have developed technologies to control the crystal orientation of HA film. In a previous study, an epitaxial growth on a single-crystal Al2O3 substrate was necessary to obtain a high-quality c-plane HA film. However, we succeeded in making the c-plane HA even on an amorphous SiO2 substrate by using a fluoroapatite (FA) buffer layer. In investigating a quality relationship between HA and FA, it was suggested that the FA quality did not affect so much the HA quality. Although it was preferable that the HA grew on the FA buffer with sufficient thickness, the result was suggested that that the high-quality HA could be produced even on the low crystalline FA buffer. Here, we investigated critical thickness of FA buffer and found that the high-quality c-plane HA grew on the FA thicker than 7.5nm.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) has electrical anisotropy due to its crystal structure. This property was applied to medical devices. We have developed techniques for making uniaxial crystalline HA film with an aim to apply the anisotropy more efficiently, then we succeeded in making a- and c-axis oriented HA films separately with pulsed laser deposition. Since the c-axis oriented HA film was epitaxially grown on a ZnO film and an Al2O3 single crystal as we have expected, we could almost understand a growth mechanism. The a-axis oriented HA film was succeeded only on an Au film, we have not clarified the mechanism yet. So, we studied the growth mechanism of the a-axis HA film. Here, we focused on a surface energy of Au during the HA deposition and considered how crystal nucleus was formed at an interface between Au and HA. As a result, the a-axis growth was explained by Volmer-Weber-type growth model.

One of the sleep disorders periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), which causes nocturnal awaking and daytime sleepiness by repetitive short-lasting involuntary movement (PLMs) at sleep, needs its early detection and appropriate treatment. However, there might be some potential PLMD patients who have not taken polysomnography (PSG) and remain untreated due to the financial and time burden of PSG, which is the only alternative with medical approval and necessary for definite diagnosis of PLMD. In this paper, we report on a preliminaly evaluation with two channel surface electromyogram (SEMG) which aimed to appropreately distinguish PLMs from other body movement as the PLMs screening device at home. The overnight experimental result derived from SEMG of tibialis anterior and abductor hallucis, where we set as the target muscles from biomechanical perspective, shows that there are some possible PLMs occurred along with sleeping hours as defined in sleep medicine.

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The dermis is composed of extracellular matrices and fibroblasts. Collagen and elastin are typical biological fibers in skin extracellular matrix. The rigidity and extensibility of the skin are closely related to the collagen and elastin fibers, respectively. Therefore, the mechanical properties of the skin are determined by the characteristics of both fibers. It is known that ultraviolet exposure is a major risk factor for skin damage which is a cause of wrinkles. Final goal of the present study was to develop an effective medication for the improvement of the extensibility of ultraviolet irradiated skin tissues. The mechanical properties of ultraviolet irradiated skins were evaluated by suction tests. In addition, the similar mechanical tests were conducted for the skins applied an ointment containing elastin component after the ultraviolet irradiation. Based on the obtained data, Young's modulus was calculated to evaluate the changes in the mechanical properties of the ultraviolet irradiated skins.

Activities of daily living such as walking and chewing pressurize articular cartilage and periodontal tissue. However, the effect of pressurization on cells at a molecular level is poorly understood due to the lack of methods that directly observe cell motility under high pressure condition. Here we used hydrostatic pressure to apply higher pressure to cells in vitro and investigated cell morphology, molecules, and gene expression levels under high pressure condition. First, we observed higher pressure (dozens of MPa) decreased the size of chondrocytes and collapsed actin stress fibers. We also used high pressure microscope to directly observe cells under high pressure. The pressurized chondrocytes adhesion area was decreased to ~80% at 20 MPa for 1 h. However, after pressure releasing process, cells restarted to spread on the surface. Our technique elucidates the mechanism of the homeostasis of articular cartilage and periodontal tissue under high pressure condition.

