• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.633-638
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• 2017

The amount of radioactive waste has been rapidly increased with development of radiation treatment in medical field. Recently, it has been a common practice to use I-131 for thyroid cancer, F-18 for PET/CT and Tc-99m for diagnosis of nuclear medicine. All the wastes concerned have been disposed of by means of the self-disposal method, for example incineration, after storage enough to decay less than clearance level. IAEA proposed criteria for clearance level of waste which depends on the individual ($10{\mu}Sv/y$) and collective dose (1 man-Sv/y), and concentration of each nuclide (IAEA Safety Series No 111-P-1.1, 1992 and IAEA RS-G-1.7, 2004). In this study, specific radioactivity of radioactive waste contaminated with Re-186 was measured to confirm whether it meets the clearance level. Re-186 has long half life of 3.8 days relatively and emits beta and gamma radiation, therefore it can be applied in treatment and imaging purposes. The specific radioactivity of contaminated gloves weared by radiation workers was measured by MCA(Multi-channel Analyzer) which was calibrated by reference materials in accordance with the measuring procedure. As a result, comparison evaluation of decay storage period between the half-life which was calculated by attenuation curve based on real measurement and physical half-life was considered, and it is showed that the physical half-life is longer than induced half-life. Therefore, the storage period of radioactive waste for self-disposal may be curtailed in case of application of induced half-life. The result of this study will be proposed as ISO standard.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.72-81
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• 1992

Thyroid cancer, the most common cancer of endocrine neoplasms, has tremendous variation in tumor biologic behavior. There is no consensus about treatment mode to prevent recurrences despite of recent advance in understanding characteristics of thyroid cancer. So, we have made a clinical analysis and follow-up study of recurred 27 cases among 189 cases treated under the diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma in the department of surgery, Chonnam University Hospital from February, 1982 to February, 1992 to clarify our experience about the characteristics of recurred thyroid cancer. The results were as follow: According to the pathological classification of recurred thyroid cancer, recurrence rate was 11.6% in papillary carcinoma, 15.6% in follicular carcinoma, 37.5% in medullary carcinoma, 66.7% in undifferentiated carcinoma, respectively, and the mean recurrence rate of thyroid cancer was 14.3%. The recurrence rate according to age was 28.6% in 8th decade and 17.9% in 4th decade. The recurrence rate according to sex was not singificant(15.6% in male: 14% in female). The mean period to relapse was 4 years 6 months in papillary carcinoma, 2 years 5 months in follicular carcinoma, 2 years 1 months in medullary carcinoma, 2 years 6 months in undifferentiated carcinoma. The recurrence rate according to previous operating methods, such as performing lymph node dissection or not, mode of thyridectomy, type of lymph node dissection was statisfically non-specific. Common recurrent sites of papillary and follicular carcinoma was cervical lymph node and remained thyroid tissue. Medullary and undifferentiated carcinoma was noted in multiregional or systemic involvement Reoperation was performed with complete resection of recurred or metastatic mass, such as radical neck dissection or mass extirpation from involved organs as possible. The postoperative complications were 2 cases of horseness, and 1 case with hematoma, transient hypocalcemia, wound infection, and pulmonary insufficency, respectively. 5-year survival rate was 85.5% in papillary carcinoma, 66.7% in follicular carcinoma. 50% in medullary carcinoma, and 50% in undifferentiated carcinoma. We concluded that recurrence in thyroid cancer give a reconsideration to previous conservative therapy and more extensive surgical procedures for thyroid cancer including lymphatic dissection are recommanded to prevent recurrences in selected cases if possible.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.9-13
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• 2018

Background/Objectives: Brain metastasis (BM) is a rare form of distant metastasis with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Patients with BM of PTC carry a poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to contribute to the understanding of this disease by analyzing patients with BM of PTC. Materials & Methods: Between March 2003 and December 2013, the patient database was conducted to identify thyroid cancer patients treated. Among the 22,758 thyroid cancer patients, 14 (0.06 %) were identified to have metastasis to the brain during follow-up. The medical records of 14 patients with BM were retrospectively reviewed, focusing on the following: patient characteristics, synchronous or previous distant metastasis, treatments including whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and surgery, and characteristics on radiologic findings, time interval between first diagnosis of primary thyroid cancer and BM and survival after BM. Results: The mean age at initial diagnosis and BM were $50.9{\pm}15.8years$ and $61.3{\pm}12.7years$. The mean duration between initial diagnosis and BM was $10.4{\pm}7.9years$. Patients were treated with varied combinations of surgery, SRS and WBRT except 4 patients who had refused treatment. The median overall survival (OS) time after BM diagnosis was 10 months (range 1 - 19). Patients receiving treatment (WBRT and/or surgery, SRS) had a significant longer median OS of 16.5 months in comparison to 3.5 months for those treated without treatment. (p = 0.005) Conclusion: Patients who received aggressive treatment had a longer OS than those with only supportive care. Treatment such as surgery, SRS and WBRT should be considered in patients with BM.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.11-17
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• 2019

