• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.575-584
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• 2021

Objective : Cervical expansive laminoplasty is an effective surgical method to address multilevel cervical spinal stenosis. During surgery, the spinous processes of C2 and C7 are usually preserved to keep the insertion points of the cervical musculature and nuchal ligament intact. In this regard, dome-like laminectomy (undercutting of C7 lamina) instead of laminoplasty is performed on C7 in selected cases. However, resection of the lamina can weaken the C7 lamina, and stress fractures may occur, but this complication has not been characterized in the literature. The objective of the present study was to investigate the incidence and risk factors for C7 laminar fracture after C7 dome-like laminectomy and its impact on clinical and radiological outcomes. Methods : Patients who underwent cervical open-door laminoplasty combined with C7 dome-like laminectomy (n=123) were classified according to the presence of C7 laminar fracture. Clinical parameters (neck/arm pain score and neck disability index) and radiologic parameters (C2-7 angle, C2-7 sagittal vertical axis, and C7-T1 angle) were compared between the groups preoperatively and at postoperatively at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. Risk factors for complications were evaluated, and a formula estimating C7 fracture risk was suggested. Results : C7 lamina fracture occurred in 32/123 (26%) patients and occurred at the bilateral isthmus in 29 patients and at the spinolaminar junction in three patients. All fractures appeared on X-ray within 3 months postoperatively, but patients did not present any neurological deterioration. The fracture spontaneously healed in 27/32 (84%) patients at 1 year and in 29/32 (91%) at 2 years. During follow-up, clinical outcomes were not significantly different between the groups. However, patients with C7 fractures showed a more lordotic C2-7 angle and kyphotic C7-T1 angle than patients without C7 fractures. C7 fracture was significantly associated with the extent of bone removal. By incorporating significant factors, the probability of C7 laminar fracture could be assessed with the formula 'Risk score = 1.08 × depth (%) + 1.03 × length (%, of the posterior height of C7 vertebral body)', and a cut-off value of 167.9% demonstrated a sensitivity of 90.3% and a specificity of 65.1% (area under the curve, 0.81). Conclusion : C7 laminar fracture can occur after C7 dome-like laminectomy when a substantial amount of lamina is resected. Although C7 fractures may not cause deleterious clinical outcomes, they can lead to an unharmonized cervical curvature. The chance of C7 fracture should be discussed in the shared decision-making process.

• Clean Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.166-174
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• 2011

The xAl-yCe oxide catalysts with different mol ratios of Al/(Al+Ce) were prepared by a co-precipitation method and Pt supported on xAl-yCe oxide catalysts were synthesized by an incipient wetness impregnation method. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), $N_2$ sorption, and $H_2$/CO-temperature programmed reduction ($H_2$/CO-TPR) to correlate with catalytic activities in co oxidation. Among the catalysts studied here, Pt/1Al-9Ce oxide catalyst showed the highest activity in dry and wet reaction conditions and the catalytic activity showed a typical volcano-shape curve with respect to Al/(Al+Ce) mol ratio. When the presence of 5% water vapor in the feed, the temperature of $T_{50%}$ was shifted ca. $30^{\circ}C$ to lower temperature region than that in dry condition. From CO-TPR, the desorption peak of $CO_2$ on Pt/1Al-9Ce oxide catalyst showed the highest value and well correlated the catalytic performance. It indicates that the Pt/1Al-9Ce oxide catalyst has a large amount of active sites which can be adsorbed by co and easy to supplies the needed oxygen. In addition, the amount of pentacoordinated $Al^{3+}$ sites obtained through $^{27}Al$ NMR analysis is well correlated the catalytic performance.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 2006

Background: The DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay is a newly developed cancer diagnostic test which quantifies the serum fibrin degradation products (FDP), produced during fibrinolysis, by antibody reaction. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of DR-$70^{TM}$ Immunoassay in screening malignant tumor. Methods: Sample subjects were 4,169 adults, both male and female, who visited the health promotion center of a general hospital from March 2004 to April 2005 and underwent the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay test and other tests for cancer diagnosis. The patient group was defined as 42 adults out of the sample subjects who were newly diagnosed with cancer during the same time period when the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay test was performed. Final confirmation of a malignant tumor was made by pathological analysis. Results: The mean DR-$70^{TM}$ level was $0.83{\pm}0.65{\mu}g/ml$ (range: 0.00 (0.0001)${\sim}7.42{\mu}g/ml)$ in the control group (n=4,127) as opposed to $2.70{\pm}2.33{\mu}g/ml$ (range: $0.12{\sim}9.30{\mu}g/ml)$ in the cancer group (n=42), and statistical significance was established (p<0.0001, Student t-test). When categorized by the type of malignant tumor, all cancer patients with the exception of the subgroups of colon and rectal cancer showed significantly higher mean DR-$70^{TM}$ levels compared with the control group (p<0.0001, Kruscal-Wallis test). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed ${\geq}1.091{\mu}g/ml$ as the best cut-off value. Using this cut-off value, the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay produced a sensitivity of 71.4%, a specificity of 70.1%, a positive predictability of 69.4%, and a negative predictability of 69.2% (1). Conclusion: A significant increase in the mean DR-$70^{TM}$ value was observed in the cancer group (thyroidal, gastric, breast, hepatic and ovarian) com pared with the control group. In particular, the specificity and sensitivity of the DR-$70^{TM}$ immunoassay was relatively high in the subgroups of breast, gastric, and thyroidal cancer patients. There is need for further studies on a large number of malignant tumor patients to see how the DR-$70^{TM}$ level might be changed according to the differentiation grade and postoperative prognosis of the malignant tumor.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.55-61
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• 2003

