• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.653-658
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• 2006

Purpose : Because voiding cystourethrography(VCUG) is an invasive method, we studied whether VCUG could be postponed through evaluation of alternative non-invasive tests including renal ultrasonography and $^{99m}Tc$-DMSA renal scan. Methods : We reviewed the medical records of 175 patients initially diagnosed with febrile urinary tract infection during the one year period of 1999, and compared 3-tests : renal ultrasongraphy, $^{99m}Tc$-DMSA renal scan, and VCUG. Results : Renal ultrasonography didn't contribute to the prognostication of pyelonephritis(photopenic areas) or vesicoureteral reflux(VUR). Presentation of photopenic areas in $^{99m}Tc$-DMSA renal scan was related to VUR. If both findings of renal ultrasonography and $^{99m}Tc$-DMSA renal scans were normal, this condition was closely related to normal results in VCUG. And if both examinations were abnormal, the condition was closely related to VUR. But this state could not always guarantee the normal result from VCUG because of low sensitivity in finding VUR. Conclusion : In cases in which acute phyelonephritis is demonstrated by $^{99m}Tc$-DMSA renal scan, VCUG is required. In addition to this, if the conditions of hydronephrosis, vesicoureteral dilatation, increases of renal volume, and changes of echogenesity are shown by renal ultrasonography, VCUG should be performed. If a patient has difficulty undergoing VCUG, temporary postponement of VCUG can be taken into consideration, but only in cases where both examinations of renal ultrasonography and $^{99m}Tc$-DMSA renal scan are normal. Nevertheless, close observation is be advised even in this case.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2006

Purpose: Conventional chest X-ray and pulmonary function test cannot sensitively detect inhalation injury. Bronchoscopy is known to be the gold standard but it is invasive method. We evaluated whether lung inhalation/perfusion scans can sensitively detect inhalation injury of fire victims. Materials and Methods: Nineteen patients (male 9, female 10, mean age 31.6 yr) of fire victims were enrolled in this study. Inhalation lung scan was performed 2 days later after inhalation injury with $^{99m}Tc$-technegas. Perfusion lung scan was performed 4 days later with $^{99m}Tc$- MAA (macroaggregated albumin). Follow up lung scans were performed 16 and 18 days later for each. Chest X-ray was performed in all patients and bronchoscopy was performed in 17 of 19 patients at the same period. Pulmonary function test was performed in 9 patients. Results: Four of 19 patients showed inhalation and perfusion defects and one showed inhalation defect but, normal perfusion scan findings. These five patients with abnormal scan findings showed abnormal bronchoscopic findings and severe respiratory symptoms. On chest X-ray, 2 of them had pulmonary tuberculosis and one of them showed pulmonary congestion. FEV1 /FVC was abnormal in 3 patients. On the follow up scan, all patients with abnormal initial scan findings showed improved findings and they had improved clinical state. Conclusion: Inhalation/perfusion lung scans can detect inhalation burn injury noninvasively in early stage and may be useful in therapeutic decision making and follow up of patients.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.149-159
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• 2008

The purposes of this study are to analyze abnormal dilatation of the extrahepatic bile ducts by using transabdominal ultrasound, to confirm the existence of bile ducts diseases and their interrelationship, and for it to give a new theoretical basis for the technical access to extrahepatic bile ducts, upon which to analyze the ripple effects of the scan training. After teaching technical access process based on the new theory about extrahepatic bile duct to the thirty students who are studying ultrasonography, we allocated three hours per one student (30 mins ${\times}$ 6 times) to focus on the training of scanning skill. Training has been performed by one-to-one method. For evaluation, all the students have to perform the scans on (1) confluence of the right and left hepatic ducts (extrahepatic bile ducts and cystic duct), (2) the suprapancreatic bile duct, (3) the intrapancreatic bile duct, (4) intrapapilla Duct, based on the clearly divided concept. The existing training and methods have had low confidency about transabdominal ultrasonography of the extrahepatic bile duct and had limitation with which they could image only the suprapancreatic bile duct. The evaluation after finishing the train based on the new theory, however, all the students (30students) can access to (1) confluence of the right and left hepatic ducts(extrahepatic bile ducts and cystic duct), (2) the suprapancreatic bile duct objectively. 24 students can access to (3) the intrapancreatic bile duct and only one student can even make an image for (4) the intrapapilla Duct Though the evaluation on extrahepatic bile duct has to be performed with multi-sided method considering intrahepatic cause, bile duct cause and pathophysiological cause, only if we can image the extrahepatic bile duct to ampular of Vater objectively and confidently, we can greatly reduce invasive procedure such as ERCP, which is for the purpose of simple differential diagnosis and painful to the patients. Therefore if we concentrate on the scanning train based on the new theory to raise the confidency about ultrasonography, the effect will be doubled.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.679-684
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• 2023

