• Laboratory Medicine Online
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2012

Background: Measurement of HbA_1c levels is widely used to diagnose diabetes mellitus and to evaluate and monitor plasma-glucose concentrations over 6-8 weeks. In this study, we evaluated the diagnostic performance of the newly developed latex immunoturbidimetric method by using Autolab HbA_1c. Methods: We analyzed and compared the diagnostic performance of Autolab HbA_1c with that of Toshiba 200FR between April 2009 and July 2009. According to guidelines (EP5-A2, EP6-P, EP9-A2) of the clinical and laboratory standards institute (CLSI), we compared linearity, precision and correlation of Autolab HbA_1c with those of G7 (Tosoh Corp., Kyoto, Japan) by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Results: Data obtained using Autolab HbA_1c showed good linearity in mixtures of samples with low (3.1%) and high (15.1%) levels of HbA_1c (r²=0.9997). In the analysis of within-run precision of the samples with HbA_1c levels of 5.1% and 12.1%, the SDs were 0.04 and 0.06 and covariances of these samples were 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively. In the Deming regression model, the regression equation was as follows: Autolab HbA_1c=1.0859×Tosoh HPLC-0.6957. Conclusions: In this study, Autolab HbA_1c method showed better performance characteristics than Tosoh G7 did. In reference review, there was no interference of variant hemoglobin. The data acquisition time of Autolab HbA_1c was lower than that of Tosoh G7. The advantages of Autolab HbA_1c are that it can be used as an autoanlyzer in routine chemical analysis, it does not require pre-analytical treatment, and the samples are automatically treated with distilled water for hemolysis.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.36-42
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• 2013

Background/Aims: Gemcitabine is regarded as a reference regimen for advanced pancreatic cancer and shows relatively safe toxicity profiles compared with other cytotoxic agents. However, many oncologists are appeared to be still reluctant to treat elderly pancreatic cancer patients with cytotoxic chemotherapy because of predicted low response rate and potential adverse events. Methods: All patients who were received gemcitabine based chemotherapy between 2007 and 2010 were identified and clinical, laboratory, radiographic data were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into two groups based on their ages: less than 65, and equal or more than 65 years old. Gemcitabine, at a dose of 1,000 mg per square meter of body surface area, was administered by intravenously over 30 minutes weekly for 3 weeks followed by 1 week rest, alone or along with other chemotherapeutic agents including cisplatin, capecitabine and erlotinib. Results: A total of 61 patients were identified and all patients were not eligible to receive operation because of advanced stage at diagnosis. Twenty three patients (37.7%) were equal or more than 65 year of age. Mean age was 56 years old and 71 years old in each group. Laboratory data including CA 19-9 were not significantly different. More gemcitabine monotherapy was delivered (56.5% vs. 26.3%, p=0.029) and less second or third line therapy was adminis- tered (17.4% vs. 50.0%, p=0.014) in elderly group. Cholangitis occurred and stent placement were performed similarly in both groups. Conclusion: Gemcitabine based chemotherapy can be administered safely to elderly pancreatic cancer patients and comparable response rate and progression free survival can be expected as young patients.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.83 no.2
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• pp.331-343
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• 2022

Purpose To systematically compare the performance of liver imaging reporting and data system treatment response (LR-TR) with the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (mRECIST) for diagnosing viable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with locoregional therapy (LRT). Materials and Methods Original studies of intra-individual comparisons between the diagnostic performance of LR-TR and mRECIST using dynamic contrast-enhanced CT or MRI were searched in MEDLINE and EMBASE, up to August 25, 2021. The reference standard for tumor viability was surgical pathology. The meta-analytic pooled sensitivity and specificity of the viable category using each criterion were calculated using a bivariate random-effects model and compared using bivariate meta-regression. Results For five eligible studies (430 patients with 631 treated observations), the pooled per-lesion sensitivities and specificities were 58% (95% confidence interval [CI], 45%-70%) and 93% (95% CI, 88%-96%) for the LR-TR viable category and 56% (95% CI, 42%-69%) and 86% (95% CI, 72%-94%) for the mRECIST viable category, respectively. The LR-TR viable category provided significantly higher pooled specificity (p < 0.01) than the mRECIST but comparable pooled sensitivity (p = 0.53). Conclusion The LR-TR algorithm demonstrated better specificity than mRECIST, without a significant difference in sensitivity for the diagnosis of pathologically viable HCC after LRT.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.83 no.5
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• pp.1059-1070
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• 2022