The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics of nitrate removal by conducting the column test in order to see the performance of surfactant modified zeolite (SMZ) as a permeable reactive barrier material. The prediction of nitrate removal was tested using the one-dimensional advective-dispersive model fitted to the experimental breakthrough curve. A methodology for scaling up to in-situ permeable reactive barrier was also proposed. The breakthrough of nitrate in the column packed with SMZ was well predicted using linear equilibrium adsorption model. The breakthrough time and half-life obtained by breakthrough experiment with variation of flowrates were decreased with the increase of flowrates. When 10㎥/day of groundwater containing the 50 mg/l of nitrate is to be treated to satisfy the potable water quality criteria (10 mg/l) by SMZ reactive barrier, 300 tons of SMZ and about 6 years of breakthrough time will be required, suggesting that 165 million wons are needed as barrier material expenses in each 6 years besides the initial design and construction expenses and the minimal monitoring and maintenance expenses.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.43-54
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• 2024

Objective: To evaluate the added value of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)-based quantitative parameters to distinguish uterine sarcomas from atypical leiomyomas on preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Materials and Methods: A total of 138 patients (age, 43.7 ± 10.3 years) with uterine sarcoma (n = 44) and atypical leiomyoma (n = 94) were retrospectively collected from four institutions. The cohort was randomly divided into training (84/138, 60.0%) and validation (54/138, 40.0%) sets. Two independent readers evaluated six qualitative MRI features and two DWI-based quantitative parameters for each index tumor. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify the relevant qualitative MRI features. Diagnostic classifiers based on qualitative MRI features alone and in combination with DWI-based quantitative parameters were developed using a logistic regression algorithm. The diagnostic performance of the classifiers was evaluated using a cross-table analysis and calculation of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results: Mean apparent diffusion coefficient value of uterine sarcoma was lower than that of atypical leiomyoma (mean ± standard deviation, 0.94 ± 0.30 10^-3 mm²/s vs. 1.23 ± 0.25 10^-3 mm²/s; P < 0.001), and the relative contrast ratio was higher in the uterine sarcoma (8.16 ± 2.94 vs. 4.19 ± 2.66; P < 0.001). Selected qualitative MRI features included ill-defined margin (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 17.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.41-503, P = 0.040), intratumoral hemorrhage (aOR, 27.3; 95% CI, 3.74-596, P = 0.006), and absence of T2 dark area (aOR, 83.5; 95% CI, 12.4-1916, P < 0.001). The classifier that combined qualitative MRI features and DWI-based quantitative parameters showed significantly better performance than without DWI-based parameters in the validation set (AUC, 0.92 vs. 0.78; P < 0.001). Conclusion: The addition of DWI-based quantitative parameters to qualitative MRI features improved the diagnostic performance of the logistic regression classifier in differentiating uterine sarcomas from atypical leiomyomas on preoperative MRI.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.1281-1289
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• 2022

Objective: Radiomic modeling using multiple regions of interest in MRI of the brain to diagnose juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) has not yet been investigated. This study aimed to develop and validate radiomics prediction models to distinguish patients with JME from healthy controls (HCs), and to evaluate the feasibility of a radiomics approach using MRI for diagnosing JME. Materials and Methods: A total of 97 JME patients (25.6 ± 8.5 years; female, 45.5%) and 32 HCs (28.9 ± 11.4 years; female, 50.0%) were randomly split (7:3 ratio) into a training (n = 90) and a test set (n = 39) group. Radiomic features were extracted from 22 regions of interest in the brain using the T1-weighted MRI based on clinical evidence. Predictive models were trained using seven modeling methods, including a light gradient boosting machine, support vector classifier, random forest, logistic regression, extreme gradient boosting, gradient boosting machine, and decision tree, with radiomics features in the training set. The performance of the models was validated and compared to the test set. The model with the highest area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) was chosen, and important features in the model were identified. Results: The seven tested radiomics models, including light gradient boosting machine, support vector classifier, random forest, logistic regression, extreme gradient boosting, gradient boosting machine, and decision tree, showed AUROC values of 0.817, 0.807, 0.783, 0.779, 0.767, 0.762, and 0.672, respectively. The light gradient boosting machine with the highest AUROC, albeit without statistically significant differences from the other models in pairwise comparisons, had accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores of 0.795, 0.818, 0.931, and 0.871, respectively. Radiomic features, including the putamen and ventral diencephalon, were ranked as the most important for suggesting JME. Conclusion: Radiomic models using MRI were able to differentiate JME from HCs.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2008

