Makoto Yagihashi

Development of an Acupuncture Training System Using Virtual Reality Technology

It is believed in oriental Chinese medicine that some special points called acu-points, and meridians connecting such acu-points, are existing in the human body. The acupuncture is accordingly such a medical treatment to cure the illness or to keep the human body healthy by stimulating related acu-points particularly those on a meridian. Acupuncture was originated from ancient China with the typical Chinese thinking and special philosophy, and recently has been accepted as a useful curing method, attracting quite much interest and being studied by many medical institutions worldwide. In this study, an acupuncture training system using virtual reality technology was developed. A virtual 3D human acu-points model was constructed on computer. The position and depth of acu-points are quantitatively indexed with the model. Acupuncture practices with quantitative targeting values and real-time true-false judgments are carried out.

A preliminary Research on Analysis of Pulse Diagnosis

Pulse diagnosis has been one of the most important diagnosis methods in the orient medicine. Pulse taking is carried out by putting fingers on the radialis artery, diagnosing the patient from the feeling transferred to the finger by pulsation of the artery. Because pulse diagnosis is very sensitive, requiring high level of skill and long experience, it is mostly difficult for a trainee to master. It is also a problem that pulse diagnosis is such a technique depending mostly on the feelings of separate doctors without a clear standard. In this study, the vibration of the surface of the skin caused by pulsation of the artery was measured as a method of settlement of the above issue points, and the development of the device to analyze pulse taking quantitatively was tried.

Analysis of Large Bowel Peristalsis with Video Capsule Endoscopy

Irritable bowel syndrome(IBS) is suggested to be diagnosed with evaluating large bowel peristalsis. Video capsule endoscopy(VCE) enables a clinician to observe natural peristalsis of the gastrointestinal tract. In our pilot study, about 80% of PillCamtrade SB(Given Imaging Ltd., Yoqneam, Israel) capsule endoscopes (CEs) which were originally designed for viewing the small intestine reached cecum and transmitted images of large bowel until 8 hours of their battery lifetimes are over. Large bowel peristalsis can be observed as a series of VCEs images by the clinician taking over an hour to analyse. In this paper we present analysing methods of large bowel peristalsis with VCE, which make clinicians be able to diagnose peristaltic activity and patterns at a glance. We count pixels in low brightness areas of each VCE images to analyse peristaltic activity. The low brightness areas which are distant from CEs white-light-LEDs spread with circular muscle layers of large bowel(CM) being relaxed. We estimate peristaltic patterns by the distance between the center of the image and the closest pixel of the low brightness areas. Normal peristalsis caused by normal contraction of CM make the CE point towards longitudinal direction of the intestinal tract. By applying these methods to both a control group of 9 healthy volunteers(GOH) and a group of 5 IBS patients(GOI), we present experimental results that demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods.

New objective evaluation method for functional bowel disorder using video capsule endoscopy.

Aim:  The aim of the present study was to use video capsule endoscopy (VCE) to objectively evaluate bowel movements in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) compared with healthy volunteers.

A Non-invasive Method to Measure Joint Range of Motion for Hip Joints

In order to reduce the risk of dislocation after total hip arthroplasty, a hip joint range of motion should be evaluated properly. The non-invasive measuring method which obtains the joint range of motion without using computed tomography or X-ray is proposed in this research. A hip joint center inside a body is estimated by two positional sensors which are attached on a body surface. The joint range of motion is calculated by the estimated hip joint center and positions and orientations of the pelvis and the femur. The effectiveness of the proposed method is discussed.

A Trial of Numerical Calculation of Wear for Artificial Hip Joints

A numerical analysis method for the wear of the artificial hip joints due to the walking is proposed and a wear prediction system for them is developed in this research. In order to develop the system, EHL, “elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication theory” and a model for asperity load sharing are applied. The feasibility of the developed wear prediction system for artificial hip joints is shown and the relationship between the wear and various parameters of the artificial hip joint is described in this paper.