Purpose To compare the sensitivity of tumor detection and inter-observer agreement between acquired diffusion-weighted imaging (aDWI) b2000 and computed DWI (cDWI) b2000 in patients with prostate cancer (PCa). Materials and Methods Eighty-eight patients diagnosed with PCa by radical prostatectomy and having undergone pre-operative 3 Tesla-MRI, including DWI (b, 0, 100, 1000, 2000 s/mm²), were included in the study. cDWI b2000 was obtained from aDWI b0, b100, and b1000. Two independent reviewers performed a review of the aDWI b2000 and cDWI b2000 images in random order at 4-week intervals. A region of interest was drawn for the largest tumor on each dataset, and a Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) score based on PI-RADS v2.1 was recorded. Histologic topographic maps served as the reference standard. Results The study population's Gleason scores were 6 (n = 16), 7 (n = 53), 8 (n = 9), and 9 (n = 10). According to the reviewers, the sensitivities of cDWI b2000 and aDWI b2000 showed no significant differences (for reviewer 1, both 94% [83/88]; for reviewer 2, both 90% [79/88]; p = 1.000, respectively). The kappa values of cDWI b2000 and aDWI b2000 for the PI-RADS score were 0.422 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.240-0.603) and 0.495 (95% CI, 0.308-0.683), respectively. Conclusion cDWI b2000 showed comparable sensitivity with aDWI b2000, in addition to sustained moderate inter-observer agreement, in the detection of PCa.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.136-152
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• 2024

Purpose: A comprehensive evaluation item was developed to assess adolescent dietary habits and nutritional practices, considering food intake, eating behaviors, and food culture, such as social support and food environment. Methods: The 59 candidate items of the evaluation checklist were obtained based on the results of the eighth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, Korea Dietary Reference Intakes, dietary guidelines for adolescents, Youth Risk Behavior Survey data, national nutrition policies and dietary guidelines, and literature reviews. Four hundred and three middle and high school students residing in metropolitan areas participated in a survey using the 58-item checklist, which was selected through expert evaluation and content validity ratio analysis. The construct validity of the assessment tool for the quality of adolescent diets was assessed by exploratory factor analyses to determine if the checklist items were organized properly and whether the responses to each item were distributed adequately. Results: The Bartlett sphericity test was significant for each area (p <0.001), and the eigen values were greater than one. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and cumulative proportions by areas were food intake (0.765 and 56.8%, respectively), eating behaviors (0.544 and 64.8%, respectively), and food environment (0.699 and 62.4%, respectively). Twenty-two checklists were determined for the final evaluation items for the adolescents' dietary habits and nutritional practices and were categorized into three distinct factors: food intake (10 items), eating behaviors (4 items), and food environment (8 items). Conclusion: The evaluation items for adolescent dietary habits and nutritional practices is a useful checklist for easily and quickly assessing the dietary qualities and reflecting Korean adolescents and their food environmental factors related to a sustainable diet.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.34-40
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• 2021

Purpose If a new test is introduced or reagents are changed in the laboratory of a medical institution, the characteristics of the test should be analyzed according to the procedure and the assessment of reagents should be made. However, several necessary conditions must be met to perform all required comparative evaluations, first enough samples should be prepared for each test, and secondly, various reagents applicable to the comparative evaluations must be supplied. Even if enough comparative evaluations have been done, there is a limit to the fact that the data variation for the new reagent represents the overall patient data variation, The fact puts a burden on the laboratory to the change the reagent. Due to these various difficulties, reagent changes in the laboratory are limited. In order to introduce a competitive bid, the institute conducted a full investigation of Radioimmunoassay(RIA) reagents for each test and established the range of reagents available in the laboratory through comparative evaluations. We wanted to share this process. Materials and Methods There are 20 items of tests conducted in our laboratory except for consignment tests. For each test, RIA reagents that can be used were fully investigated with the reference to external quality control report. and the manuals for each reagent were obtained. Each reagent was checked for the manual to check the test method, Incubation time, sample volume needed for the test. After that, the primary selection was made according to whether it was available in this laboratory. The primary selected reagents were supplied with 2kits based on 100tests, and the data correlation test, sensitivity measurement, recovery rate measurement, and dilution test were conducted. The secondary selection was performed according to the results of the comparative evaluation. The reagents that passed the primary and secondary selections were submitted to the competitive bidding list. In the case of reagent is designated as a singular, we submitted a explanatory statement with the data obtained during the primary and secondary selection processes. Results Excluded from the primary selection was the case where TAT was expected to be delayed at the moment, and it was impossible to apply to our equipment due to the large volume of reagents used during the test. In the primary selection, there were five items which only one reagent was available.(squamous cell carcinoma Ag(SCC Ag), β-human chorionic gonadotropin(β-HCG), vitamin B12, folate, free testosterone), two reagents were available(CA19-9, CA125, CA72-4, ferritin, thyroglobulin antibody(TG Ab), microsomal antibody(Mic Ab), thyroid stimulating hormone-receptor-antibody(TSH-R-Ab), calcitonin), three reagents were available (triiodothyronine(T3), Tree T3, Free T4, TSH, intact parathyroid hormone(intact PTH)) and four reagents were available are carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA), TG. In the secondary selection, there were eight items which only one reagent was available.(ferritin, TG, CA19-9, SCC, β-HCG, vitaminB12, folate, free testosterone), two reagents were available(TG Ab, Mic Ab, TSH-R-Ab, CA125, CA72-4, intact PTH, calcitonin), three reagents were available(T3, Tree T3, Free T4, TSH, CEA). Reasons excluded from the secondary selection were the lack of reagent supply for comparative evaluations, the problems with data reproducibility, and the inability to accept data variations. The most problematic part of comparative evaluations was sample collection. It didn't matter if the number of samples requested was large and the capacity needed for the test was small. It was difficult to collect various concentration samples in the case of a small number of tests(100 cases per month or less), and it was difficult to conduct a recovery rate test in the case of a relatively large volume of samples required for a single test(more than 100 uL). In addition, the lack of dilution solution or standard zero material for sensitivity measurement or dilution tests was one of the problems. Conclusion Comparative evaluation for changing test reagents require appropriate preparation time to collect diverse and sufficient samples. In addition, setting the total sample volume and reagent volume range required for comparative evaluations, depending on the sample volume and reagent volume required for one test, will reduce the burden of sample collection and planning for each comparative evaluation.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 1999