Periodontal ligament (PDL), which connects the teeth to the alveolar bone, is always exposed to mechanical stress such as occlusal force. However, it was difficult to obtain the quantitative data related to mechanical stress effect on PDL in vitro. Here we study the effects of stretch and pressure on PDL cells. First, we cultured PDL cells under uniaxial cyclic stretch and PDL cells and actin fibers were aligned in the vertical direction to the stretch axis. These results suggested that mechanical stress regulate the orientation of PDL cells to support the teeth. Second, we used high hydrostatic pressure microscope to observe PDL cells under the high pressure conditions in real time. As a result, high hydrostatic pressure (over 20 MPa ) contracted PDL cells, but did not change the actin bundle structure. Our data suggested that excessive occlusal force induces the collapse of PDL.

Molecular delivery into cells can be carried out by irradiating atmospheric plasma jet to the surface of a liquid suspending the cells and molecules. However the way to increase the efficiency has not been clarified. In this study, the time change of the characteristics of the cell membrane during plasma irradiation was investigated. Porcine erythrocytes were suspended in PBS and helium gas plasma was irradiated to the suspension for a certain period of time. After that the cells were exposed to low osmotic pressure by adding distilled water to the sample. The light intensity transmitted through the sample was measured and the relaxation time was calculated. The relaxation time reflects the mean cell fragility. The experimental results indicated that mean cell fragility was decreased by short time irradiation. This means that more fragile cells collapsed fast by plasma irradiation. This process was confirmed to proceed faster by higher plasma intensity.

Hydrogels made from the extracellular matrix (ECM) of myocardial tissue have been used as scaffolds for cellculture. In this study, we improved the mechanical properties of goat ventricular ECM gels (vECM gels) by thetreatment with EDAC crosslinker and examined cell culture compatibility of the EDAC-vECM gels. 15 types ofgels with different vECM concentrations and EDAC concentrations were casted in 48-well plates and rat fetalfibroblasts were cultured on these gels. Cell adhesion rate on gels treated with EDAC was lower than that ongels without the treatment; however, cell proliferation rate on the treated gels was higher. LDH release rate,which assesses the cell damage, on the treated gels was lower than that on the gels without EDAC treatment.These results showed that EDAC-vECM hydrogels had cell culture compatibility.

We have studied the effect of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) ranging from 100 to 1,000 MPa on various cells and tissues. By pressing at 200 MPa for 10 min, all types of mammalian cells died. When HHP increased over 500 MPa, the cell membrane was destroyed and ECM started to denature. This finding raised an idea to treat resected tumor tissue with HHP and transplant back to the same position of the patients. Since the treated tissue is autologous, removal of cellular debris is not needed. We tried to inactivate the human giant congenital melanocytic nevi (GCMN) tissue. The pressed nevus tissues were analyzed in detail and also transplanted into nude mice subcutaneously for 1 year to confirm complete cell killing. Our result suggested that GCMN can be completely inactivated by HHP and the inactivated tissue can be used as the autologous implantable dermal substitute.

Mechanical properties of biopolymers, such as actin filaments, collagen and elastin fibers, are critically important for cell biology because they determine the mechanical status of the cells or their environment. To investigate the entropic elasticity of biopolymers, we regarded a biopolymer as a Markov chain composed of multiple minute linear steps and simulated its 3D contour using the Monte Carlo method. It was found that the occurrence probability of the end-to-end distance presented a maximum for such a chain. The maximum appeared at the range of 0.99 to 1.00 as coordinated by the ratio of the end-to-end distance to the contour length. Therefore, the entropic elasticity of the biopolymers had a compressive force region and a tensile force region. The transition of tensile to compression was also simulated by experiments on synthetic polymer threads.

Recently, many researchers have tried to fabricate 3D tissues with bottom-up tissue engineering method. In bottom-up tissue engineering, large-scaled tissues would be fabricated by assembling tiny building units, called bio-parts, which are prepared with cells and/or biomaterials. We have also focused on using bio-parts, especially fiber-shaped bio-parts to rapidly fabricate tissues by assembling them.We first created master molds with stereolithography 3D printer to prepare hydrogel molds for cell-laden microfibers. We succeeded in preparing cell-laden microfibers with the hydrogel molds using various type of cells. Then, we tried to fabricate tubular-like tissues by assembling cell-laden microfibers. 3D structures were easily fabricated by reeling cell-laden microfibers around alginate hydrogel support which was prepared with metal needle and syringe. Thus, we successfully obtained tubular-like tissues after removing alginate by using chelate agent. We believe our method would be applicable to preparation of perfusable tubular-like tissues for fabrication of 3D large-scaled tissues.

