• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.159-164
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• 2009

Purpose: The automatic notification system for alarm values on blood tests conducted by this hospital is designed to immediately inform the attending physician of the result of a blood test, to help the relevant patient to promptly receive proper treatment, and furthermore, to reduce the likelihood of a fatal influence to the patient. From 2004, the clinical pathology department of this hospital has been operating an automatic notification system for blood tests, in relation to the items of WBC, Hb, Plt, PB cell morphology, Malaria, PT, aPTT, BT, fibrinogen, Ca, K, Na, Cl, Mg, Glucose, Ketone, Digoxin, PKU, Homocystinuria, 17-OHP, Neonatal TSH, and Galactosemia. Recently, the blood test room of the nuclear medicine department has been operating an automatic notification system for the alarm values of a blood test, in relation to three items of TSH, FT4, and 17-${\alpha}$-OH-PGR, and the details of its operation will be described here. Materials and Methods: The subjects were newborn babies that were receiving TSH, FT4, and $17{\alpha}$-OH-PGR prescriptions from February $19^{th}$ to May $11^{st}$, 2009, and who met with the following criteria: N2340 Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone: >$10{\mu}IU/mL$ (Reference value: 0.4~5.0). N2360 Free-Thyroxine: <$0.8{\mu}g/dL$ (Reference value: 0.8~1.9), N2444 $17{\alpha}$-OH-Progesterone: >$30\;{\mu}g/mL$ (Reference value: Male (0.6~3.42), Female follicular phase (0.19~1.8). The automatic notification system was operated by entering test items, relevant treatment departments, and standard values for reporting alarm values into the OCS program, and then transmitting results that met with the input conditions to the PDAs of the prescription and the attending physician by SMS. Results: Reporting an alarm value of the nuclear medicine blood test, which can have a fatal influence on the lives of patients, will help cure patients, improve the quality of the test, and furthermore, will increase the patient's satisfaction with the prescription and treatment of the test.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.225-232
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• 2014

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the surface and superficial dose for patients requiring postmastectomy radiation therapy(PMRT) with different treatment techniques. Materials and Methods : Computed tomography images were acquired for the phantom(I'mRT, IBA) consisting of tissue equivalent material. Hypothetical chestwall and lung were outlined and modified. Five treatment techniques(Wedged Tangential; WT, 4-field IMRT, 7-field IMRT, TOMO DIRECT, TOMO HELICAL) were evaluated using only 6MV photon beam. GafChromic EBT3 film was used for dose measurements at the surface and superficial dose. Surface dose profiles around the phantom were obtained for each treatment technique. For superficial dose measurements, film were used inside the phantom and analyzed superficial region for depth from 1-6mm. Results : TOMO DIRECT showed the highest surface dose by 47~70% of prescribed dose, while 7-field IMRT showed the lowest by 35~46% of prescribed dose. For the WT, 4-field IMRT and 7-field IMRT, superficial dose were measured over 60%, 70%, and 80% for 1mm, 2mm, and 5mm depth, respectively. In case of TOMO DIRECT and TOMO HELICAL, over 75%, 80%, and 90% of prescribed dose was measured, respectively. Surface and superficial dose range were uniform in overall chestwall for the 7-field IMRT and TOMO HELICAL. In contrast, Because of the dose enhancement effect with oblique incidence, The dose was gradually increased toward the obliquely tangential angle for the WT and TOMO DIRECT. Conclusion : For PMRT, TOMO DIRECT and TOMO HELICAL deliver the higher surface and superficial doses than treatment techniques based linear accelerator. It showed adequate dose(over 75% of prescribed dose) at 1mm depth in skin region.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.271-277
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• 2013

In prostate IMRT planning, the planning target volume (PTV), extended from a clinical target volume (CTV), often contains an overlap air volume from the rectum, which poses a problem inoptimization and prescription. This study was aimed to establish a planning method for such a case. There can be three options in which volume should be considered the target during optimization process; PTV including the air volume of air density ('airOpt'), PTV including the air volume of density value one, mimicking the tissue material ('density1Opt'), and PTV excluding the air volume ('noAirOpt'). Using 10 MV photon beams, seven field IMRT plans for each target were created with the same parameter condition. For these three cases, DVHs for the PTV, bladder and the rectum were compared. Also, the dose coverage for the CTV and the shifted CTV were evaluated in which the shifted CTV was a copied and translated virtual CTV toward the rectum inside the PTV, thus occupying the initial position of the overlap air volume, simulating the worst condition for the dose coverage in the target. Among the three options, only density1Opt plan gave clinically acceptable result in terms of target coverage and maximum dose. The airOpt plan gave exceedingly higher dose and excessive dose coverage for the target volume whereas noAirOpt plan gave underdose for the shifted CTV. Therefore, for prostate IMRT plan, having an air region in the PTV, density modification of the included air to the value of one, is suggested, prior to optimization and prescription for the PTV. This idea can be equally applied to any cases including the head and neck cancer with the PTV having the overlapped air region. Further study is being under process.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.613-620
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• 2017