Background/Objectives: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) has generally an indolent character with a good prognosis. However, recurrence remains a major concern for the patients during their lifetime. Despite the slowly progressing character of PTC, recurrence can occur within a short period after initial surgery. This study aimed to determine the clinical findings and cause of recurrence in patients who underwent re-operative surgery due to neck node recurrence by reviewing the CT (computed tomographic) scan imaging of the recurrence of PTC retrospectively. Materials & Methods: We reviewed the medical records of patients referred to Ajou University Hospital from January 2002 to January 2018. All patients had re-operative surgery due to neck node recurrence and CT scan results of preoperative evaluation and postoperative follow up. Over this period, 110 patients who underwent re-operation due to neck node recurrence with a CT scan were included in our cohort, resulting in a total of 220 re-operations. Results: The time from initial operation to first re-operation was examined in 110 patients. The median time to re-operation was 28 months, with a range of 4 months to 186 months. Most re-operations (82.7%) occurred within the first five years, 43.6% were in the first two years from the initial surgery. The result of the retrospective CT review showed newly developed cases (21,19.1%), missed diagnosis cases (42,38.2%), real recur cases after surgery (33,30.0%), and remnant lymph nodes (LNs) cases (14,12.7%). We further sub-analyzed 14 cases with remnant LNs. Reasons for remnant LNs included insufficient operation (N=5) and beyond general surgical extent. (N=9). Conclusion: Re-operation due to cervical lymph node recurrence is mostly a persistent disease. They included a missed diagnosis and incomplete operation. These finding may reduce the reoperation of cervical lymph node recurrence by accurate preoperative evaluation and complete surgical resection at the initial surgery.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.429-433
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• 2009

Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is defined as burning pain in the tongue or other oral mucous membrane associated with normal sign and laboratory findings at least 4 to 6 months. There are many factors that affect this condition and the pain characters are various among the sufferers, so it is difficult to diagnose exactly and treat properly. The cause of BMS is currently unknown. The etiology is presumed to be that it is related with local, systemic and psychogenic factor. The BMS is related with local factor such as allergic reaction, oral fungal infection(candidiasis), parafunctional oral habits and systemic factors such as diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, nutritional deficiencies(vitamin $B_{12}$, folic acid), hyposalivation and psychogenic factor such as depression, anxiety, cancerphobia. So clinicians must be aware of these factors and can give proper treatment options to patients. The management of BMS are pharmacologic management, cognitive behavioral therapy and psychotherapy treatment. Clonazepam, gabapentin, amitriptyline, alpha-lipoic acid and capsaicin are used to manage the BMS. Among these, topical clonazepam is reported that the effect is higher than systemic medication and the complications are rare. This case report is about some cases of the effect of topical clonazepam on BMS.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.291-296
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• 2019

Nuclear medicine have often used to diagnose cancers. The main absorbed dose from radiation to a radiation worker resulted from open radioisotopes. Methods for reducing the radiation dose to a radiation worker from radioisotopes injected to patients were studied. The shield device of 0.2 mmPb was manufactured as a size of $300mm{\times}500mm{\times}150mm$. By using dosimeters of Nanodot, the absorbed doses for thyroid, chest and genital organ were measured with and without a shielding device and with syringe shield and shielding device together. The highest absorbed dose of 0.908 mGy reduction of 20.8% as 0.719 mGy was in the genital organ by using the syringe shield and a shielding device together. A effective dose for a radiation worker during 1 year was expected to 1.223 mSv at the chest, which was decrease as 0.994 mSv by shielding device and syringe shield together. When open radioisotope is injected to a patient for examination, the only use of a shielding device results in the reduction of radiation dose to radiation workers.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.145-153
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• 2015

