• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제68권4호
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• pp.205-211
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• 2010

Background: Procalcitonin is a well known marker in infection that plays a role in distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections in screening. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the role of procalcitonin in differentiating between 2009 H1N1 influenza pneumonia and community acquired pneumonia of bacterial origin, or mixed bacterial origin and 2009 H1N1 influenza infection. Methods: A retrospective observational study was performed over the 6-month winter period during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. Ninety-six patient-subjects were enrolled, all of whom had been diagnosed with community acquired pneumonia in emergency department during the study period. On admission, laboratory studies were performed, which included 2009 H1N1 influenza real-time polymerase chain reaction of nasal secretions and procalcitonin on serum; the laboratory values were compared between the study groups. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were performed on the resulting data. Results: Compared to those with bacterial or mixed infections (n=62) and bacterial pneumonia with confirmed organisms (n=30), patients with 2009 H1N1 pneumonia (n=34) were significantly more likely to have low procalcitonin levels (p=0.008, 0.001). Using cutoff of value >0.3 ng/mL, the sensitivity and specificity of procalcitonin for detection of patients with confirmed bacterial pneumonia were 76.2% and 60.6%, respectively. A significant difference in procalcitonin was found between 2009 H1N1 pneumonia and pneumonia caused by mixed influenza viral and bacterial infections (0.15 [0.05~0.84] vs. 10.3 [0.05~22.87] ng/mL, p=0.045). Conclusion: Serum procalcitonin measurement may assist in the discrimination between pneumonia of bacterial and of 2009 H1N1 influenza origin. High values of procalcitonin suggest that bacterial infection or mixed infection of bacteria and 2009 H1N1 influenza is more likely.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.91-98
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• 2017

Background & Object: Basic daily activity screening tool such as the Modified Barthel Index (MBI) has been used commonly in rehabilitation clinic and community based rehabilitation setting. Previous studies have shown the significant relations between the level of daily activities and driving ability on stroke or elderly people. However, there is a lack of studies to investigate the usefulness of MBI on prediction of driving ability for stroke patient. This study was to predict driving abilities of stroke survivor using Korean version Modified Barthel Index (K-MBI). Methods: A sample of 48 patients with stroke in rehabilitation hospital was recruited. All participants were tested level of basic daily activities using K-MBI. The driving ability of participants was tested using virtual reality driving simulator. The predictive validity was calculated of the K-MBI among pass or fail group of driving simulator test using receiver operating characteristics curves. Results: The cut-off score of >86.5 on the K-MBI is proper sensitivity to predict on driving performance ability. Conclusion: This pilot result offers clinical reference to therapists and caregivers for reasoning on driving recommendation period during rehabilitation stage of stroke survivors. Further studies need to identify prediction using real on-road test in a large population group.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.381-388
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• 2015

In this paper, a wireless video streaming system is designed and implemented for TV white space applications. It consists of a RF transceiver module, a digital modem, a camera, and a LCD screen. A VGA resolution video is captured by a camera, modulated by modem, and transmitted by RF transceiver module, and finally displayed at a destination 2.6-inch LCD screen. The RF transceiver is based on direct-conversion architecture. Image leakage is improved by low pass filtering LO, which successfully covers the TVWS. Also, DC offset problem is solved by current steering techniques which control common mode level at DAC output node. The output power of the transmitter and the minimum sensitivity of the receiver is +10 dBm and -82 dBm, respectively. The channel bandwidth is tunable among 6, 7 and 8 MHz according to regulations and standards. Digital modem is realized in Kintex-7 FPGA. Data rate is 9 Mbps based on QPSK and 512ch OFDM. A VGA video is successfully streamed through the air by using the developed TV white-space RF communication module.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.5-13
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to determine the value of serum concentration of C-reactive protein(CRP) in comparison with ESR and leukocyte as the tools for diagnosis and follow-up study of infection. For this study, thirty-one patients with head and neck infection and thirty-two patients performed the orthognathic surgery were selected for experimental and control groups each other. we analyzed the blood sample daily to measure CRP, ESR and leukocytosis. The results of this study are as the following : 1. Serum C-Reactive Protein levels in the experimental group were higher than control group and the pattern of CRP changes continued to decline in both groups(P<0.001). 2. ESR changes in both groups were scattered without any special pattern. 3. Correlation between CRP and Leukocyte was higher than others(r=0.664, P<0.01). 4. In the Receiver Operating Characteristic(ROC) Curve of experimental group, rapid increase of CRP curve and Area under the curve(AUC) value, 0.774, indicate the high accuracy of estimation. 5. In experimental group, sensitivity of CRP, ESR, and Leukocytosis on recovery day were 83%, 17% and 71%. Based on the results of this study, we could conclude that determination of CRP is more useful method to diagnosis and follow-up study of infection than other commonly used variables in oral and maxillofacial region.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• 제48권4호
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• pp.1-9
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• 2011