Planning dose must be delivered accurately for radiation therapy. Also, It must be needed accurately setup. However, patient positioning images were need for accuracy setup. Then patient positioning images is followed by additional exposure to radiation. For 45 points in the phantom, we measured the doses for 6 MV and 10 MV photon beams, OBI(On Board Imager) and CBCT(Conebeam Computed Tomography) using OSLD(Optically Stimulated Luminescent Dosimeter). We compared the differences in the cases where posture confirmation imaging at each point was added to the treatment dose. Also, we tried to propose a photography cycle that satisfies the 5% recommended by AAPM(The American Association of Physicists in Medicine). As a result, a maximum of 98.6 cGy was obtained at a minimum of 45.27 cGy at the 6 MV, a maximum of 99.66 cGy at a minimum of 53.34 cGy at the 10 MV, a maximum of 2.64 cGy at the minimum of 0.19 cGy for the OBI and a maximum of 17.18 cGy at the minimum of 0.54 cGy for the CBCT.The ratio of the radiation dose to the treatment dose is 3.49% in the case of 2D imaging and the maximum is 22.65% in the case of 3D imaging. Therefore, tolerance of 2D image is 1 exposure per day, and 3D image is 1 exposure per week. And it is need to calculation of separate in the parallelism at additional study.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.477-484
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• 2016

This study was carried out to determine the factors affecting the trend and usage of Magnetic Resonance Imaging before and after the implementation of National Health Insurance. The research materials were the MRI Execution Data, Health Insurance Review Data, and Medical Expenses in the Health Insurance Data from a General Hospital located in Dae-jeon Metropolitan City from 2004 to 2013. The subjects of analysis were 3,754 people in 2004 (prior to the implementation of Health Insurance), and 4,107-8,603 people from 2005-2013(after the implementation of Health Insurance). In terms of analysis, a comparison of the use of MRI before and after implementation of the Health Insurance of User Characteristics and Provider Characteristics were taken as $X^2$, while factor analysis for the elements that affect MRI usage was carried out by Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis. According to the results of this study, the level of use decreased temporarily in the initial application stages of the national health insurance, but it soon increased. In particular, the inspection rates for women, the head and neck, those not subject to the application of the national health insurance, internal medicine, and the inpatients increased. The application of the national health insurance for MRI influenced the increasing inspection rates (P<.0001). As the inspection rate for the MRI increased, it is important to expand the application of the national health insurance to reduce the national health expenditure.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.25-48
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• 2014