Purpose: Many recent studies have reported on the feasibility and usefulness of laparoscopy assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) for treating early gastric cancer. On the other hand, there has been few reports about laparoscopy assisted total gastrectomy (LATG) because upper located gastric cancer is relatively rare and the surgical technique is more difficult than that for LADG, We now present our procedure and results of performing LATG for the gastric cancer located in the upper or middle portion of the stomach. Materials and Methods: From Jan 2005 to Sep 2007, 96 patients underwent LATG by four surgeons at the Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. Among them, 48 consecutive patients who were operated on by asingle surgeon were analyzed with respect to the clinicopathological features, the surgical results and the postoperative courses with using the prospectively collected laparoscopy surgery data. Results: There was no conversion to open surgery during LATG. For all the reconstructions, Roux-en Y esophago-jejunostomy and D1+beta lymphadenectomy were the standard procedures. The mean operation time was $212{\pm}67$ minutes. The mean total number of retrieved lymph nodes was $28.9{\pm}10.54$ (range: $12{\sim}64$) and all the patients had a clear proximal resection margin in their final pathologic reports. The mean time to passing gas, first oral feeding and discharge from the hospital was 2.98, 3.67 and 7.08 days, respectively. There were 5 surgical complications and 2 non-surgical complications for 5 (10.4%) patients, and there was no mortality. None of the patients needed operation because of complications and they recovered with conservative treatments. The mean operation time remained constant after 20 cases and so a learning curve was present. The morbidity rate was not different between the two periods, but the postoperative course was significantly better after the learning curve. Analysis of the factors contributing to the postoperative morbidity, with using logistic regression analysis, showed that the 8MI is the only contributing factor forpostoperative complications (P=0.029, HR=2.513, 95% CI=1.097-5.755). Conclusions: LATG with regional lymph node dissection for upper and middle early gastric cancer is considered to be a safe, feasible method that showed an excellent postoperative course and acceptable morbidity. BMI should be considered in the patient selection at the beginning period because of the impact of the BMI on the postoperative morbidity.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.121-132
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• 2002

Purpose : Taxol(Paclitaxel), an antineoplastic agent, has been used in the treatment of ovarian and breast cancers. The determination of optimal Taxol concentrations in human serum was required for enhancing therapeutic effect and maintaining the appropriate Taxol level in blood. This study was aimed to synthesizeradiolabeled Taxol derivatives as radiotracer in competitive radioimmunoassay for monitoring Taxol concentrations in blood and to determine the usefulness of its derivatives. Materials and Methods : Hemisucdcinyltaxol(HT) was synthesized by esterification of Taxol with succinic anhydride. Tyraminehemisuccinyltaxol(THT) was synthesized by coupling of HT with tyramine using isobutylchlormate as coupling agent and purified by HPLC. By using chloramine-T($5.25mg/ml,\;10{\mu}{\ell}$) as oxidant agent, THT($4mg/ml,\;30{\mu}{\ell}$) was labeled wity $^{125}I\;(37MBq,\;1mCi)$. To estimate the stability of purified THT, $^{125}I-iodotyraminehemisuccinyltaxol(^125}ITHT)$ was dissolved in 80% acetonitrile aqueous solution, and the solution was incubated at $4^{\circ}C\;and\;37^{\circ}C$ for 7 days. At various time intervals, the stability of THT and $^{125}ITHT$ was monitored. The titer of Taxol monoclonal antibody, 3G5A7, was determined by competitive radioimmunoassay using $^{125}ITHT$ as a labeled antigen. A standard dose-response curve was demonstated by Taxol competitive radioimmunoassay. Resulls : HT and THT were synthesized with 79.9% and 19.5% yield, respectively. The labeling yield of $^{125}ITHT$ was 93%. After 7 days, the chemical purity of THT was 96.5% at $4^{\circ}C$, and 97.5% at $37^{\circ}C$. After 3 days, $^{125}ITHT$ was stable with 94.7% at $4^{\circ}C$ and 93.4% at $37^{\circ}C$. After 7 days, fadiochemical purity was diminished to 88.1% at $37^{\circ}C$. The titer of Taxol monoclonal antibody, 3G5A7, was determined to 1:256. A standard dose-response curve demonstated good collinearity ($R^2=0.971$) as Taxol concentration-dependent manner. Conclusion : Competitive radioimmunoassay using $^{125}I-iodotyraminehemisuccinytaxol$ as radiotracer could be used to monitor for concentration of Taxol in the human serum.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.11 s.268
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• pp.828-837
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• 2006

