• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.283-290
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• 2003

Purpose: To evaluate the long term significance of the squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) antigen (Ag) as a tumor marker in uterine cervix carcinoma. Materials and Methods: The SCC antigen levels of pre-radiotherapy and serial post-radiotherapy serum were analyzed in 48 patients who received radiotherapy with histologically proven primary SCC of the uterine cervix. Results: Pre-radiotherapy SCC Ag level was high ($\geq$2 ng/ml) at 79.2$\%$. After the treatment, the SCC Ag level was significantly decreased. The SCC Ag level measured at about 3 months after radiotherapy was high at 23.0$\%$. In further follow up measurements, a rise of the SCC Ag to a high level was well associated with clinical relapse. The specificity of the elevated SCC Ag level in association with recurrent or persistent disease was 100$\%$, and the sensitivity was 85.7$\%$. In 3 of 4 lung metastasis cases, lung lesions were detected in chest PA before elevation of the SCC Ag level. The median lead time of the high SCC Ag level to clinical recurrence was 4 months. Conclusion: SCC Ag was a good tumor marker for monitoring treatment effect in patients with increased pre-treatment levels except in case of early lung metastasis. Elevation of the SCC Ag level after radiotherapy accurately predicted the treatment failure with lead time of 4 months. But, in early lung metastasis cases, the SCC level may be normal temporarily. Thus, chest PA should be checked to evaluate the presence of lung metastasis.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.161-168
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• 2010

White-skinned sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) has been traditionally used for diabetes treatment and management in many countries. In this experiment, methanol extract of white-skinned sweet potato (WSPMe) at a dose of 100 or 200 mg/kg body weight was tested to evaluate its effect on renal damage in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Its efficacy was compared with that of insulin secretogogue, glimepiride ($50\;{\mu}g/kg$ body weight). Experimental diabetes was induced by a single dose of STZ (45 mg/kg, i.p.) injection. The WSPMe and glimepiride were administered orally for 14 days and the effects on glucose, renal markers including blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), lipid peroxide (LPO) level, antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathion-S-transferase (GST) activities in kidney were studied. An increase in BUN, creatinine, LDH, glucose, LPO levels and decrease in SOD, CAT, GPx and GST features were observed in diabetic control rats. Administration of WSPMe at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight caused a significant improvement in blood glucose, LPO level, renal markers, lipid peroxidation markers and increased antioxidant levels in diabetic kidney. In conclusion, the WSPMe was found to be effective in reducing oxidative stress, thus confirming the ethnopharmacological use of I. batatas L. in protecting diabetes and its complications.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.1075-1085
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• 2012

In clinical research using medical images, the image segmentation is one of the most important processes. Especially, the hippocampal atrophy is helpful for the clinical Alzheimer diagnosis as a specific marker of the progress of Alzheimer. In order to measure hippocampus volume exactly, segmentation of the hippocampus is essential. However, the hippocampus has some features like relatively low contrast, low signal-to-noise ratio, discreted boundary in MRI images, and these features make it difficult to segment hippocampus. To solve this problem, firstly, We selected region of interest from an experiment image, subtracted a original image from the negative image of the original image, enhanced contrast, and applied anisotropic diffusion filtering and gaussian filtering as preprocessing. Finally, We performed an image segmentation using two level set methods. Through a variety of approaches for the validation of proposed hippocampus segmentation method, We confirmed that our proposed method improved the rate and accuracy of the segmentation. Consequently, the proposed method is suitable for segmentation of the area which has similar features with the hippocampus. We believe that our method has great potential if successfully combined with other research findings.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.301-308
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• 2009

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of FDG-PET/CT as follow up imaging tool in patients with endometrial cancer after therapy. Material and Methods: One hundred one patients with endometrial cancer who underwent FDG PET/CT after the treatment of this disease were included in this study population (25-79 yr old, Mean age 50.6 yr old) and all these patients also performed various laboratory and imaging studies such as serum tumor marker, CT or MRI. The lesions having increased focal FDG uptake were classified into benign, equivocal, and malignant one according to their pattern and activity. Tumor recurrence was confirmed by histopathological results and other clinical and imaging data. Results: Among the 19 patients with 30 malignant or equivocal hot uptakes, 11 of 14 patients supposed to be malignant finding in PET/CT were proved to be tumor recurrence, while one of 5 patients with equivocal lesions were recurred malignancy, Two false negative cases were turned out to be peritoneal carcinomatosis, Estimated sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of PET/CT for diagnosis of recurrence in endometrial carcinoma after treatment were 86 %, 92 % and 91 %, respectively. Positive and negative predictive values in the same issue were 63% and 98%, respectively. Conclusion: FDG-PET/CT is useful for regular work up of endometrial carcinoma after the treatment because of its high negative predictive value as well as high sensitivity and specificity.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.490-496
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• 1998