Venous puncture is widely used to obtain blood samples for pathological examination. Because the invasive venipuncture method using a needle is repeatedly performed, the pain suffered by the patient increases, so our research team pre-developed a miniaturized near-infrared (NIR) imaging system in advance. To improve the image quality of the acquired NIR images, this study aims to model the non-local means (NLM) algorithm, which is well known to be efficient in noise reduction, and analyze its applicability in the system. The developed NIR imaging system is based on the principle that infrared rays pass through dichroic and long-pass filters and are detected by a CMOS sensor module. The proposed NLM algorithm is modeled based on the principle of replacing the pixel from which noise is to be removed with a value that reflects the distances between surrounding pixels. After acquiring an NIR image with a central wavelength of 850 nm, the NLM algorithm was applied to segment the final vein area through histogram equalization. As a result, the coefficient of variation of the NIR image of the vein using the NLM algorithm was 0.247 on average, which was an excellent result compared to conventional filtering methods. In addition, the dice similarity coefficient value of the NLM algorithm was improved by 62.91 and 9.40%, respectively, compared to the median filter and total variation methods. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the NLM algorithm can acquire accurate segmentation of veins acquired with a NIR imaging system.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 2011

Purpose: Ultrasonography (US) is widely used as a screening test in patients with abdominal pain (AP). We investigated the usefulness of US by a pediatrician in children with AP. Methods: We retrospectively analysed the medical records of children with AP who undertook US from December, 2008 to July, 2010. Results: A total of 628 patients (325 male, 303 female) were enrolled in this study. The mean age of patients was $8.08{\pm}4.61$ years. Duration of AP was acute in 427 and chronic in 201 patients. Localization of AP was diffuse (36.9%), periumbilical (24.4%), epigastric (21.0%), and right lower quadrant (8.1%). On the examination, there were no abnormal findings in 327 patients (52.1%). Abnormal ultrasonographic findings were mesenteric lymphadenitis (27.1%), intestinal mural thickening (10.0%), intussusception (3.0%), appendicitis (2.6%), choledochal cyst (1.6%), and pancreatitis (0.3%). We performed additional imaging studies such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 39 patients who showed obscure findings on the US. In 33 patients (84.6%), the same results were obtained from CT or MRI. Two cases of appendicitis, one case of pancreatitis and one case of Henoch-Sh$\ddot{o}$nlein purpura were diagnosed by the CT examination. However, there were two cases of appendicitis diagnosed by US thathad no evidence of appendicitis on the CT. Diagnostic accuracy of initial US in children with abdominal pain was 99.4%. Conclusion: US by a pediatrician as a screening test in children with AP provides a rapid and accurate diagnostic indication and has non-invasive and radiation-free advantages.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.589-596
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• 2003