Increased frequency of climate extremes is another face of climate change confronted by humans, resulting in catastrophic losses in agriculture. While climate extremes take place on many scales, impacts are experienced locally and mitigation tools are a function of local conditions. To address this, agrometeorological early warning systems must be place and location based, incorporating the climate, crop and land attributes at the appropriate scale. Existing services often lack site-specific information on adverse weather and countermeasures relevant to farming activities. Warnings on chronic long term effects of adverse weather or combined effects of two or more weather elements are seldom provided, either. This lecture discusses a field-specific early warning system implemented on a catchment scale agrometeorological service, by which volunteer farmers are provided with face-to-face disaster warnings along with relevant countermeasures. The products are based on core techniques such as scaling down of weather information to a field level and the crop specific risk assessment. Likelihood of a disaster is evaluated by the relative position of current risk on the standardized normal distribution from climatological normal year prepared for 840 catchments in South Korea. A validation study has begun with a 4-year plan for implementing an operational service in Seomjin River Basin, which accommodates over 60,000 farms and orchards. Diverse experiences obtained through this study will certainly be useful in planning and developing the nation-wide disaster early warning system for agricultural sector.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.106-113
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the variation of radiation dose distribution for liver tumor located in liver dome and for the interest organs(normal liver, kidney, stomach) with the pencil beam convolution (PBC) algorithm versus anisotropic Analyticalal algorithm (AAA) of the Varian Eclipse treatment planning system, The target volumes from 20 liver cancer patients were used to create treatment plans. Treatment plans for 10 patients were performed in Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) plan and others were performed in 3 Dimensional Conformal Radiation Therapy (3DCRT) plan. dose calculation was recalculated by AAA algorithm after dose calculation was performed by PBC algorithm for 20 patients. Plans were optimized to 100% of the PTV by the Prescription Isodose in Dose Calculation with the PBC algorithm. Plans were recalculated with the AAA, retaining identical beam arrangements, monitor units, field weighting and collimator condition. In this study, Total PTV was to be statistically significant (SRS: p=0.018, 3DCRT: p=0.006) between PBC and AAA algorithm. and in the case of PTV, ITV in liver dome, plans for 3DCRT were to be statistically significant respectively (p=0.013, p=0.024). normal liver and kidney were to be statistically significant (p=0.009, p=0.037). For the predictive index of dose variation, CVF ratio was to be statistically significant for PTV in the liver dome versus PTV (SRS r=0.684, 3DCRT r=0.732, p<0.01) and CVF ratio for Tumor size was to be statistically significant (SRS r=-0.193, p=0.017, 3DCRT r=0.237, p=0.023).

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.33
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• pp.89-97
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare and evaluate the dose change according to the gas volume variations in the rectum, which was not included in the treatment plan during radiation therapy for cervical cancer. Materials and methods: Static Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (S-IMRT) using a 9-field and Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) using 2 full-arcs were established with treatment planning system on Computed Tomography images of a human phantom. Random gas parameters were included in the Planning Target Volume(PTV) with a maximum change of 2.0 cm in increments of 0.5 cm. Then, the Conformity Index (CI), Homogeneity Index (HI) and PTV D_max for the target volume were calculated, and the minimum dose (D_min), mean dose (D_mean) and Maximum Dose (D_max) were calculated and compared for OAR(organs at risk). For statistical analysis, T-test was performed to obtain a p-value, where the significance level was set to 0.05. Result: The HI coefficients of determination(R²) of S-IMRT and VMAT were 0.9423 and 0.8223, respectively, indicating a relatively clear correlation, and PTV D_max was found to increase up to 2.8% as the volume of a given gas parameter increased. In case of OAR evaluation, the dose in the bladder did not change with gas volume while a significant dose difference of more than D_mean 700 cGy was confirmed in rectum using both treatment plans at gas volumes of 1.0 cm or more. In all values except for D_mean of bladder, p-value was less than 0.05, confirming a statistically significant difference. Conclusion: In the case of gas generation not considered in the reference treatment plan, as the amount of gas increased, the dose difference at PTV and the dose delivered to the rectum increased. Therefore, during radiation therapy, it is necessary to make efforts to minimize the dose transmission error caused by a large amount of gas volumes in the rectum. Further studies will be necessary to evaluate dose transmission by not only varying the gas volume but also where the gas was located in the treatment field.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.33
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• pp.145-153
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ovarian dose during radiation therapy for breast cancer in women of childbearing age through an experiment. The ovarian dose is evaluated by comparing and analyzing between the calculated dose in the treatment planning system according to the treatment technique and the measured dose using a thermoluminescence dosimeter (TLD). The clinical usefulness of lead (Pb) apron is investigated through dose analysis according to whether or not it is used. Materials and Methods: Rando humanoid phantom was used for measurement, and wedge filter radiation therapy, 3D conformal radiation therapy, and intensity modulated radiation therapy were used as treatment techniques. A treatment plan was established so that 95% of the prescribed dose could be delivered to the right breast of the Rando humanoid phantom 3D image obtained using the CT simulator. TLD was inserted into the surface and depth of the virtual ovary of the Rando hunmanoid phantom and irradiated with radiation. The measurement location was the center of treatment and the point moved 2 cm to the opposite breast from the center of the Rando hunmanoid phantom, 5cm, 10cm, 12.5cm, 15cm, 17.5cm, 20cm from the boundary of the right breast to the center of treatment and downward, and the surface and depth of the right ovary. Measurements were made at a total of 9 central points. In the dose comparison of treatment planning systems, two wedge filter treatment techniques, three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy, and intensity-modulated radiation therapy were established and compared. Treatments were compared, and dose measurements according to the use of lead apron were compared and analyzed in intensity-modulated radiation therapy. The measured value was calculated by averaging three TLD values for each point and converting using the TLD calibration value, which was calculated as the point dose mean value. In order to compare the treatment plan value with the actual measured value, the absolute dose value was measured and compared at each point (%Diff). Results: At Point A, the center of treatment, a maximum of 201.7cGy was obtained in the treatment planning system, and a maximum of 200.6cGy was obtained in the TLD. In all treatment planning systems, 0cGy was calculated from Point G, which is a point 17.5cm downward from the breast interface. As a result of TLD, a maximum of 2.6cGy was obtained at Point G, and a maximum of 0.9cGy was obtained at Point J, which is the ovarian dose, and the absolute dose was 0.3%~1.3%. The difference in dose according to the use of lead aprons was from a maximum of 2.1cGy to a minimum of 0.1cGy, and the %Diff value was 0.1%~1.1%. Conclusion: In the treatment planning system, the difference in dose according to the three treatment plans did not show a significant difference from 0.85% to 2.45%. In the ovary, the difference between the Rando humanoid phantom's treatment planning system and the actual measured dose was within 0.9%, and the actual measured dose was slightly higher. This did not accurately reflect the effect of scattered radiation in the treatment planning system, and it is thought that the dose of scattered radiation and the dose taken by CBCT with TLD inserted were reflected in the actual measurement. In dosimetry according to the with or without a lead apron, when a lead apron was used, the closer the distance from the treatment range, the more effective the shielding was. Although it is not clinically appropriate for pregnancy or artificial insemination during radiotherapy, the dose irradiated to the ovaries during treatment is not expected to significantly affect the reproductive function of women of childbearing age after radiotherapy. However, since women of childbearing age have constant anxiety, it is thought that psychological stability can be promoted by presenting the data from this study.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2001

