• ETRI Journal
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.613-623
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• 2022

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder associated with cognitive and neurobehavioral disorders. It affects the person's behavior and performance. Autism affects verbal and non-verbal communication in social interactions. Early screening and diagnosis of ASD are essential and helpful for early educational planning and treatment, the provision of family support, and for providing appropriate medical support for the child on time. Thus, developing automated methods for diagnosing ASD is becoming an essential need. Herein, we investigate using various machine learning methods to build predictive models for diagnosing ASD in children using facial images. To achieve this, we used an autistic children dataset containing 2936 facial images of children with autism and typical children. In application, we used classical machine learning methods, such as support vector machine and random forest. In addition to using deep-learning methods, we used a state-of-the-art method, that is, automated machine learning (AutoML). We compared the results obtained from the existing techniques. Consequently, we obtained that AutoML achieved the highest performance of approximately 96% accuracy via the Hyperpot and tree-based pipeline optimization tool optimization. Furthermore, AutoML methods enabled us to easily find the best parameter settings without any human efforts for feature engineering.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.306-318
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• 2022

Gastric cancer (GC) is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. Thus, early diagnosis is important to improve disease prognosis. Endoscopic assessment represents the most reliable imaging method for GC diagnosis; however, it is semi-invasive and costly and heavily depends on the skills of the endoscopist, which limit its clinical applicability. Therefore, the search for new sensitive biomarkers for the early detection of GC using noninvasive sampling collection methods has attracted much attention among scientists. Urine is considered an ideal biofluid, as it is readily accessible, less complex, and relatively stable than plasma and serum. Over the years, substantial progress has been made in screening for potential urinary biomarkers for GC. This review explores the possible applications and limitations of urinary biomarkers in GC detection and diagnosis.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.293-301
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• 2023

Scoliosis is a three-dimensional deformation of the spine that is a deformity induced by physical or disease-related causes as the spine is rotated abnormally. Early detection has a significant influence on the possibility of nonsurgical treatment. To train a deep learning model with preprocessed images and to evaluate the results with and without data augmentation to enable the diagnosis of scoliosis based only on a chest X-ray image. The preprocessed images in which only the spine, rib contours, and some hard tissues were left from the original chest image, were used for learning along with the original images, and three CNN(Convolutional Neural Networks) models (VGG16, ResNet152, and EfficientNet) were selected to proceed with training. The results obtained by training with the preprocessed images showed a superior accuracy to those obtained by training with the original image. When the scoliosis image was added through data augmentation, the accuracy was further improved, ultimately achieving a classification accuracy of 93.56% with the ResNet152 model using test data. Through supplementation with future research, the method proposed herein is expected to allow the early diagnosis of scoliosis as well as cost reduction by reducing the burden of additional radiographic imaging for disease detection.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.3-12
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• 2022

Selection of potential disease-specific biomarkers from saliva or epithelial tissues through next generation sequencing (NGS)-based protein studies has recently become possible. The early diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has been difficult, if not impossible, until now due to the lack of an effective OSCC biomarker and efficient molecular validation method. The aim of this study was to summarize the advances in the application of NGS in cancer research and to propose potential proteomic and genomic saliva biomarkers for NGS-based study in OSCC screening and diagnosis programs. We have reviewed four categories including definitions and use of NGS, salivary biomarkers and OSCC, current biomarkers using the NGS-based technique, and potential salivary biomarker candidates in OSCC using NGS.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.107-118
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• 2017

Although alternative test methods based on the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) are being developed to replace animal testing in reproductive and developmental toxicology, they are still in an early stage. Consequently, we aimed to develop alternative test methods in male animals using mouse spermatogonial stem cells (mSSCs). Here, we modified the OECD TG 489 and optimized the in vitro comet assay in our previous study. This study aimed to verify the validity of in vitro tests involving mSSCs by comparing their results with those of in vivo tests using C57BL/6 mice by gavage. We selected hydroxyurea (HU), which is known to chemically induce male reproductive toxicity. The 50% inhibitory concentration ($IC_{50}$) value of HU was 0.9 mM, as determined by the MTT assay. In the in vitro comet assay, % tail DNA and Olive tail moment (OTM) after HU administration increased significantly, compared to the control. Annexin V, PI staining and TUNEL assays showed that HU caused apoptosis in mSSCs. In order to compare in vitro tests with in vivo tests, the same substances were administered to male C57BL/6 mice. Reproductive toxicity was observed at 25, 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg/day as measured by clinical measures of reduction in sperm motility and testicular weight. The comet assay, DCFH-DA assay, H&E staining, and TUNEL assay were also performed. The results of the test with C57BL/6 mice were similar to those with mSSCs for HU treatment. Finally, linear regression analysis showed a strong positive correlation between results of in vitro tests and those of in vivo. In conclusion, the present study is the first to demonstrate the effect of HU-induced DNA damage, ROS formation, and apoptosis in mSSCs. Further, the results of the current study suggest that mSSCs could be a useful model to predict male reproductive toxicity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.81 no.4
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• pp.886-898
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• 2020

