• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.295-300
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• 2018

Human sparganosis was diagnosed by morphological and genetic analyses in Korea. The complete mitochondrial genomes of Spirometra erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens isolated in Korea have been recorded. Present study was performed to provide information to diagnose the etiologic agent of sparganosis by multiplex PCR using mitochondrial genome sequences of S. erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens. In an effort to examine the differential diagnosis of spirometrid tapeworms, multiplex PCR assays were performed on plerocercoid larvae of S. erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens. The PCR products obtained using species-specific primers were positively detected in all PCR assays on mixture of S. erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens DNA. S. erinaceieuropaei-specific bands (239 bp and 401 bp) were obtained from all PCR assays using a mixture of S. erinaceieuropaei-specific primers (Se/Sd-1800F and Se-2018R; Se/Sd-7955F and Se-8356R) and S. erinaceieuropaei template DNA. S. decipiens-specific bands (540 bp and 644 bp) were also detected in all PCR assays containing mixtures of S. decipiens-specific primers (Se/Sd-1800F and Sd-2317R; Se/Sd-7955F and Sd-8567R) and S. decipiens template DNA. Sequence analyses on these species-specific bands revealed 100% sequence identity with homologous regions of the mtDNA sequences of S. erinaceieuropaei and S. decipiens. The multiplex PCR assay was useful for differential diagnosis of human sparganosis by detecting different sizes in species-specific bands.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.111-117
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• 2017

Objectives: Periapical lesions, including periapical cyst (PC), periapical granuloma (PG), and periapical abscess (PA), are frequently affected by chemical/physical damage during root canal treatment or severe bacterial infection, and thus, the differential diagnosis of periapical lesions may be difficult due to the presence of severe inflammatory reaction. The aim of this study was to make differential diagnosis among PC, PG, and PA under polarizing microscope. Materials and Methods: The collagen birefringence patterns of 319 cases of PC (n = 122), PG (n = 158), and PA (n = 39) obtained using a polarizing microscope were compared. In addition, 6 cases of periodontal fibroma (PF) were used as positive controls. Results: Collagen birefringence was condensed with a thick, linear band-like pattern in PC, but was short and irregularly scattered in PG, and scarce or absent in PA. PF showed intense collagen birefringence with a short, palisading pattern but no continuous band-like pattern. The linear band-like birefringence in PC was ascribed to pre-existing expansile tensile stress of the cyst wall. Conclusions: In this study all PCs (n = 122) were distinguishable from PGs and PAs by their characteristic birefringence, despite the absence of lining epithelium (n = 20). Therefore, the authors suggest that the presence of linear band-like collagen birefringence of the cyst wall aids the diagnostic differentiation of PC from PG and PA.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.134-143
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• 2011

The selection of meaningful clinical tests and its reference values from a high-dimensional clinical data with imbalanced class distribution, one class is represented by a large number of examples while the other is represented by only a few, is an important issue for differential diagnosis between similar diseases, but difficult. For this purpose, this study introduces methods based on the concepts of both discernibility matrix and function in rough set theory (RST) with two discretization approaches, equal width and frequency discretization. Here these discretization approaches are used to define the reference values for clinical tests, and the discernibility matrix and function are used to extract a subset of significant clinical tests from the translated nominal attribute values. To show its applicability in the differential diagnosis problem, we have applied it to extract the significant clinical tests and its reference values between normal (N = 351) and abnormal group (N = 101) with either cholecystitis or cholelithiasis disease. In addition, we investigated not only the selected significant clinical tests and the variations of its reference values, but also the average predictive accuracies on four evaluation criteria, i.e., accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and geometric mean, during l0-fold cross validation. From the experimental results, we confirmed that two discretization approaches based rough set approximation methods with relative frequency give better results than those with absolute frequency, in the evaluation criteria (i.e., average geometric mean). Thus it shows that the prediction model using relative frequency can be used effectively in classification and prediction problems of the clinical data with imbalanced class distribution.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.61 no.5
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• pp.160-166
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• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to analyse laboratory values according to fever duration, and evaluate the relationship across these values during the acute phase of Kawasaki disease (KD) to aid in the early diagnosis for early-presenting KD and incomplete KD patients. Methods: Clinical and laboratory data of patients with KD (n=615) were evaluated according to duration of fever at presentation, and were compared between patients with and without coronary artery lesions (CALs). For evaluation of the relationships across laboratory indices, patients with a fever duration of 5 days or 6 days were used (n=204). Results: The mean fever duration was $6.6{\pm}2.3days$, and the proportions of patients with CALs was 19.3% (n=114). C-reactive proteins (CRPs) and neutrophil differential values were highest and hemoglobin, albumin, and lymphocyte differential values were lowest in the 6-day group. Patients with CALs had longer total fever duration, higher CRP and neutrophil differential values and lower hemoglobin and albumin values compared to patients without CALs. CRP, albumin, neutrophil differential, and hemoglobin values at the peak inflammation stage of KD showed positive or negative correlations each other. Conclusion: The severity of systemic inflammation in KD was reflected in the laboratory values including CRP, neutrophil differential, albumin, and hemoglobin. Observing changes in these laboratory parameters by repeated examinations prior to the peak of inflammation in acute KD may aid in diagnosis of early-presenting KD patients.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.19-33
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• 2005