This study was conducted to investigate the internal changes and the countermeasure for performance improvement by Separation of Prescribing and Dispensing Practice (SPDP) in Health Center. Data were collected from two sources: Performance report before and after SPDP of 25 Health Centers in Kyongsangbuk-do and 6 Health Centers in Daegu-City and self-administerd questionnaire survey of 221 officials at health center. The results of this study were summarized as follows: Twenty-four health centers(77.4%) of 31 health centers took convenience measures for medical treatment of citizens and convenience measures were getting map of pharmacy, improvement of health center interior, introduction of order communication system in order. After the SPDP in health centers, 19.4% of health centers increased doctors and 25.8% decreased pharmacists. 58.1% of health centers showed that number of medical treatments were decreased. 96.4%, 80.6% 80.6% 96.7% of health centers showed that number of prescriptions, total medical treatment expenses, amounts paid by the insureds and the expenses to purchase drugs, respectively, were decreased. More than fifty percent(54.2%) of health centers responded that the relative importance of health works increased compared to medical treatments after the SPDP, and number of patients decreased compared to those in before the SPDP. And there was a drastic reduction in number of prescriptions, total medical treatment expenses, amounts paid by insureds, the expenses to purchase drugs after the SPDP. Above fifty percent(57.6%) of officers at health center responded that the function of medical treatment should be reduced after the SPDP. Fields requested improvement in health centers were 'development of heath works contents'(62.4%), 'rearrangement of health center personnel'(51.6%), 'priority setting for health works'(48.4%), 'restructuring the organization'(36.2%), 'quality impro­vement for medical services'(32.1%), 'replaning the budgets'(23.1%) in order. And to better the image of health centers, health center officers replied that 'health information management'(60.7%), 'public relations for health center'(15.8%), 'kindness of health center officers'(15.3%) were necessary in order. Health center officers suggested that 'vaccination program', 'health promotion', 'maternal and children health', 'communicable disease management', 'community health planning' were relatively important works, in order, performed by health center after SPDP. In the future, medical services in health centers should be cut down with a momentum of the SPDP so that health centers might reestablish their functions and roles as public health organizations, but quality of medical services must be improved. Also health centers should pay attention to residents for improving health through 'vaccination program', 'health promotion', 'mother-children health', 'acute and chronic communicable disease management', 'community health planning', 'oral health', 'chronic degenerative disease management', etc. And there should be a differentiation of relative importance between health promotion services and medical treatment services by character of areas(metropolitan, city, county).