Purpose The purpose of our study was to evaluate digital breast tomosynthesis as a breast cancer screening modality for women with gynecologic cancer. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included patients with underlying gynecologic malignancies who underwent screening digital breast tomosynthesis for breast cancer. The cancer detection rate, recall rate, sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV) were calculated. PPV1 was defined as the percentage of all positive screening exams that have a tissue diagnosis of cancer within a year. PPV2 was defined as the percentage of all diagnostic exams (and Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System category 4, 5 from screening setting) with a recommendation for tissue diagnosis that have cancer within a year. PPV3 was defined as the percentage of all known biopsies actually performed that resulted in a tissue diagnosis of cancer within the year. For each case of screen-detected cancer, we analyzed the age, type of underlying gynecologic malignancy, breast density, imaging features, final Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System assessment, histologic type, T and N stages, molecular subtype, and Ki-67 index. Results Among 508 patients, 7 with breast cancer were identified after a positive result. The cancer detection rate was 13.8 per 1000 screening exams, and the recall rate was 17.9%. The sensitivity was 100%, and the specificity was 83.2%. The false negative rate was 0 per 1000 exams. The PPV1, PPV2, and PPV3 were 7.7, 31.8, and 31.8, respectively. Conclusion Digital breast tomosynthesis may be a promising breast cancer screening modality for women with gynecologic cancer, based on the high cancer detection rate, high sensitivity, high PPV, and high detection rate of early-stage cancer observed in our study.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.7
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• pp.706-710
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• 2005

Purpose : Early diagnosis of congenital hearing loss through the neonatal hearing screening test minimizes language defect. This research intends to identify frequency of congenital hearing loss in infants through neonatal hearing screening test with the aim of communicating the importance of hearing test for infants. Methods : From May 20, 2003 to May 19, 2004, infants were subjected to Automated Auditory Brainstem Response test during one month of birth to conduct the test with 35 dB sound. Infants who passed the 1st round of hearing test, were classified into 'pass' group whereas those who did not were classified into 'refer' group. Infants who did not 'pass' in the hearing test conducted within one month of birth were subjected to re-test one month later, and if classified as 'refer' during the re-test, they were subjected to the diagnosis for validation of hearing loss by requesting test to the hearing loss clinic. Results : There was no difference among the 'pass' and 'refer' group in terms of form of childbirth, weight at birth and gestational age. In the 1st test, total of 45 infants were classified into 'refer' group. Six among 35 who were subjected to re-test(17%) did not pass the re-test, and all were diagnosed with congenital hearing loss. This corresponds to 0.35%(3.5 per 1,000) among total number of 1,718 subjects. Conclusion : In our study the congenital hearing loss tends to be considerably more frequently than congenital metabolic disorder. Accordingly, newly born infants are strongly recommended to undergo neonatal hearing screening test.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2015