Hemorrhagic shock is a clinically widespread syndrome characterized by inadequate oxygenation and supply. It is important to diagnose hemorrhagic shock in its early stage for improving treatment effects and survival rate. However, an accurate diagnosis and treatment could be delayed in the early stage of hemorrhagic shock by evaluating only vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure. There have been many studies for the early diagnosis of hemorrhagic shock, reporting that lactate concentration and perfusion were useful variables for tissue hypoxia and metabolic acidosis. In this study, we measured both perfusion using a laser Doppler flowmeter and lactate concentration from the volume controlled hemorrhagic shock using rats. We also proposed a new shock index which was calculated by dividing lactate concentration by perfusion for early diagnosis. As a result of the survival prediction by the proposed index with the receiver operating characteristic curve method, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of survival were 90.0, 96.7 and 94.0%, respectively. The proposed index showed the fastest significant difference among the other parameters such as blood pressure and heart rate. It could offer early diagnosis and effective treatment for human hemorrhagic shock if it is applicable to humans.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• 제38권1호
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• pp.47-52
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• 2011

Objective: To determine whether characteristics of sperm motility obtained by computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) could predict pregnancy after intrauterine insemination (IUI) in couples with unexplained infertility. Methods: Three hundred eighty-three cycles of intrauterine insemination with superovulation were retrospectively analyzed. Semen analysis was performed with CASA before and after swim-up and the parameters were compared between pregnant and non-pregnant women. Results: The pregnancy rate per cycle was 14.1%. Pregnant and non-pregnant women were comparable in terms of age, infertility duration, the number of dominant follicles. While sperm concentration, motility, and parameters such as average path velocity (VAP) and percentage rapid (RAPID) before semen preparation were significantly different between the pregnancy and non-pregnancy groups, there were no differences in sperm parameters when comparing the two groups after preparation. Using a receiver operating characteristic curve to measure sensitivity and specificity, the optimal threshold value for the predictors of pregnancy was revealed to be a concentration of ${\geq}111{\times}10^6/mL$, a motility of ${\geq}$ 51.4%, and RAPID ${\geq}$ 30.1% before preparation for IUI. Conclusion: Sperm parameters including concentration, motility, and RAPID before sperm preparation could have predictive value for pregnancy outcome after intrauterine insemination with superovulation in couples with unexplained infertility, and would be helpful when counseling patients before they make the decision to proceed with IVF/ICSI-ET.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.64-73
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• 2015

Recently, hydraulic fracturing is used in various fields and microseismic monitoring is one of the best methods for judging where hydraulic fractures exist and how they are developing. When locating microseismic events using single vertical well data, distances from the vertical array and depths from the surface are generally decided using time differences between compressional (P) wave and shear (S) wave arrivals and azimuths are calculated using P wave hodogram analysis. However, in field data, it is sometimes hard to acquire P wave data which has smaller amplitude than S wave because microseismic data often have very low signal to noise (S/N) ratio. To overcome this problem, in this study, we developed a grid search algorithm which can find event location using all combinations of arrival times recorded at receivers. In addition, we introduced and analyzed the method which calculates azimuths using S wave. The tests of synthetic data show the inversion method using all combinations of arrival times and receivers can locate events without considering the origin time even using only single phase. In addition, the method can locate events with higher accuracy and has lower sensitivity on first arrival picking errors than conventional method. The method which calculates azimuths using S wave can provide reliable results when the dip between event and receiver is relatively small. However, this method shows the limitation when dip is greater than about $20^{\circ}$ in our model test.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• 제19권5호
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• pp.490-498
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• 2014