Purpose: We evaluated brain perfusion SPECT findings of MELAS syndrome and mitochondrial myopathy in correlation with MR imaging in search of specific imaging features. Materials and Methods: Subjects were five patients (four females and one male; age range, 1 to 25 year) who presented with repeated stroke-like episodes, seizures or developmental delay or asymptomatic but had elevated lactic acid in CSF and serum. Conventional non-contrast MR imaging and Tc-99m-ethyl cysteinate dimer (ECD) brain perfusion SPECT were Performed and imaging features were analyzed. Results: MRI demonstrated increased T2 signal intensities in the affected areas of gray and white matters mainly in the parietal (4/5) and occipital lobes (4/5) and in the basal ganglia (1/5), which were not restricted to a specific vascular territory. SPECT demonstrated decreased perfusion in the corresponding regions of MRI lesions. In addition, there were perfusion defects in parietal (1 patient), temporal (2), and frontal (1) lobes and basal ganglia (1) and thalami (2). In a patient with mitochondrial myopathy who had normal MRI, decreased perfusion was noted in left parietal area and bilateral thalami. Conclusion: Tc-99m ECD SPECT imaging in patients with MELAS syndrome and mitochondrial myopathy showed hypoperfusion of parieto-occipital cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus and temporal cortex, which were not restricted to a specific vascular territory. There were no specific imaging features on SPECT. The significance of abnormal perfusion on SPECT without corresponding MR abnormalities needs to be evaluated further in larger number of patients.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.165-172
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• 2007

Background: The pathogenesis of lung cancer includes the accumulation of multiple genetic abnormalities. The CREB-binding protein(CBP) is one of several transcriptional co-activators among various sequence-specific DNA-binding transcription factors. CBP is involved in a wide range of cellular activities, such as DNA repair, cell growth, differentiation, and apoptosis that are suspected of contributing to tumorigenesis. The goal of this study was to evaluate CBP expression in a series of human lung tissues containing normal epithelium, premalignant lesions(hyperplasia and dysplasia) and squamous cell carcinomas. Materials and Methods: Immunohistochemical staining was performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections by use of a monoclonal anti-CBP antibody. CBP expression was compared in samples from 120 patients with premalignant and malignant histological types including 20 metaplastic specimens, 40 dysplastic specimens, and 60 squamous cell carcinomas in the lung. Results: CBP expression was seen in 35% (7/20) of the metaplastic specimens. 65% (26/40) of the dysplastic specimens, and 70% (42/60) of the squamous cell carcinomas (p<0.05). According to celluar atypism, CBP expression was 50% (10/20) of the low-grade dysplastic specimens and 80% (16/20) of the high-grade dysplastic specimens(p <0.01). By cellular differentiation, CBP expression was seen in 95% (19/20) of the well differentiated squamous cell carcinomas, 85% (17/20) of the moderately differentiated carcinomas and 30% (6/20) of the poorly differentiated lesions (p <0.05). Conclusion: These results suggest that CBP may have an important role in malignant transformation of precancerous lung lesions and may be a marker for malignancy.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.172-180
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• 2007

Among the nuclear medicine imaging methods available today, $H_2^{15}O-PET$ is most widely used by cognitive neuroscientists to examine regional brain function via the measurement of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). The short half-life of the radioactively labeled probe, $^{15}O$, often allows repeated measures from the same subjects in many different task conditions. $H_2^{15}O-$ PET, however, has technical limitations relative to other methods of functional neuroimaging, e.g., fMRI, including relatively poor time and spatial resolutions, and, frequently, insufficient statistical power for analysis of individual subjects. However, recent technical developments, such as the 3-D acquisition method provide relatively good image quality with a smaller radioactive dosage, which in turn results in more PET scans from each individual, thus providing sufficient statistical power for the analysis of individual subject's data. Furthermore, the noise free scanner environment $H_2^{15}O$ PET, along with discrete acquisition of data for each task condition, are important advantages of PET over other functional imaging methods regarding studying state-dependent changes in brain activity. This review presents both the limitations and advantages of $^{15}O-PET$, and outlines the design of efficient PET protocols, using examples of recent PET studies both in the normal healthy population, and in the clinical population.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.240-256
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• 1997