Background: Tissue hypoxia is characteristic of many human malignant neoplasm, and hypoxia inducible factor-1(HIF-1) plays a pivotal role in essential adaptive response to hypoxia, and activates a signal pathway for the expression of the hypoxia-regulated genes, resulting in increasing $O_2$ delivery or facilitating metabolic adaptation to hypoxia. Increased level of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ has been reported in many human malignancies, but in non-small cell lung carcinoma the influence of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ on tumor biology, including neovascularization, is not still defined. In present study the relationship of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression on angiogenetic factors, relationship between the tumor proliferation and HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression, interaction of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression and p53, and relationship between HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression and clinico-pathological prognostic parameters were investigated. Material and Method: Archival tissue blocks recruited in this study were retrieved from fifty-nine patients with primary non-small cell lung carcinoma, who underwent pneumonectomy or lobectomy from 1997 to 1999. HIF-$1{\alpha}$, VEGF(vascular endothelial growth factor), and p53 protein expression and Ki-67 labeling index in tumor tissues were evaluated, using a standard avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex(ABC) immunohistochemistry. Relationship between the HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression and VEGF, p53 overexpression and correlation between the HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expresseion and Ki-67 index were analyzed. Clinico-pathologic prognostic parameters were also analyzed. Result: HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression in cancer cells was found in 24 of 59 cases of non-small cell lung carcinoma(40.7%). High HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression was significantly associated with several pathological parameters, such as pathological TMN stage(p=0.004), pT stage(p=0.020), pN stage (p=0.029), and lymphovascular invasion(p=0.019). High HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression was also significantly associated with VEGF immunoreactivity(p<0.001), and aberrant p53 expression(p=0.040). but was marginally associated with Ki-67 labeling index(p=0.092). The overall 5-year survival rate was 42.3%. The survival curve of patients with a high HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression was worse than that of patients with low-expression(p=0.002). High HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression was independent unfavorable factors with a marginal significance in multivariate analysis performed by Cox regression. Conclusion: It is suggested that high HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression may be associated with intratumoral neovascularization possibly through HIF-VEGF pathway, and high HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression could be associated with lymph node metastasis and post operative poor prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.253-257
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• 2011

Amikacin is a semisynthetic derivative of kanamycin and primarily active against aerobic Gram-negative-pathogens with limited activity against Gram-positive bacteria. Meager study was reported on pharmacokinetic data on multi-days administration of amikacin. Hence, pharmacokinetics study was done in five clinically healthy goats (n = 5), after intravenous bolus injection of amikacin sulfate at the dose rate of 10 mg/kg body weight daily for three consecutive days. The amikacin concentrations in plasma and pharmacokinetics-parameters were analyzed by using microbiological assay technique and noncompartmental open-model, respectively. The mean peak plasma concentrations (Mean ${\pm}$ SD) of amikacin at time zero ($Cp^{0}$) was $114.19{\pm}20.78$ and $128.67{\pm}14.37{\mu}g/mL$, on day 1st and 3rd, respectively. The mean elimination half-life ($t_{1/2}ke$) was $1.00{\pm}0.28h$ on day 1st and $1.22{\pm}0.29h$ on day 3rd. Mean of area under concentration-time curve ($AUC_{0{\rightarrow}{\infty}}$) was $158.26{\pm}60.10$ and $159.70{\pm}22.74{\mu}g.h/mL$, on day 1st and 3rd respectively. The total body clearance ($Cl_{B}$) and volume of distribution at steady state (Vdss) on day 1st and 3rd were $Cl_{B}=0.07{\pm}0.02$ and $0.06{\pm}0.01L/h.kg$ and $Vdss=0.10{\pm}0.03$ and $0.11{\pm}0.05L/kg$, respectively. No-significant difference was noted in both drug-plasma concentration and pharmacokinetics-parameters, respectively. Amikacin concentration in plasma was found higher up-to 4 h and 6 h onward on down-ward trends favour to reduce toxicity. Which also support the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic way of dosing of aminoglycosides and hence, amikacin may be administered 10 mg/kg intravenously daily to treat principally Gram-negative pathogens and limitedly Gram-positive-pathogens.