Objectives: This study was conducted to propose the need of re-establishing the criteria of the body weight classification in the elderly. We compared the Asia-Pacific Region Criteria (APR-C) with Entropy Model Criteria (ENT-C) using Morbidity rate of chronic diseases which correlates significantly with Body Mass Index (BMI). Methods: Subjects were 886 elderly female participating in the 2007-2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). We compared APR-C with those of ENT-C using Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve and logistic regression analysis. Results: In the case of the morbidity of hypertension, the results were as follows: Where it was in the T-off point of APR-C, sensitivity was 67.5%, specificity was 43.1%, and Youden's index was 10.6. While in the cut-off point of ENT-C, it was 56.7%, 56.6%, and 13.3 respectively. In the case of the morbidity of diabetes, the results were as follows: In the cut-off point of APR-C, Youden's index was 14.2. While in the cut-off point of ENT-C, it was 17.2 respectively. The Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) of the subjects who had more than 2 diseases among hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia was 0.615 (95% CI: 0.578-0.652). Compared to the normal group, the odds ratio of the hypertension group which will belong to the overweight or obesity was 1.79 (95% CI: 1.30-2.47) in the APR-C, and 2.04 (95% CI: 1.49-2.80) in the ENT-C (p < 0.001). Conclusions: We conclude that the optimal cut-off point of BMI to distinguish between normal weight and overweight was $24kg/m^2$ (ENT-C) rather than $23kg/m^2$ (APR-C).

• Clinical and Experimental Emergency Medicine
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.219-229
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• 2018

Objective We compared the predictive value of the National Early Warning Score+Lactate (NEWS+L) score with those of other parameters such as the pre-endoscopic Rockall score (PERS), Glasgow-Blatchford score (GBS), and albumin, international normalized ratio, altered mental status, systolic blood pressure, age older than 65 years score (AIMS65) among patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB). Methods We conducted a retrospective study of patients with UGIB during 2 consecutive years. The primary outcome was the composite of in-hospital death, intensive care unit admission, and the need for ${\geq}5$ packs of red blood cell transfusion within 24 hours. Results Among 530 included patients, the composite outcome occurred in 59 patients (19 inhospital deaths, 13 intensive care unit admissions, and 40 transfusions of ${\geq}5$ packs of red blood cells within 24 hours). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the NEWS+L score for the composite outcome was 0.76 (95% confidence interval, 0.70 to 0.82), which demonstrated a significant difference compared to PERS (0.66, 0.59-0.73, P=0.004), but not to GBS (0.70, 0.64-0.77, P=0.141) and AIMS65 (0.76, 0.70-0.83, P=0.999). The sensitivities of NEWS+L scores of 3 (n=34, 6.4%), 4 (n=92, 17.4%), and 5 (n=171, 32.3%) were 100%, 98.3%, and 96.6%, respectively, while the sensitivity of an AIMS65 score of 0 (n=159, 30.0%) was 91.5%. Conclusion The NEWS+L score showed better discriminative performance than the PERS and comparable discriminative performance to the GBS and AIMS65. The NEWS+L score may be used to identify low-risk patients among patients with UGIB.

• Asian Spine Journal
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• 제12권6호
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• pp.1085-1091
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• 2018

Study Design: Case-control. Purpose: To determine optimal cut-off value for body mass index (BMI) in predicting surgical success in patients with lumbar spinal canal stenosis (LSCS). Overview of Literature: BMI is an essential variable in the assessment of patients with LSCS. Methods: We conducted a prospective study with obese and non-obese LSCS surgical patients and analyzed data on age, sex, duration of symptoms, walking distance, morphologic grade of stenosis, BMI, postoperative complications, and functional disability. Obesity was defined as BMI of ${\geq}30kg/m^2$. Patients completed the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) questionnaire before surgery and 2 years after surgery. Surgical success was defined as ${\geq}30%$ improvement from the baseline ODI score. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to estimate the optimal cut-off values of BMI to predict surgical success. In addition, correlation was assessed between BMI and stenosis grade based on morphology as defined by Schizas and colleague in total, 189 patients were eligible to enter the study. Results: Mean age of patients was $61.5{\pm}9.6years$. Mean follow-up was $36{\pm}12months$. Most patients (88.4%) were classified with grades C (severe stenosis) and D (extreme stenosis). Post-surgical success was 85.7% at the 2-year follow-up. A weak correlation was observed between morphologic grade of stenosis and BMI. Rates of postoperative complications were similar between patients who were obese and those who were non-obese. Both cohorts had similar degree of improvement in the ODI at the 2-year followup. However, patients who were non-obese presented significantly higher surgical success than those who were obese. In ROC curve analysis, a cut-off value of ${\leq}29.1kg/m^2$ for BMI in patients with LSCS was suggestive of surgical success, with 81.1% sensitivity and 82.2% specificity (area under the curve, 0.857; 95% confidence interval, 0.788-0.927). Conclusion: This study showed that the BMI can be considered a parameter for predicting surgical success in patients with LSCS and can be useful in clinical practice.