• Title/Summary/Keyword: Diagnostic tools

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A Review of Organ Dose Calculation Tools for Patients Undergoing Computed Tomography Scans

  • Lee, Choonsik
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.46 no.4
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    • pp.151-159
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    • 2021
  • Background: Computed tomography (CT) is one of the crucial diagnostic tools in modern medicine. However, careful monitoring of radiation dose for CT patients is essential since the procedure involves ionizing radiation, a known carcinogen. Materials and Methods: The most desirable CT dose descriptor for risk analysis is the organ absorbed dose. A variety of CT organ dose calculators currently available were reviewed in this article. Results and Discussion: Key common elements included in CT dose calculators were discussed and compared, such as computational human phantoms, CT scanner models, organ dose database, effective dose calculation methods, tube current modulation modeling, and user interface platforms. Conclusion: It is envisioned that more research needs to be conducted to more accurately map CT coverage on computational human phantoms, to automatically segment organs and tissues for patient-specific dose calculations, and to accurately estimate radiation dose in the cone beam computed tomography process during image-guided radiation therapy.

Development and validation of heuristics for usability improvements on web-based diagnostic assessment management system for primary-middle schoolers (초·중학생 대상 웹기반 진단평가관리시스템 사용성 개선을 위한 휴리스틱스 개발 및 검증)

  • Cha, Hyunjin;Hwang, YunJa
    • Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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    • v.21 no.6
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    • pp.675-690
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    • 2017
  • Preparing the 4th industrial revolution age, a diagnostic assessment management system which can collect nationwide data has been implemented and utilized for the development of the evidence-based educational policy. This study aims to develop heuristics to help to improve usability of such systems, which are utilized by primary and middle school community including teachers and students in the nationwide. To achieve the objective, previous studies related to the development of heuristics in the educational contexts as well as basic heuristics from Nielsen were reviewed, and usability problems of the web-based diagnostic-supplement system being currently utilized, as a sample system, were analyzed. Then, the first version of heuristics was developed. The developed heuristics were validated and revised through 2 rounds of the delphi methods with 15 experts. This study has an implication with preparing foundations on improving usability of such diagnostic assessment management system utilized by school community at the nationwide in educational contexts.

How Reliable Are Diagnostic Methods of Hirschsprung Disease? (히르슈슈프룽병의 진단법은 얼마나 신뢰할 만한가?)

  • Kim, Hanbaro;Kim, Dae Yeon;Kim, Seong Chul;Namgoong, Jung-Man;Hwang, Ji-Hee
    • Advances in pediatric surgery
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.33-37
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    • 2014
  • Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of the non-invasive diagnostic methods and rectal suction biopsy for the detection of Hirschsprung disease (HD). Methods: We reviewed diagnostic methods and results retrospectively in patients who underwent anorectal manometry, barium enema and rectal suction biopsy for the diagnosis of HD at Asan Medical Center from January 2000 to December 2012. Results: There were 97 patients (59 neonates and 38 infants) in the study period. The overall accuracy of anorectal manometry for the diagnosis of HD was 71.1% and its sensitivity was 51.4% (48.1% in neonate and 62.5% in infant, respectively) and its overall specificity was 82.3% (81.3% in neonate and 83.3% in infant, respectively). The Overall accuracy of barium enema was 66.0% (72.8% in neonate and 55.3% in infant, respectively) and specificity of barium enema was 53.2% (56.3% in neonate and 50.0% in infant, respectively). These results were lower than those of anorectal manometry. The overall sensitivity of barium enema was 88.6% (92.6% in neonate and 75.0% in infant, respectively) and it was higher than the sensitivity of anorectal manometry. Histological studies confirmed HD in 35 patients, in one of whom the suction biopsy showed negative finding. Conclusion: Accuracy of non-invasive methods for diagnosis of HD in our study is lower than those in previous study, so we need to improve the quality of diagnostic tools in our hospital. We conclude that the rectal suction biopsy is the most accurate test for diagnosing HD, so the biopsy to confirm the diagnosis of the HD is very important.

