• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2018

Purpose: To analyze cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) use, indications, and exposure parameters in San $Jos{\acute{e}}$, Costa Rica. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed. All CBCT examinations over a period of 6 months at 2 radiological centers in San $Jos{\acute{e}}$, Costa Rica were evaluated. The examinations were performed with Veraview EPOC X550 and Veraviewepocs 3D R100 equipment. The patients' age and sex, clinical indication for CBCT, region of interest (ROI), repeat examinations, specialty of the referring dentist, field-of-view (FOV), tube voltage (kV), tube current (mA), and radiation dose (${\mu}Gy$) were evaluated. Patients were classified by age as children (${\leq}12years$), adolescents(13-18 years), and adults(${\geq}19years$). Results: The mean age of the 526 patients was 49.4 years. The main indications were implant dentistry and dental trauma. The most frequent ROIs were posterior, while anterior ROIs were much less common. The highest percentage of repeat examinations was in children. Fifty-six percent of the referring dentists were specialists. The most commonly used FOV was small. The mean tube voltage and current were 79.8 kV and 7.4 mA for Veraview EPOC X550 and 89.9 kV and 6 mA for Veraviewepocs 3D R100, respectively. The mean doses for children, adolescents, and adults were $6.9{\mu}Gy$, $8.4{\mu}Gy$, and $7.8{\mu}Gy$, respectively. Conclusion: Although CBCT was most commonly used in adults for implant dentistry, most repeat examinations were in children, and the highest mean dose was in adolescents. Additional dose optimization efforts should be made by introducing low-dose protocols for children and adolescents.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.844-851
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was conducted to assess optimal needle length for gluteal intramuscular injections (IM) via simple skinfold thickness (SFT). Methods: For this study, 190 healthy adults were recruited and grouped into eight groups according to gender and body mass index (BMI) (kg/$m^2$). The Korean Society for the Study of Obesity criteria defines a BMI under 20 as underweight, 20.1-22.9 as normal, 23-24.9 as overweight and over 25 as obese. For each participant, the SFT of dorsoguteal (DG) and ventrogluteal (VG) sites were measured using a caliper. Subcutaneous tissue thickness was acquired through ultrasonic images. Results: For men in the overweight and obese groups at the DG site, for the obese group at the VG site, and for women in the normal weight, overweight and obese groups at both sites, the mean subcutaneous tissue thickness exceeded 1.84 cm, the minimal length for a 1 inch needle used for IM. At the DG site, optimal intramuscular needle length (OINL) was 1.4 times in women and 1.0 times in men compared to SFT. At the VG site, OINL was 1.3 times in women and 0.9 times in men compared to SFT. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that SFT is a reliable index to determine optimal needle length with minimal effort prior to IM.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.28-37
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• 2020

Purpose: The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence and degree of lingual concavities in the first molar region of the mandible to reduce the risk of perforating the lingual cortical bone during dental implant insertion. Methods: A total of 163 suitable cross-sectional cone-beam computed tomography images of edentulous mandibular first molar regions were evaluated. The mandibular morphology was classified as a U-configuration (undercut), a P-configuration (parallel), or a C-configuration (convex), depending on the shape of the alveolar ridge. The characteristics of lingual concavities, including their depth, angle, vertical location, and additional parameters, were measured. Results: Lingual undercuts had a prevalence of 32.5% in the first molar region. The mean concavity angle was 63.34°±8.26°, and the mean linear concavity depth (LCD) was 3.03±0.99 mm. The mean vertical distances of point P from the alveolar crest (Vc) and from the inferior mandibular border were 9.39±3.39 and 16.25±2.44, respectively. Men displayed a larger vertical height from the alveolar crest to 2 mm coronal to the inferior alveolar nerve (Vcb) and a wider LCD than women (P<0.05). Negative correlations were found between age and buccolingual width at 2 mm apical to the alveolar crest, between age and Vcb, between age and Vc, and between age and LCD (P<0.05). Conclusions: The prevalence of lingual concavities was 32.5% in this study. Age and gender had statistically significant effects on the lingual morphology. The risk of lingual perforation was higher in young men than in the other groups analyzed.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.141-155
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• 2021