Cells respond biologically to external stimuli, and elucidation of its mechanism has been widely conducted. To load fast stimulation on cells, impulsive stimulation device has been developed, in which cantilever is vibrated by pulsed laser and cells are stimulated at 10kHz order frequency. However, the cantilever vibrates until it decays, so cells are stimulated many times and the phenomenon is complex. In order to load singe impulsive stimulation on cells, we have developed magnetic cantilever control system. By combining laser shot and cantilever raise by magnetic force, we realized a single stimulation. Coil was designed to meet required specifications for system suitability, magnetic field strength and time response. Experimental results confirmed the displacement of the cantilever due to the magnetic field. By combining with laser shot, a single stimulation with a time width of 20 us was obtained.

In this study, DCs with two stretch states were used for sonoporation, and their membrane damage rates were investigated. DC2.4 cells incubated on a coverslip for 0.5 h were used to mimic suspended cells, and these incubated for 48 h were used as adherent cells. DCs with an attached microbubble were irradiated by pulsed ultrasound, and their membrane damage was evaluated using SYTOX Blue. Membrane damage rates were 93% (13/14) for adherent cells and 30% (3/10) for suspension mimicking cells, indicating that the incidence of membrane damage has strong dependence on cell adhesion condition. Disappearance of bubbles was confirmed in 78% of adherent cells and in 10% of suspension mimicking cells, indicating that adhesion of a bubble to a suspension mimicking cell causes higher dumping effect of bubble oscillation. This result suggests that sonoporation of suspension cells requires ultrasound exposure with higher pressure and longer duration.

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging, which is based on optical absorption and ultrasonic detection, has overcome the drawback of pure optical imaging by taking advantage of rich optical contrast and ultrasonic spatial resolution for deep imaging because ultrasonic waves are less scattered.The advantage of PA technique is easy-to use approach with noninvasively. We demonstrated a clinical feasibility of the PA image.

Raman spectroscopy provides a wealth of diagnostic information to the surgeon with in situ cancer detection and label-free histopathology in intraoperative conditions. Raman spectroscopy is a promising optical technique which can analyze biological tissues with light scattering. We confirmed that Raman spectra obtained from cancer cells and their environment including other cells and extracellular matrix in xenograft models and spontaneous metastasis models were distinguishable using Raman spectroscopy combined with nonlinear optical imaging. Malignancy can be characterized not only by the cancer cells but also by the environmental factors including immune cells, stroma cells, secretion vesicles and extracellular matrix, but to identify and detect cancer diagnostic biomarkers in vivo on Raman spectroscopy is still challenging. Here we investigate morphological and molecular dynamics in advanced cancer specimens obtained from patients toward the clinical application of the technique.

A coherent Raman rigid endoscopy system was developed for visualization of nerve. Recently, operation under the endoscope has become a standard operative method because of minimally invasive surgery, and nerve-sparing surgery has also been adopted to improve the quality of life of patients. Therefore, visualization of nerve under the endoscope is highly desired. Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering is employed to visualize myelinated nerve by the molecular vibrations of CH₂ stretching of lipid, which is contained by myelin sheath. The developed endoscope, which has a tube with a diameter of 12 mm and a length of 270 mm, achieved 0.91% image distortion and 8.6% non-uniformity of CARS intensity in the whole field of view (650 μm diameter). CARS imaging of a rat sciatic nerve and nerves in fascia prostatae of Rabbit will be demonstrated. The imaging results of a new endoscope with 550 mm length will also demonstrated

Recently, there are many arthritic disease cases in orthopedic surgery fields. In this field, high resolution imaging system is necessary for early detection and success treatment of disease. It focused on optical coherence tomography (OCT) with optimal probe which is very effective in accurate assessments of arthritis diagnosis. In this study, we have developed rigid-endoscope OCT system with KTN optical probe for a diagnosis in the orthopedic surgery fields. The present system demonstrates that biological image was measured by using KTN optical scanner for having degree of freedom in sample arm as optical coherence tomography. The system was shown to have a resolution 14.2 micron for biological tissue in few mm depth. The sensitivity to be measured is 92.3dB.