Thyroid nodules are an endocrine disease often found in clinical practice, and patients with thyroid nodules found by chance have rapidly increased alongside development of thyroid ultrasound techniques for health examination purposes. This study analyzes the subjects' general characteristics, thyroid ultrasounds, and fine needle aspiration cytology in order to find out the relationship between male and female thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer frequency. An ultrasound examination of the thyroid was performed for 32,973 individuals who visited the K Hospital of Health Examination. Subjects have no history of thyroid disease and are 20 years old or over. Data of general characteristics, diabetes) was collected by a written survey completed by the subject, and the ultrasound of the thyroid(thyroid nodules existence, size, number) and FNAC was used to find out the malignancy rate. Frequency of patients with thyroid nodule was 4,611(26.1%) in men and 5,341(34.9%) in women between 32,973 individuals. Women's prevalence rate is significantly higher than men, and the prevalence rate significantly increased with age in men and women(p < 0.05). The prevalence of multiple nodules was significantly higher in women(43.5%) than in men(35.6%), and significantly increased with age in men and women(p < 0.05). The fine needle aspiration cytology was performed in 692(men 342, women 350) subjects who showed signs of malignancy through ultrasound. Prevalence of malignancy of the nodules was higher in men(33.3%) than in women(29.4%) although it is not statistically significant. It is known that thyroid nodule prevalence in women is much higher than in men. But this study shows the men's prevalence rate was not too low compared with women, and the men showed a rather higher malignancy rate in nodules than women. It is considered that the role of thyroid ultrasound is both important in men and women.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.62-66
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• 2013

Purpose: I-131 is a radioisotope widely used for thyroid gland treatments. The physical half life is 8.01 and characterized by emitting beta and gamma rays which is used in clinical practice for the purpose of acquiring treatment and images. In order to reduce the recurrence rate after surgery in high-risk thyroid cancer patients, the remaining thyroid tissue is either removed or the I-131 is used for treatment during relapse. In cases of using a high dosage of radioactive iodine requiring hospitalization, the patient is administered dosage in the hospital isolation ward over a certain period of time preventing I-131 exposure to others. By checking the radiation amount emitted from patients before discharge, the patients are discharged after checking whether they meet the legal standards (50 uSv/h). After patients are discharged from the hospital, the contamination level is checked in many parts of the ward before the next patients are hospitalized and when necessary, decontamination operations are performed. It is expected that there is exposure to radiation when measuring the ward contamination level and dose check emitted from patients at the time of discharge whereby the radiation exposure by health workers that come from the patients in this process is the main factor. This study analyzed the correlation between discharge dose of patients and ward contamination level through a variety of factors such as renal functions, gender, age, dosage, etc.). Materials and Method: The study was conducted on 151 patients who received high-dosage radioactive iodine treatment at Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital during the period between 8/1/2011~5/31/2012 (Male: Female: 31:120, $47.5{\pm}11.9$, average dosage of $138{\pm}22.4$ mCi). As various factors expected to influence the patient discharge dose & ward contamination such as the beds, floors, bathroom floors, and washbasins, the patient renal function (GFR), age, gender, dosage, and the correlation between the expected Tg & Tg-Tb expected to reflect the remaining tissue in patients were analyzed. Results: In terms of the discharge dose and GFR, a low correlation was shown in the patient discharge dose as the GFR was higher (p < 0.0001). When comparing the group with a dosage of over 150mCi and the group with a lower dosage, the lower dosage group showed a significantly lower discharge dose ($24{\pm}10.4uSv/h$ vs $28.7{\pm}11.8uSv/h$, p<0.05). Age, gender, Tg, Tg-Tb did not show a significant relationship with discharge dose (p> 0.05). The contamination level in each spot of the treatment ward showed no significant relationship with GFR, Tg, Tg-Tb, age, gender, and dosage (p>0.05 ). Conclusion: This study says that discharge of the dose in the patient's body is low in GFR higher and Dosage 150mCi under lower. There was no case of contamination of the treatment ward, depending on the dose and renal association. This suggests that patients' lifestyles or be affected by a variety of other factors.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.347-357
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• 2016

