Analyses of the indispensible Indices in Evaluating Gamma Knife Radiosurgery Treatment Plans (감마나이프 방사선수술 치료계획의 평가에 필수불가결한 지표들의 분석)
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- Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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- v.11 no.5
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- pp.303-312
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- 2017
The central goal of Gamma Knife radiosurgery(GKRS) is to maximize the conformity of the prescription isodose surface, and to minimize the radiation effect of the normal tissue surrounding the target volume. There are the various kinds of indices related with the quality of treatment plans such as conformity index, coverage, selectivity, beam-on time, gradient index(GI), and conformity/gradient index(CGI). As the best treatment plan evaluation tool, we must check by all means conformity index, GI, and CGI among them. Specially, GI and CGI related with complication of healthy normal tissue is more indispensible than conformity index. Then author calculated and statistically analysed CGI, the newly defined conformity/gradient index as well as GI being applied widely using the treatment planning system Leksell GammaPlan(LGP) and the verification method Variable Ellipsoid Modeling Technique(VEMT). In the study 10 patients with intracranial lesion treated by GKRS were included. Author computed the indices from LGP and VEMT requiring only four parameters: the prescribed isodose volume, the volume with dose > 30%, the target volume, and the volume of half the prescription isodose. All data were analyzed by paired t-test, which is statistical method used to compare two different measurement techniques. No statistical significance in GI at 10 cases was observed between LGP and VEMT. Differences in GI ranged from -0.14 to 0.01. The newly defined gradient index calculated by two methods LGP and VEMT was not statistically significant either. Author did not find out the statistical difference for the prescribed isodose volume between LGP and VEMT. CGI as the evaluation index for determining the best treatment plan is not significant statistically also. Differences in CGI ranged from -4 to 3. Similarly newly defined Conformity/Gradient index for GKRS was also estimated as the metric for the evaluation of the treatment plans through statistical analysis. Statistical analyses demonstrated that VEMT was in excellent agreement with LGP when considering GI, new gradient index, CGI, and new CGI for evaluating the best plans of GKRS. Due to the application of the fast and easy evaluation tool through LGP and VEMT author hopes CGI and newly defined CGI as well as gradient indices will be widely used.
In the developed countries, traffic noise is one of most serious problems faced by people's lives. So the importance of the traffic noise is quite well recognized by the infrastructure planners as well as the people. The traffic noise is valued in monetary terms in some countries and it is reflected in estimating the net present value or benefit/cost ratio. On the contrary, the effects of traffic noise are not reflected in the assessment of infrastructure in most cases in Korea. However, as the income level has been increasing, more people have been becoming to put more importance on their living conditions. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the value of traffic noise in the Seoul metropolitan area. The housing price were surveyed to use the quasi-hedonic price technique. By this way, two housing prices at the same floor level in different 128 complexes in the Seoul metropolitan area were surveyed. the actual traffic noise level was also measured. The differences of housing prices and noise levels were analyzed using the various types of regression models. The value is quite different by size of house. The value of large house is higher than that of small house. Since the income level of people in large house is higher than that in small house. it might be said that value of traffic noise for high income people is higher than that for low income people. Moreover, the increase of 1dB(A) noise affects the house price by about 0.3% in Seoul metropolitan area.
The authors developed 28 needs assessment tools for integrated assessment centered on needs, which is the core element in care management for the elderly in home. Also, the authors collected the assessment data of 676 elderly persons in home from 120 centers under the Korea Association of Senior Welfare Centers by using the needs assessment tools, and finally developed needs extraction algorithm through decision tree analysis in data mining to identify their actual needs and provide social welfare service suitable for such needs. The needs extraction algorithm for 28 needs of the elderly in home are summarized in