For non-invasive blood-glucose measurement, a mid-infrared spectroscopy system comprising hollow optical fibers and a multi-reflection attenuated-total-reflection (ATR) prism was developed. Firstly, a system using a Fourier-transfer infrared spectrometer was fabricated and as a result of measurement of human lips, the absorption spectra revealed clear signatures of glucose. The measurement errors less than 20% was obtained. Secondly, a compact and low-cost measurement system using quantum cascade lasers was developed and the result of preliminary test showed its feasibility for a healthcare equipment.

[Purpose]Lung cancer is one of the most fetal disease. In radiograph, pulmonary tumor is occasionally missed by overlapping of rib and mediastinum, so CT is used as final diagnostic method. Tomosynthesis enables to depict nodules overlapping anatomical structures. Especially, tomosynthesis with small number of projection (TSP) allows to shorten data acquisition time and simplify systems. Here, possibility of chest TSP was examined. [Method]Chest phantom with various artificial nodules was imaged, and tomosynthesis projections as 4, 6, 8, 16, 32, 64 were reconstructed using back projection. Image was evaluated visually and quantitatively (CNR and ASF). [Result]4 projections tomosynthesis clearly visualized 10 mm nodules, and obtained relatively gentle CNR and depth resolution. [Conclusion]Tomosynthesis with 4 projections enables to clearly depict pulmonary nodules without overlapping anatomical structure, and will be used for clinical application.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) results from smoking habits and air pollution escalation in developing countries and. A clinical COPD screening adopts a spirometer with mouthpiece, which requires medical personal we developed a COPD screening system which conducts non-contact screening without the help of medical personal. The proposed system consists of dual doppler radars (10mW, 24 GHz). The examinees front side Doppler radar in sitting position captures thoracic movements using arctangent remodulation.of I and Q outputs a Doppler radar.. The combination of front side and back side Doppler radars cancel to-and-fro body movements. we tested the proposed system for five healthy subjects and five pseudo COPD subjects (narrow straw attached to spirometer mouthpiece which simulates bronchial narrowing induced by COPD (5 males, average 23) . FEV1.0% (bronchial narrowing score signifivantly correlates with that derived by spirometer (r = 0.93), and sensitivity and specificity were 100% (threshold, FEV1.0%=70%).

For the early detection of pneumonia occupying one of the top cause of the death in the elderly, a Doppler radar (24 GHz, 10 mW) located beneath a bed mattress was installed and we developed a system to measure the respiration rate, heart rate and parasympathetic activation (HF of heart rate variability (HRV)) change associated with the onset of pneumonia. After study protocol was approved by the Research Ethic Committee, the proposed system was installed at the inpatient bed of the GenkaiKai Yokohama Hospital and continuous monitoring of elderly patients with chronic disease was conducted for a long time. As a result, prior to the doctors diagnosis by X-ray, in a hospitalized patient of Alzheimer dementia (79 years old female) who had no signs of pneumonia at the beginning of hospitalization, the continuous increase in respiratory rate in several hours, decrease in HF showing parasympathetic nervous activity among the HRV.

After the pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, infrared thermography (IRT) was used for screening passengers with potential infection at quarantine station in many international airports. Measuring facial skin temperature alone using IRT is easily affected by ambient temperature; such fever-based screening is less sensitive in detecting infection. Therefore, our previous work proposed an infectious disease screening system based on multiple vital signs using CMOS camera for measuring heart rate and IRT for monitoring respiration rate and facial skin temperature. In this paper, a face detection and tracking method was newly developed and implemented into the system, thereby enable accurate and stable measurement of multiple vital signs.

A lack of slow wave sleep (SWS) has been suggested to cause medical problems including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Thus, accurately detecting the quantity and length of SWS during sleep is of importance and interest. This study analyzed how phase coupling (lambda) of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is altered during sleep in order to explore if this measure is a useful predictor of SWS. Overnight EEG and ECG of 25 volunteers were recorded. The EEG was band-pass filtered to extract the delta activity. From the oscillatory signals of RSA and respiration, lambda was computed with 10-s window. Using auto- and cross-correlation analyses, we found that overnight profiles of lambda and delta wave were related with significant cross-correlation coefficients and that periodicity of lambda was quite similar to that of delta wave. These results suggest that phase coupling analysis of RSA may provide a novel method to objectively predict SWS.