Purpose: This study investigated bone mineral density and nutritional state according to consumption of milk in Korean postmenopausal women who drink coffee. Methods: Using the 2008~2009 Korean National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey data, a total of 1,373 postmenopausal females aged 50 yrs and over were analyzed after excluding those with diseases related to bone health. According to coffee and/or milk consumption, subjects were divided into four groups: coffee only, both coffee & milk, milk only, and none of the above. All data were processed after application of weighted values and adjustment of age, body mass index, physical activity, drinking, and smoking using a general linear model. For analysis of nutrient intake and bone density, data were additionally adjusted by total energy and calcium intake. Results: The coffee & milk group had more subjects younger than 65 yrs and higher education, urban residents, and higher income than any other group. The coffee only group showed somewhat similar characteristics as the none of the above group, which showed the highest percentage of subjects older than 65 and in a lower education and socio-economic state. Body weight, height, body mass index, and lean mass were the highest in coffee & milk group and lowest in the none of the above group. On the other hand, the milk only group showed the lowest values for body mass index and waist circumference, whereas percent body fat did not show any difference among the groups. The coffee and milk group showed the highest bone mineral density in the total femur and lumbar spine as well as the highest nutritional state and most food group intakes, followed by the milk only group, coffee only group, and none of the above group. In the assessment of osteoporosis based on T-score of bone mineral density, although not significant, the coffee and milk group and milk only group, which showed a better nutritional state, included more subjects with a normal bone density, whereas the none of the above group included more subjects with osteoporosis than any other group. Conclusion: Bone mineral density in postmenopausal women might not be affected by coffee drinking if their diets are accompanied by balanced food and nutrient intake including milk.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.39-43
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• 2017

Purpose Thyroglobulin (Tg) is a biologic marker of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC), produced by normal thyroid tissue or thyroid cancer tissue. Therefore, the Tg values of DTC patients is the most specific indicator for judging whether recurrence occur or whether the remaining thyroid cancer is present. Thyroid cancer is currently the most common cancer in Korea, of which 90% is differentiated thyroid cancer. The number of patients with thyroid disease of this application also increased, and an accurate and prompt results are required. However, the incubation time of the Tg commonly takes about 24 hours in our hospital, and the result reporting time is delayed, and We could not satisfied with the requirements of clinical departments and patients. In order to fulfill these requirements, experiments were conducted by shortening the incubation time between company B's Kit currently in use and company C's Kit used in other hospitals. Through these experiments, we could perform the correlation with the original method and shortening method, and could find the optimum reaction time to satisfy the needs of the departments and the patients, and we will improve the competitiveness with the EIA examination. Materials and Methods In September 2016, we tested 65 patients company B's kit and company C's kit by three incubation ways. First method $37^{\circ}C$ shaking 2hr/2hr, Second method RT shaking 3hr/2hr, Third method 1hr/1hr shaking at $37^{\circ}C$. Fourth method RT shaking 3hr method which is the original method of Company C's Kit. Fifth method, the incubation time was shortened under room temperature shaking 2hr, Sixth method $37^{\circ}C$ shaking 2hr. And we performed and compared the correlation and coefficient of each methods. Results As a result of performing shortening method on company B currently in use, when comparing the Original method of company B kit, First method $37^{\circ}C$ shaking 2hr/2hr was less than Tg 1.0 ng/mL and the ratio of $R^2=0.5906$, above 1.0 ng/mL In the value, $R^2=0.9597$. Second method RT shaking 3hr/2hr was $R^2=0.7262$ less than value of 1.0 ng/mL, $R^2=0.9566$ above than value of 1.0 ng/mL. Third method $37^{\circ}C$ shaking 1hr/1hr was $R^2=0.7728$ less than value of 1.0 ng/mL, $R^2=0.8904$ above than value of 1.0 ng/mL. Forth, Company C's The original method, RT shaking 3hr was $R^2=0.7542$ less than value of 1.0 ng/mL, and $R^2=0.9711$ above than value of 1.0 ng/mL. Fifth method RT shaking 2hr was $R^2=0.5477$ less than value of 1.0 ng/mL, $R^2=0.9231$ above than value of 1.0 ng/mL. Sixth method $37^{\circ}C$ shaking 2hr showed $R^2=0.2848$ less than value of 1.0 ng/mL, $R^2=0.9028$ above than value of 1.0 ng/mL. Conclusion Samples with both values of 1.0 ng/mL or higher in both of the six methods showed relatively high correlation, but the correlation was relatively low less than value of 1.0 ng/mL. Especially, the $37^{\circ}C$ shaking 2hr method of company C showed a sharp fluctuation from the low concentration value of 1.0 ng/mL or less. Therefore, we are planning to continuously test the time, equipment, incubation temperature and so on for the room temperature shaking 2hr method and $37^{\circ}C$ shaking 1hr/1hr of company C which showed a relatively high correlation. After that, we can search for an appropriate shortening method through additional experiments such as recovery test, dilution test, sensitivity test, and provide more accurate and prompt results to the department of medical treatment, It is competitive with EIA test.