Purpose: To evaluate the hepatitis B vaccination program which has been conducted since 1980, Korea. Methods: This study was carry out self reported questionnaire and serologic test covering 2,072 elementary school students who were born between 1980 and 1987, selected by cluster sampling. The HBV serologic markers (HBsAg, Anti-HBs and Anti-HBc) were tested by radioimmunoassay (RIA). The contents of questionnaire include demographic data of students and parents, vaccination status, vaccination frequency, vaccination age, past history of mother's HBV test. Results: 1) The HBsAg positive rates by sex showed 3.7% for male and 2.7% for female, representing an average rate of 3.4%. The HBsAg positive rates by age group showed 5.6% for 13 years and l.5% for 6 years, representing a tendency of lowering rate as ages being younger. 2) The pre-natal HBV test rate was 10.2%, while post-natal HBV test rate was 42.5%. The test showed that the parents' educational level being higher than others, the pre- and post-natal HBV test showed higher rates. In case the fathers occupation being office worker, the post-natal HBV test showed a higher rate compared with other occupation. 3) Overall vaccination rate was 82.6%, complete vaccination rate 69.8%, booster injection rate 42.8%. The vaccination rate, complete vaccination rate and booster injection rate increased as the age being younger. If the educational level of parents were higher, the vaccination rate, complete vaccination rate and booster injection rate showed higher rates. Younger students showed younger vaccination age, and higher educational background of family showed younger vaccination ages. 4. With regard to positive rate of HBV markers by vaccination age, HBsAg and Anti-HBc positive rate showed higher degrees in the following order; preschool age (1-6 years), school age (6-13 years) and infancy (0-1 year). Anti-HBs positive rate was increased as the frequency of vaccination increased. Five years after initial complete vaccination, minimum protective rate was lowest, 69.6%.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.68-73
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• 1996

Stem length, main root length and main root diameter showed rapid increasement in two-years-old and three-years-old peony. And there after, the increasement was almost finished. Occurrence of disease was increasing every cultivated year, especially the development of leaf spot was most serious. In propagation by root dividing method, the radix yield (kg/10a) was increasing every cultivated year. However, the difference of radix yield at four and five-years-old peony were not significant. The radix yield of four-years-old peony was higher 26% than three-years-old one. As cultivated year goes by, content of paeoniflorin was increasing then the content was highest at four-years-old peony (4.06%). In 1995, the content, had no certain tendency, was highest at three-years-old peony (3.14%). At hot air drying, browing of peony radix was increasing every cultivated year. If we consider radix yield and color, three-years-old peony was proper object of harvesting.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.252-256
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• 2005

Purpose: Thyroglobulin (Tg) is a valuable and sensitive tool as a marker for diagnosis and follow-up for several thyroid disorders, especially, in the follow-up of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). Often, clinical decisions rely entirely on the serum Tg concentration. But the Tg assay is one of the most challenging laboratory measurements to perform accurately owing to antithyroglobulin antibody (Anti-Tg). In this study, we have compared the degree of Anti-Tg effects on the measurement of Tg between availale Tg measuring kits. Materials and Methods: Measurement of Tg levels for standard Tg solution was performed with two different kits commercially available (A/B kits) using immunoradiometric assay technique either with absence or presence of three different concentrations of Anti-Tg. Measurement of Tg for patient's serum was also performed with the same kits. Patient's serum samples were prepared with mixtures of a serum containing high Tg levels and a serum containg high Anti-Tg concentrations. Results: In the measurements of standard Tg solution, presence of Anti-Tg resulted in falsely lower Tg level by both A and B kits. Degree of Tg underestimation by h kit was more prominent than B kit. The degree of underestimation by B kit was trivial therefore clinically insignificant, but statistically significant. Addition of Anti-Tg to patient serum resulted in falsely lower Tg levels with only A kit. Conclusion: Tg level could be underestimated in the presence of anti-Tg. Anti-Tg effect on Tg measurement was variable according to assay kit used. Therefore, accuracy test must be performed for individual Tg-assay kit.