Tremor is a main factor of parkinsonism. Voice tremor may be the first, later or the only symptom of a neurological disease and its frequency, amplitude, and regularity may differ among the diseases of different neural subsystems. Differential diagnosis between idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) has been difficult. This study included three groups: (1) 6 IPD patients; (2) 6 MSA patients; and (3) 20 ageand sex-matched normal controls. The MDVP (Multidimensional Voice Program) was used to analyze the sustained /a/phonation. The results were as follows: (1) frequency perturbation parameters (jitter, sPPQ, Vf0) and FTRI of tremor parameter of two patient groups were statistically different from those of the controls (p < .01); (2) measures were higher in short-term and long-term f0 and amplitude perturbation in MSA than IPD; (3) however, any acoustic parameters between IPD and MSA were not statistically different; except for the rate of frequency tremor, 4$\sim$5 Hz in IPD, 5$\sim$11 Hz in MSA and (4) the pattern of regularity for voice tremor through histogram indicated that amplitude of IPD was irregular while both f0 and amplitude of MSA were irregular. In conclusion, F0, rate of frequency tremor, and pattern of f0 regularity may be predictors for differential diagnosis. These findings might signify that voice tremor of parkinsonism was resulted from modulation of f0.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1269-1274
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• 2014

Breast tubular adenomas are rare benign breast tumors and detailed descriptions of their sonographic appearance are necessary for differential diagnosis from fibroadenomas or breast cancers. This study investigated twenty-one histology-proved tubular adenomas in 17 patients and also included 48 fibroadenomas in 35 patients as a control group. There was no significant difference between the two groups with clinical presentation, which was age, tumor location, tumor number (p>0.05). Statistic analysis showed three significant factors in the differential diagnosis of tubular adenomas and fibroadenomas, including macro-lobulation (p=0.01), "tiny branch like" patterns (p=0.001) and vascularity (p=0.02). Other ultrasonographic features such as echogenicity, border, uniformity of echotexture, posterior acoustic enhancement, lateral wall shadowing were of no clinical significance (p>0.05). Calcifications were seen in three tubular adenomas which were different from those of carcinomas. Although tubular adenomas have some typical characteristics on sonography, surgery and core needle biopsy are still needed for complex cases to exclude progress to malignancy.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.241-254
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a radiometric analysis of radicular cysts and periapical granulomas is useful in the differential diagnosis. In this experiment, twenty-nine periapical radiographs of the radicular cyst and those periapical granuloma were used. The periapical radiography was taken by intraoral paralleling device. The X-ray film was digitized and digitally filtered to reduce film-grain noise. We estimated density difference of the inner/outer area, roundness or circularity, bone profile or scan line of the margin and cumulative percentage frequency curve of radicular cyst & periapical granuloma. The obtained results were as follows; 1. The differences in density between ROIs of inner and outer area of radicular cysts were smaller than those of periapical granulomas. 2. The equivalent circular diameter was over 6.3mm, there was significant difference between periapical cyst and periapical granuloma. 3. In differential diagnosis of radicular cyst and periapical granuloma using bone profile. sensitivity. specificity and accuracy were considerably high(0.83. 0.86. 0.86) respectively. 4. Cumulative percentage frequency curve of the radicular cyst was closer to the pseudo-pixel value of 50 than average curve, whereas periapical granuloma was closer to that of 0. Hence we conclude that digital radiometric features might be useful in the differential diagnosis between radicular cyst and periapical granuloma.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.40 no.7 s.398
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• pp.542-547
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• 2002