Background : The solitary pulmonary nodule(SPN) presents a diagnostic dilemma to the physician and the patients in the our nation with high incidence of tuberculoma. We could not exclude whether the SPN was benign or malignant by the change of the size at chest radiograph and findings of chest CT. Recently, positron emission tomography(PET) have been tried as the differential diagnostic method of SPN. We evaluated the efficacy of PET for differentiating malignant from benign SPN and the relationship between standardized uptake values(SUV) of PET and serum glucose. Method : Between January 2001 and July 2002, sixty-one patients with pulmonary nodule were examined by the chest CT and PET. The SPN has been finally diagnosed by the transthorasic needle aspiration and biopsy, bronchoscopic biopsy, and open lung biopsy. Results : Forty eight patients had a malignant nodule(23 squamous cell lung carcinoma, 16 adenocarcinoma, 9 small cell lung cancer) and thirteen patients had a benign nodule(3 tuberculoma, 9 inflammatory granuloma, 1 cryptococcosis). The mean size of malignant and benign nodule was 40.6 mm and 20.0 mm, respectively. All malignant nodules showed a marked increase in 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake. Mean SUV of malignant was $9.52{\pm}5.20$ and benign nodule was $1.61{\pm}3.60$. There were false positive cases with an increase in 18-FDG uptake (2 tuberculoma, 1 inflammatory granuloma). The SUV of malignant nodule in diabetes patients has no difference in non diabetes patients($9.10{\pm}4.51$ vs $9.65{\pm}5.46$). The sensitivity and specificity of the PET scan for SPN were 100%, 77%, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 94% and 100%. Conclusion : PET scanning showed highly accurate result in differentiating the malignant and benign SPN. There were no significant differences between the SUV and serum glucose in the patients with lung cancer.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.397-404
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate the change of hamstring muscle relaxation and craniosacral reciprocal movement by using S. O. T. (sacrooccipital technique) categoryⅠ block-intervention process. 26 subjects with heel tension were randomly divided into two groups (EXP=13 and CON=13). This study carried out the category I block-intervention process on the experimental group and the false block-intervention process on the control group. Then, this study measured the sit-and-reach and sacral reciprocal movement of subjects before and after the intervention. The result values before and after the intervention were analyzed through ANCOVA by using SPSS PC Program (Ver. 20.0). In both investigations, the degree of hamstring muscle relaxation and the change of sacral reciprocal movement, there were statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control group as [F(1, 23)=7.73, p<0.5] and [F(1, 23)=7.07, p<.05] respectively. According to the results of this study, it is expected that S. O. T category I bllock-intervention technique will have positive effect on both hamstring muscle relaxation and craniosacral reciprocal movement.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.148-152
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• 2005

An intact female, 5-year-old, Pekingese, weighing 3.5kg with a history of a palpated abdominal mass was referred to Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, Seoul National University. In laboratory examination, there were no remarkable abnormalities. Radiographic findings included a left mid-abdominal mass with ill-defined margin, serosal detail loss of peritoneal space, non-uniform opacity of retroperitoneal space, and a radiopaque cystic calculus. On abdominal ultrasonography, a heterogeneous parenchymal mass with irregular contour in the left renal region was found. Computed tomographic findings showed a tumor embolus within the caudal vena cava and an invasion into mesentery, small bowel loops, spleen and pancreas around the large left renal mass. Unilateral nephroureterectomy was performed. Histopathologic examination of the resected mass confirmed the diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma. The dog died one day after surgery. Although ultrasonography could give diagnostic information about mass characteristics, computed tomography (CT) can provide key imaging features of mass characteristics.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.597-603
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• 1994

Background: Because of the power of HRCT to detect the minute changes in lung parenchyme and the advantage of noninvasiveness, it may be the ideal method of follow-up evaluation of the patients with diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. So the aim of the study is to find out whether the change of HRCT during the course of the disease can represent the change in symptom and pulmonary function test. Method: Thirteen patients with diagnosis of diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis who had more than two times of HRCT during the course of disease were studied. The extent of the disease in HRCT was measured at three levels using image analyzer. The ralationship between the percent change in the disease extent in HRCT, symptom score, and pulmonary function tests were analysed. Results: The change of disease extent in HRCT has good correlation with the change in dyspnea and diffusion capacity(r=0.716, p=0.0012). But there was no correlation between the change of HRCT and FVC or TLC. Also significant inverse correlation was noted between the change in dyspnea and diffusion capacity(r=-0.707, p=0.0047). Conclusion: These data suggest that HRCT may be a good method of follow-up in diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.71-78
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• 2003

Unilateral absence of a pulmonary artery (UAPA) is a rare congenital anomaly that is frequently associated with other cardiovascular anomalies first reported by Fraentzel in 1968. Most patients who have no associated cardiac anomalies have only minor or absent symptoms. We experienced a case of isolated UAPA in a young female presenting hemoptysis. The chest radiograph showed a small left lung volume and high resolutional CT of chest showed multiple subpleural nodules and centrilobular nodules in parenchyma. The video-assisted thoracoscopic biopsy revealed diffuse dilated vessels in visceral pleura. The pulmonary angiogram confirmed the absence of the left main pulmonary artery.