Auscultation plays an important role in the diagnosis of lung diseases.Feature analysis of lung sounds may lead to diagnostic aid of lung diseases, real-time lung-sound monitoring, and automatic analysis of long-term recording of lung sounds. Since crackle's period often changes in a single crackle, Fourier analysis of a single crackle is not enough to extract wave features and parameters such as initial deflection width (IDW) and two cycle duration (2CD) are also used as indicators. In this study, we calculated instantaneous frequency and instantaneous bandwidth by using analytic signal. For make it visually easier to grasp value and change of instantaneous frequency, we drew crackle waveforms in color which corresponds to the instantaneous frequency.The results show that instantaneous frequency of coarse crackles clearly showed the features of the crackles. We conclude that the coloring of lung-sound waveform is visually effective method to show crackle's features.

This study aims to analyze deaeration deformation to develop intraoperative guidance of minute lung nodules. We measured lung CT data from ex-vivo animal lungs with different internal pressures, and analyzed surface displacement using Laplacian-based surface registration. We evaluated the registration results by comparing with reference points determined manually, and confirmed that the registration error was around 1mm. We found that the magnitude of surface displacement is orderly distributed based on the distance from the pulmonary hilum.

In primary spontaneous pneumothorax, pulmonary cysts may be newly generated and recurred near the staple line, which is the resection line sutured by surgery after treatment. On the other hand, for lung tumor, treatment is similarly performed by partial resection, but the probability of pulmonary cyst formation after surgery to cause pneumothorax is very low. The difference between these resection methods is the shape of the staple line. For pulmonary cysts, resect to a straight (I type) to the lung surface. For lung tumor, it is removed to the deep part of the lung (V type).In the present work, two kinds of simplified models were prepared by partial resection of type I and type V. Stress generated around the staple line was analyzed and compared by finite element analysis. As a result, there was higher stress at the end of the staple line in I type than V type.

In recent years, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome has spread worldwide. However, development for pediatric ECMO is delayed to compare to adult's it. In this study, we suggested new Sequential flow pump for pediatric ECMO using computational fluid analysis. Boundary conditions defined the density of 1045 kg / m3 and viscosity of 3.6 mPa s as the virtual blood. Using rotational speed and flow rate as variables, H-Q curves, fluid efficiency and shear stress were obtained. As a result, by significantly changing the shape of the impeller, the differential pressure of 374 mmHg was obtained under the condition of a flow rate of 3 L / min at a rotation speed of 2000 rpm. In addition, the highest fluid efficiency was up to 15.3% comparing the conventional sequential flow pump.

We have been developing a catheter-based rotary blood pump for assisting renal circulation. In this study, we constructed an automatic optimization system applying a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and a genetic algorithm (GA) and examined the rotary blood pump design possessing high pump performance based upon fluid dynamics. The system consisted of a 3DCAD, CFD software and an optimization tool. The objective was to maximize the pressure head for high pump performance. The blade angle (3 variables), shaft diameter (2 variables) and outlet port height (1 variable) were used as the design variables. Pressure head was calculated from the pressure distribution in CFD analysis result. The number of initial designs was set to 30 and the number of generations was set to 20 for GA. As a result of optimization, several designs were generated. The optimal design resulted in a 14% improvement in pressure head compared with the original design.

The centrifugal pump with the novel hydrodynamic levitation system was developed. This study summarizes the results of preclinical testings for a novel temporary VAD system with the centrifugal pump. The following experiments were performed;1. Hydrodynamic performance test including the cannulas and the intermediate tubing2. Endurance testing for 60 days under pulsatile flows3. Hemolysis testing using fresh animal blood4. Chronic animal experiments for 30 days for LVAD/RVAD use using calvesThe results are;1. The centrifugal pump was able to generate the maximum of 10 L/min at 7000 rpm.2. Three cases of 60-day endurance tests were successfully performed without any technical troubles.3. Hemolysis level was within an acceptable range (N.I.H. smaller than 0.01) at the lowest speed.4. Three cases for LVAD and three cases for RVAD were both successfully carried out with the flow rates from about 3 to 5 L/min.