Purpose: To develop a 3D magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) method for application in high resolution knee cartilage PD, T₁, T₂ mapping. Materials and Methods: A novel 3D acquisition trajectory with golden-angle rotating radial in k_xy direction and interleaved echo planar imaging (EPI) acquisition in the k_z direction was implemented in the MRF framework. A centric order was applied to the interleaved EPI acquisition to reduce Nyquist ghosting artifact due to field inhomogeneity. For the reconstruction, singular value decomposition (SVD) compression method was used to accelerate reconstruction time and conjugate gradient sensitivity-encoding (CG-SENSE) was performed to overcome low SNR of the high resolution data. Phantom experiments were performed to verify the proposed method. In vivo experiments were performed on 6 healthy volunteers and 2 early osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Results: In the phantom experiments, the T₁ and T₂ values of the proposed method were in good agreement with the spin-echo references. The results from the in vivo scans showed high quality proton density (PD), T₁, T₂ map with EPI echo train length (N_ETL = 4), acceleration factor in through plane (R_z = 5), and number of radial spokes (N_spk = 4). In patients, high T₂ values (50-60 ms) were seen in all transverse, sagittal, and coronal views and the damaged cartilage regions were in agreement with the hyper-intensity regions shown on conventional turbo spin-echo (TSE) images. Conclusion: The proposed 3D MRF method can acquire high resolution (0.5 mm³) quantitative maps in practical scan time (~ 7 min and 10 sec) with full coverage of the knee (FOV: 160 × 160 × 120 mm³).

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 2022

As emphasized in the COVID-19 quarantine guidelines, hand washing is the most important prevention rule in tandem with distancing and mask. This study aimed to confirm relevant factors that affect practice of hand washing to find out approach for improvement of hand washing practice rate after COVID-19. Using the 2020 Community Health Survey data. As methods of research, this study searched for relevance by carrying out univariate logistic regression analysis, and also conducted multivariate logistic regression analysis using significant variables. Analysis results show that hand washing practice rate was high in females, well-educated, low age, cities, office job, the more people wear a face mask indoors, the higher the cycle of ventilation, the higher the cycle of disinfection and the more people maintain healthy distance. This study understood factors related to the rate of hand washing practice and results can be used as basic data for COVID-19 quarantine guidelines.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.117-126
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• 2023

Purpose: Odontomas represent a common clinical entity among odontogenic tumors, but are not well-addressed in the Vietnamese population. The present study aimed to determine the clinical and preclinical characteristics of odontomas and associated factors in the Vietnamese population. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study retrieved data from histopathological diagnoses from 2 central hospitals of Odonto-Stomatology in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam during 2004-2017. The odontomas were classified as complex (CxOD) or compound (CpOD) subtypes. The epidemiological, clinical, and radiological characteristics of the odontomas, stratified by subtype and sex, were obtained and analyzed. Results: Ninety cases, consisting of 46 CxODs and 44 CpODs, were included. The average age of patients was 32.4 (±20.2) years. The patients with CxOD were older than those with CpOD (P<0.05). Clinically, 67% of patients showed an intraoral bone expansion. Approximately 60% of patients with CxOD exhibited a painful symptom, about 3-fold more than those with CpOD (P<0.05), whereas almost all patients with CpOD exhibited perturbations of dentition, unlike those with CxOD (P<0.05). Radiologically, CxOD was characterized by a larger dimension than CpOD in both sexes (P<0.05), and CpOD induced complications in adjacent teeth more often than CxOD (P<0.05). The development of odontoma with advancing age differed significantly in odontoma subtypes related to their pathological origins, and between the sexes, resulting from different physiological states. Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight the value of clinical and radiological features of odontomas and their associated factors for the early diagnosis and adequate treatment of younger patients.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.153-159
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• 2023