Development of Information Competency Test Tool for Elementary and High School Students (초중등학생 정보 교과 역량 검사 도구 개발)

  • Hong, Ji-Yeon;Park, Jung-ho
    • Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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    • v.26 no.4
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    • pp.605-611
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    • 2022
  • Under the influence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there is a emphasis on capacity building based on computational thinking to foster talent for future. In Korea, SW education has been mandatory since 2018. Since 2017, research has been conducted on the definition of SW education capability and the development of diagnostic tools. At this time, the diagnostic tool for middle school has been revised and supplemented once in 2018 and is used so far. In response to the request from the field to expand the information diagnostic test for middle school to elementary school and high school, it began as one of the 2019 study on the effectiveness of SW leading schools. In this study, we develop a diagnostic tool for elementary and high school based on the diagnostic tool for middle school. Expert validity verification and preliminary inspections are carried out. Preliminary examinations will analyze the reliability, discrimination, and difficulty of the questions, and look forward to seeing the potential as a testing tool in the future.

Diagnostic Value of Immunoglobulin G Anti-Deamidated Gliadin Peptide Antibody for Diagnosis of Pediatric Celiac Disease: A Study from Shiraz, Iran

  • Anbardar, Mohammad Hossein;Haghighi, Fatemeh Golbon;Honar, Naser;Zahmatkeshan, Mozhgan
    • Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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    • v.25 no.4
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    • pp.312-320
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    • 2022
  • Purpose: Screening serologic tests are important tools for the diagnosis of celiac disease (CD). Immunoglobulin (Ig)G anti-deamidated gliadin peptide (anti-DGP) is a relatively new autoantibody thought to have good diagnostic accuracy, comparable to that of anti-tissue transglutaminase (anti-tTG) antibody. Methods: Pediatric patients (n=86) with a clinical suspicion of CD were included. Duodenal biopsy, anti-tTG, and IgG anti-DGP antibody tests were performed. The patients were divided into CD and control groups based on the pathological evaluation of duodenal biopsies. The diagnostic accuracy of serological tests was determined. Results: IgA anti-tTG and IgG anti-DGP antibodies were positive in 86.3% and 95.4% of patients, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of the IgA anti-tTG test were 86.3%, 50.0%, and 68.6%, respectively, and those of the IgG anti-DGP test were 95.4%, 85.7%, and 90.7%, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.74-0.91) for IgA anti-tTG test and 0.93 (95% CI, 0.86-0.97) for IgG anti-DGP test. The comparison of IgA anti-tTG and IgG anti-DGP ROC curves showed a higher sensitivity and specificity of the IgG anti-DGP test. Conclusion: IgG anti-DGP is a reliable serological test for CD diagnosis in children. High tTG and DGP titers in the serum are suggestive of severe duodenal atrophy. The combined use of IgA anti-tTG and IgG anti-DGP tests for the initial screening of CD can improve diagnostic sensitivity.

Implementation of point-of-care platforms for rapid detection of porcine circovirus type 2

  • Chiao-Hsu Ke;Mao-Yuan Du;Wang-Ju Hsieh;Chiu-Chiao Lin;James Mingjuh Ting;Ming-Tang Chiou;Chao-Nan Lin
    • Journal of Veterinary Science
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    • v.25 no.2
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    • pp.28.1-28.11
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    • 2024
  • Background: Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) infection is ubiquitous around the world. Diagnosis of the porcine circovirus-associated disease requires clinic-pathological elements together with the quantification of viral loads. Furthermore, given pig farms in regions lacking access to sufficient laboratory equipment, developing diagnostic devices with high accuracy, accessibility, and affordability is a necessity. Objectives: This study aims to investigate two newly developed diagnostic tools that may satisfy these criteria. Methods: We collected 250 specimens, including 170 PCV2-positive and 80 PCV2-negative samples. The standard diagnosis and cycle threshold (Ct) values were determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Then, two point-of-care (POC) diagnostic platforms, convective polymerase chain reaction (cPCR, qualitative assay: positive or negative results are shown) and EZtargex (quantitative assay: Ct values are shown), were examined and analyzed. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of cPCR were 88.23% and 100%, respectively; the sensitivity and specificity of EZtargex were 87.65% and 100%, respectively. These assays also showed excellent concordance compared with the qPCR assay (κ = 0.828 for cPCR and κ = 0.820 for EZtargex). The statistical analysis showed a great diagnostic power of the EZtargex assay to discriminate between samples with different levels of positivity. Conclusions: The two point-of-care diagnostic platforms are accurate, rapid, convenient and require little training for PCV2 diagnosis. These POC platforms can discriminate viral loads to predict the clinical status of the animals. The current study provided evidence that these diagnostics were applicable with high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of PCV2 infection in the field.