This study was aimed to help diagnose the vertical root fractures in endodontically and in nonendodontically treated teeth. This was a study about mine teeth with a vertical root fractures. Four cases were nonendodontically treated teeth and five cases were endodontically treated teeth. A collection of information including past dental history, periodontal probing, and X-ray was gathered on each case. One of the endodontic cases had no periodontal pocket depth and was in acute pain. It was confusing to find whether causes were because of endodontic failure or vertical root fractures. Most of the vertical root fractures were found in patients aged between 50 and 60. Vertical root fractures were found in the molar and premolar of maxillary and mandibular teeth. The second molars repecially, which had C shaped roots had vertical root fractures with apical propagation type. The apical propagation type means that vertical root fracture initiates in root apex and propagate to coronal root. The teeth with vertical root fractures of the apical propagation type, which was in acute pain, were very difficult in differential diagnosis of periodontal lesion and endodontic failure. Therefore, the dental history was very important to make a differential diagnosis. Past pain history repeated uncomfortable symptoms in bite was a key of differential diagnosis.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.581-597
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• 2022

Left ventricular (LV) wall thickening, or LV hypertrophy (LVH), is common and occurs in diverse conditions including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), hypertensive heart disease, aortic valve stenosis, lysosomal storage disorders, cardiac amyloidosis, mitochondrial cardiomyopathy, sarcoidosis and athlete's heart. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging provides various tissue contrasts and characteristics that reflect histological changes in the myocardium, such as cellular hypertrophy, cardiomyocyte disarray, interstitial fibrosis, extracellular accumulation of insoluble proteins, intracellular accumulation of fat, and intracellular vacuolar changes. Therefore, CMR imaging may be beneficial in establishing a differential diagnosis of LVH. Although various diseases share LV wall thickening as a common feature, the histologic changes that underscore each disease are distinct. This review focuses on CMR multiparametric myocardial analysis, which may provide clues for the differentiation of thickened myocardium based on the histologic features of HCM and its phenocopies.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the differences between clinical and quantitative sensory testing (QST) results among persistent idiopathic dentoalveolar pain (PIDP), inflammatory dental pain, and control group subjects to identify discriminative clinical features for differential diagnosis. Methods: Thirty-three patients (5 PIDP-a without surgical procedures 10 PIDP-b with surgical procedures, 8 dental pain patients, and 10 controls) were evaluated for clinical features and QST results. Cold pain threshold, heat pain threshold, mechanical pain threshold (MPT), mechanical pain sensitivity, and pressure pain threshold (PPT) were performed. Psychological factors were assessed using Symptom Checklist-90-Revision (SCL-90-R) and a chart review was conducted to evaluate additional discriminative clinical features such as pain quality and treatment prognosis. Results: The dental pain group had lower PPT than the PIDP-b and the control group. The PIDP-a group showed higher MPT and PPT than the PIDP-b and dental pain group but the difference was not statistically significant. Differences in SCL-90-R SOM (Somatization), O-C (obsessive-compulsive), ANX (anxiety), and PSY (Psychoticism) values were statistically significant among groups. PIDP-a and PIDP-b groups showed remaining symptoms after treatment and the pain tended to spread widely, whereas, in toothache patients, symptoms disappeared after treatment. However, factors that confound the diagnosis, such as an increase in pain during chewing and a decrease in the pain threshold at the affected site, could also be identified. Conclusions: PIDP and dental pain groups have distinct clinical symptoms, but there are also factors that cause confusing in diagnosis. Therefore, various clinical examination results should be carefully reviewed and comprehensively evaluated in the differential diagnosis process.