Background: The current study examined health-related quality of life (QoL) for patients with esophageal/gastric cardia precursor lesions or cancer before and after treatment to facilitate improved prevention and treatment. Materials and Methods: Patients with different stages of esophageal/gastric cardia lesions completed two QoL questionnaires, EORTC QLQ-C30 and supplemental QLQ-OES 18, before primary treatment, and at 1, 6 and 12 months after treatment. Results: Fifty-nine patients with precursor lesions, 57 with early stage cancer, and 43 with advanced cancer responded to our survey. Patients with precursor lesions or early stage cancer reported better QoL overall than those with advanced cancer before treatment (p<0.01). Global QoL scores before treatment and at 1 month after treatment were $71{\pm}9$ versus $69{\pm}9$ (p>0.01), $71{\pm}8$ versus $61{\pm}11$ (p<0.01), $67{\pm}11$ versus $62{\pm}9$ (p<0.01) for three stages of lesions. At 6 months after treatment, some QoL measures recovered gradually in precursor lesion and early cancer patients, while some continuously deteriorated in advanced cancer patients. At 12 months, all QoL scores were comparable to baseline for patients with precursor lesions (p>0.01), while global QoL, social, pain, and insomnia scores for early stage and advanced cancer were inferior to corresponding baseline levels (difference between means>5, p<0.01). At this time point, compared with patients with early stage cancer, those with advanced cancer showed worse QoL with all function and most symptom measures (p<0.01). Conclusions: Patients with precursor lesions or early stage esophageal/gastric cardia cancer show better QoL than those with advanced cancer. This indicates that screening, early diagnosis and treatment may improve the QoL for esophageal/gastric cardia cancer patients. Target intervention and counseling should be given by health care providers during treatment and follow-up to facilitate QoL improvement.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.22
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• pp.9773-9779
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• 2014

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the prime causes of mortality around the globe, with a significantly rising incidence in the Middle East region in recent decades. Since detection of CRC in the early stages is an important issue, and also since to date there are no comprehensive epidemiologic studies depicting the Middle East region with special attention to the average risk group, further investigation is of significant necessity in this regard. Aim: Our aim was to investigate the prevalence of preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions of the colon in an average risk population. Materials and Methods: A total of 1,208 eligible asymptomatic, average- risk adults older than 40 years of age, referred to Firuzgar Hospotal in the years 2008-2012, were enrolled. They underwent colonoscopy screening and all polypoid lesions were removed and examined by an expert gastrointestinal pathologist. The lesions were classified by size, location, numbers and pathologic findings. Size of lesions was measured objectively by endoscopists. Results: The mean age of participants was $56.5{\pm}9.59$ and 51.6% were male. The overall polyp detection rate was 199/1208 (16.5 %), 26 subjects having non-neoplastic polyps, including hyperplastic lesions, and 173/1208 (14.3%) having neoplastic polyps, of which 26 (2.15%) were advanced neoplasms. The prevalence of colorectal neoplasia was more common among the 50-59 age group. Advanced adenoma was more frequent among the 60-69 age group. The majority of adenomas were detected in the distal colon, but a quarter of advanced adenomas were found in the proximal colon; advance age and male gender was associated with the presence of adenoma. Conclusions: It seems that CRC screening among average-risk population might be recommended in countries such as Iran. However, sigmioidoscopy alone would miss many colorectal adenomas. Furthermore, the 50-59 age group could be considered as an appropriate target population for this purpose in Iran.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1407-1412
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• 2012

Background & Objectives: Gastric cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in both sexes in Iran. This study was designed to assess upper GI endoscopic findings among people > 50 years targeted in a mass screening program in a hot-point region. Methods: Based on the pilot results in Guilan Cancer Registry study (GCRS), one of the high point regions for GC-Lashtenesha- was selected. The target population was called mainly using two methods: in rural regions, by house-house direct referral and in urban areas using public media. Upper GI endoscopy was performed by trained endoscopists. All participants underwent biopsies for rapid urea test (RUT) from the antrum and also further biopsies from five defined points of stomach for detection of precancerous lesions. In cases of visible gross lesions, more diagnostic biopsies were taken and submitted for histopathologic evaluation. Results: Of 1,394 initial participants, finally 1,382 persons (702 women, 680 men) with a mean age of $61.7{\pm}9.0$ years (range: 50-87 years) underwent upper GI endoscopy. H. pylori infection based on the RUT was positive in 66.6%. Gastric adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of esophagus were detected in seven (0.5%) and one (0.07%) persons, respectively. A remarkable proportion of studied participants were found to have esophageal hiatal hernia (38.4%). Asymptomatic gastric masses found in 1.1% (15) of cases which were mostly located in antrum (33.3%), cardia (20.0%) and prepyloric area (20.0%). Gastric and duodenal ulcers were found in 5.9% (82) and 6.9% (96) of the screened population. Conclusion: Upper endoscopy screening is an effective technique for early detection of GC especially in high risk populations. Further studies are required to evaluate cost effectiveness, cost benefit and mortality and morbidity of this method among high and moderate risk population before recommending this method for the GC surveillance program at the national level.