Application of Quality Statistical Techniques Based on the Review and the Interpretation of Medical Decision Metrics (의학적 의사결정 지표의 고찰 및 해석에 기초한 품질통계기법의 적용)

  • Choi, Sungwoon
    • Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.243-253
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    • 2013
  • This research paper introduces the application and implementation of medical decision metrics that classifies medical decision-making into four different metrics using statistical diagnostic tools, such as confusion matrix, normal distribution, Bayesian prediction and Receiver Operating Curve(ROC). In this study, the metrics are developed based on cross-section study, cohort study and case-control study done by systematic literature review and reformulated the structure of type I error, type II error, confidence level and power of detection. The study proposed implementation strategies for 10 quality improvement activities via 14 medical decision metrics which consider specificity and sensitivity in terms of ${\alpha}$ and ${\beta}$. Examples of ROC implication are depicted in this paper with a useful guidelines to implement a continuous quality improvement, not only in a variable acceptance sampling in Quality Control(QC) but also in a supplier grading score chart in Supplier Chain Management(SCM) quality. This research paper is the first to apply and implement medical decision-making tools as quality improvement activities. These proposed models will help quality practitioners to enhance the process and product quality level.

Assessment Instruments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (외상후 스트레스장애의 평가 도구)

  • Seo, Ho-Jun;Kim, Tae-Suk;Chae, Jeong-Ho
    • Anxiety and mood
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.3-9
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    • 2010
  • Even experienced clinicians have difficulties in diagnosing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exactly, due to its diverse clinical features, which vary according to individuals, traumas, and various comorbid psychopathologies, and its related compensation issues. It is usually mandatory for clinicians and researchers to use screening and assessment tools when diagnosing and evaluating PTSD. To date, research has developed numerous PTSD screening and assessment tools ; therefore one of the cardinal issues is to select the best of the various tools, the one most suitable for the clinician's or researcher's purposes. This article reviews several currently-available subjective and objective instruments for the diagnosis and evaluation of PTSD and groups them according to whether they are Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-Correspondent Measures ; PTSD-Focused, Non-DSM-Correspondent Measures ; or Empirically Derived Measures. We present the instruments' psychometric properties and scoring methods and describe their merits and weak points, focusing on their practical usage.

Herbal Medicine for Pediatric Epilepsy: Clinical Research Trends in Traditional Chinese Medicine

  • Kim, Sang-Ho;Kim, Da-Woon
    • Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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    • v.33 no.2
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    • pp.181-214
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    • 2022
  • Pediatric epilepsy, a chronic, recurrent brain disorder, is the most common neurological disorder in children. Its prevalence is increasing. Early management is very important since 30~40% of cases persist into adulthood. To provide basic data for future clinical research on pediatric epilepsy using Korean medicine treatment and cooperation between Western medicine doctors and Korean medicine doctors, we reviewed recent clinical research in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) using herbal medicine for pediatric epilepsy. A total of 23 articles (1 clinical practice guideline, 3 systematic reviews, 15 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and 4 non-RCTs) were reviewed in this study. The authors summarized characteristics of included studies regarding study subjects, diagnostic tools, pattern identification tools, treatment period, evaluation tools, detail of herbal medicines, treatment effects, and adverse events. Combination therapy using both herbal medicine (HM) and anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) was performed more frequently than herbal medicine alone. Liver-pacifying medicinal, water-draining medicine, and orifice-opening medicine were frequently used. The main single HMs were Cheonma, Boglyeong, Jogudeung, and Seogchangpo. Combined therapy using HM and AEDs had significant benefits in improving total effective rate. It also appeared to be safer than AEDs. However, since the quality of clinical trials was poor and only studies in the last 10 years were included, the clinical evidence was uncertain. Finally, the authors provided limitations of this study and several suggestions for future research based on our analysis results.

Goodness-of Fit Tests in Regression via Nonparametric Function Techniques

  • Kim, Jong-Tae;Moon, Gyoung-Ae
    • Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.95-106
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    • 1994
  • A proposed test statistic is obtained by multiplying constant weights by the Neumann smooth type statistic discussed by Eubank and Hart(1993) in order to observe the effect of weight. It has very good results of power studies. Another advantage of this test is that it simultaneously provides an important diagnostic tools that can be used in many cases to determine how the model should be adjusted.

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