• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.879-887
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to establish a physiological injection protocol according to body weight, in order to minimize amount of contrast medium and optimize contrast enhancement in pediatric patients performing thoracic CT examinations. The 80 pediatric patients under the age of 10 were studied. Intravenous contrast material containing 300 mgI/ml was used. The group A injected with a capacity of 1.5 times its weight, and groups B, C and D added 5 to 15 ml of normal saline with a 10% decrease in each. The physiologic model which can be calculated by weight about amount of injection of contrast medium and normal saline, flow rate and delay time were applied. To assess image quality, measured average HU value and SNR of superior vena cava, pulmonary artery, ascending and descending aorta, right and left atrium, right and left ventricle. CT numbers of subclavian vein and superior vena cava were compared to identify the effects of reducing artifacts due to normal saline. Comparing SNR according to the contrast medium injection protocol, significant differences were found in superior vena cava and pulmonary artery, descending aorta, right and left ventricle, and CT numbers showed significant differences in all organs. In particular, B group with a 10% decrease in contrast medium and an additional injection of saline showed a low degree of contrast enhancement in groups with a decrease of more than 20%. In addition, the group injected with normal saline greatly reduced contrast enhancement of subclavian vein and superior vena cava, and the beam hardening artifact by contrast medium was significantly attenuated. In conclusion, the application of physiological protocol for injection of contrast medium in pediatric thoracic CT examinations was able to reduce artifacts by contrast medium, prevent unnecessary use of contrast medium and improve the effect of contrast enhancement.

• The Korean Journal of Vision Science
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.579-588
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• 2018

Purpose : To analyze the eyeglasses supply system for ametropic soldiers in ROK military. Methods : We investigated and analyzed the supply system of eyeglasses for the ametropic soldiers provided by the Korean military. The refractive powers and corrected visual acuity were measured for 37 ametropic soldiers who wear insert glasses for ballistic protective and gas-masks supplied by the military based on their habitual prescriptions. Full correction of refractive error was prescribed for subjects having less than 1.0 of distance visual acuity, and comparison was held for inspecting the changes in corrected visual acuity. Suggestions were provided for solving the issues regarding current supplying system, and this study investigated the applicabilities for utilizing professional optometric manpower. Results : The new glasses supplied by army for ametropic soldiers were duplicated from the glasses they worn when entering the army. The spherical equivalent refractive powers of the conventional, ballistic protective and gas-mask insert glasses supplied for 37 ametropic soldiers were $-3.47{\pm}1.69D$, $-3.52{\pm}1.66D$ and $-3.55{\pm}1.63D$, respectively, and the spherical equivalent refractive power of full corrected glasses was $-3.79{\pm}1.66D$, which showed a significant difference(p<0.05). The distant corrected visual acuity measured at high and low contrast(logMAR) of conventional, ballistic protective and gas-mask insert glasses were $0.06{\pm}0.80$, $0.21{\pm}0.82$, $0.15{\pm}0.74$, $0.34{\pm}0.89$, $0.10{\pm}0.70$ and $0.22{\pm}0.27$, respectively, while the corrected visual acuity by full corrected glasses were increased to $0.02{\pm}1.05$, $0.10{\pm}0.07$, $0.09{\pm}0.92$, $0.26{\pm}0.10$, $0.04{\pm}1.00$ and $0.19{\pm}1.00$, respectively. There was a significant difference(p<0.05) except for the case of the low contrast corrected visual acuity of the conventional and gas-mask insert glasses. The procedure for ordering, dispensing, and supplying military glasses consists of 5 steps, and it was found that approximately two weeks or more are required to supply from the initial examination. Conclusion : The procedure of supplying the military glasses showed three issues: 1) a lack of refraction for prescription system, 2) relatively long length of time required for supplying the glasses, 3) an inaccurate power of supplied glasses. In order to solve those issues, in the short term, education is necessarily required for soldiers on the measurement of the refractive powers, and in the near future, further standard procedures for prescription of glasses as well as the securement of optometric manpower are expected.