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess the fractal dimension, lacunarity, trabecular microarchitecture parameters, and cortical linear measurements in the mandibles of male and female individuals to identify differences between them. Materials and Methods: In total, 116 cone-beam computed tomography scans of healthy individuals of different ages (57 men and 59 women, aged between 20 and 60 years) were selected. The following bone parameters were measured: 1) buccal, lingual, and basal cortical bone thickness in 5 standard parasagittal sections (the midline, the left and right sides of the lower lateral incisors, and the left and right sides of the lower canines); 2) the bone volume fraction of 10 sequential axial sections from each patient by creating a volume of interest in the area between the lower canines; and 3) fractal dimension and lacunarity using grayscale images of the same region of the volume of interest in the anterior mandible. Spearman correlation coefficients and the Mann-Whitney test were used. Results: A significant and positive correlation was found between age and cortical thickness, especially in the region of the central incisors. Significant differences between sexes in terms of fractal dimension, lacunarity, and bone volume were found. Women revealed lower fractal dimension values and higher lacunarity and bone volume ratio values than men. Conclusion: Fractal dimension, lacunarity, trabecular bone volume, and cortical thickness were different between men and women of different ages.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2024

This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of health check-up recipients in their 20s and 30s in Korea and identify factors influencing the participation rate in order to enhance the rate of health check-ups. The study population and methods utilized data from the 8th year of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, specifically the 2nd year (2020), and targeted 1,453 Korean residents aged between 20 and 30. The factors affecting health check-up participation were divided into sociodemographic factors, health behavior factors, mental health factors, and medical utilization factors, and both simple logistic regression analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis were conducted. The analysis results showed that educational level, marital status, type of health insurance, employment status, and subjective level of health were the factors influencing health check-up participation among Korean individuals in their 20s and 30s. These research findings can serve as foundational data for improving the health check-up participation rate among individuals in their 20s and 30s.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.271-281
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• 2019

This study investigated the shielding efficiency of various types of shielding materials and measured the dose by organ using the phantom. Results of Shielding Efficiency Measurement Using Personal Radiation Meter. Among the various shielding materials, 1.1 mm RNS-TX composed of nano tungsten showed the highest shielding efficiency and 0.2 mm lead shielding showed the lowest shielding efficiency. 99mTc 30 mCi was exposed to the phantom for 120 minutes and the result of the measurement of the organs. 20.53 mSv without radiation protective clothing, 8.75 mSv when wearing 0.25 mm Pb protective clothing, 6.03 mSv when wearing 0.5 mm Pb protective clothing. 131I 2 mCi mCi was exposed to the phantom for 120 minutes and the result of the measurement of the organs. 7.71 mSv without radiation protective clothing, 4.88 mSv when wearing 0.25 mm Pb protective clothing, 2.79 mSv when wearing 0.5 mm Pb protective clothing. 18F 5 mCi was exposed to the phantom for 120 minutes and the result of the measurement of the organs. 16.39 mSv without radiation protective clothing, 15.84 mSv when wearing 0.25 mm Pb protective clothing, 12.52 mSv when wearing 0.5 mm Pb protective clothing. None of the radiation workers working in the nuclear medicine department exceeded the dose limit. However, when compared with other workers in the hospital, they showed a relatively high dose. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare measures to reduce and manage the dose of radiation workers in the nuclear medicine department through the wearing of radiation protective clothing made of lightweight, shielding material with good shielding efficiency, circulation task, task sharing, and substitution equipment such as auto dispenser.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.111-118
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• 2019

Chest digital tomosynthesis has become a practical imaging modality because it can solve the problem of anatomy overlapping in conventional chest radiography. However, because of both limited scan angle and finite-size detector, a portion of chest cannot be represented in some or all of the projection. These bring a discontinuity in intensity across the field of view boundaries in the reconstructed slices, which we refer to as the truncation artifacts. The purpose of this study was to reduce truncation artifacts using a weighted normalization approach and to investigate the performance of this approach for our prototype chest digital tomosynthesis system. The system source-to-image distance was 1100 mm, and the center of rotation of X-ray source was located on 100 mm above the detector surface. After obtaining 41 projection views with ${\pm}20^{\circ}$ degrees, tomosynthesis slices were reconstructed with the filtered back projection algorithm. For quantitative evaluation, peak signal to noise ratio and structure similarity index values were evaluated after reconstructing reference image using simulation, and mean value of specific direction values was evaluated using real data. Simulation results showed that the peak signal to noise ratio and structure similarity index was improved respectively. In the case of the experimental results showed that the effect of artifact in the mean value of specific direction of the reconstructed image was reduced. In conclusion, the weighted normalization method improves the quality of image by reducing truncation artifacts. These results suggested that weighted normalization method could improve the image quality of chest digital tomosynthesis.