Among the various seismic data processing sequences, the velocity analysis is the most time consuming and man-hour intensive processing steps. For the production seismic data processing, a good velocity analysis tool as well as the high performance computer is required. The tool must give fast and accurate velocity analysis. There are two different approches in the velocity analysis, batch and interactive. In the batch processing, a velocity plot is made at every analysis point. Generally, the plot consisted of a semblance contour, super gather, and a stack pannel. The interpreter chooses the velocity function by analyzing the velocity plot. The technique is highly dependent on the interpreters skill and requires human efforts. As the high speed graphic workstations are becoming more popular, various interactive velocity analysis programs are developed. Although, the programs enabled faster picking of the velocity nodes using mouse, the main improvement of these programs is simply the replacement of the paper plot by the graphic screen. The velocity spectrum is highly sensitive to the presence of the noise, especially the coherent noise often found in the shallow region of the marine seismic data. For the accurate velocity analysis, these noise must be removed before the spectrum is computed. Also, the velocity analysis must be carried out by carefully choosing the location of the analysis point and accuarate computation of the spectrum. The analyzed velocity function must be verified by the mute and stack, and the sequence must be repeated most time. Therefore an iterative, interactive, and unified velocity analysis tool is highly required. An interactive velocity analysis program, xva(X-Window based Velocity Analysis) was invented. The program handles all processes required in the velocity analysis such as composing the super gather, computing the velocity spectrum, NMO correction, mute, and stack. Most of the parameter changes give the final stack via a few mouse clicks thereby enabling the iterative and interactive processing. A simple trace indexing scheme is introduced and a program to nike the index of the Geobit seismic disk file was invented. The index is used to reference the original input, i.e., CDP sort, directly A transformation techinique of the mute function between the T-X domain and NMOC domain is introduced and adopted to the program. The result of the transform is simliar to the remove-NMO technique in suppressing the shallow noise such as direct wave and refracted wave. However, it has two improvements, i.e., no interpolation error and very high speed computing time. By the introduction of the technique, the mute times can be easily designed from the NMOC domain and applied to the super gather in the T-X domain, thereby producing more accurate velocity spectrum interactively. The xva program consists of 28 files, 12,029 lines, 34,990 words and 304,073 characters. The program references Geobit utility libraries and can be installed under Geobit preinstalled environment. The program runs on X-Window/Motif environment. The program menu is designed according to the Motif style guide. A brief usage of the program has been discussed. The program allows fast and accurate seismic velocity analysis, which is necessary computing the AVO (Amplitude Versus Offset) based DHI (Direct Hydrocarn Indicator), and making the high quality seismic sections.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.171-179
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• 2017

Purpose: We conducted comparative analysis of dietary behavior and food and nutrient intakes of Korean elderly in urban and rural areas using the 2014 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Methods: This study was conducted on 1,239 participants (urban elderly: 867, rural elderly: 372) aged 65 years and over who participated in the health examination and nutrition survey in the 6th 2014 KNHANES. Dietary behaviors, including skipping meals, eating out frequencies, and food and nutrient intakes were analyzed using 24-hour recall data. Analysis of complex sample design data through SPSS 19.0 was used for the analysis. Results: The rate of skipping dinner was higher in urban (6.5%) than in rural elderly (3.6%) (p < 0.05), and the frequency of eating out per week of urban elderly (1.73) was higher than that of rural elderly (1.35) (p < 0.001). The rural elderly consumed a greater amount of grain compared to urban elderly, whereas consumption of water, seaweed food, and dairy products was lower in rural than in urban areas (p < 0.05). The rural elderly consumed significantly less highly unsaturated fatty acids, n-6 fatty acids, phosphorus, iron, vitamin A, carotene, niacin, and vitamin C in comparison with elderly in urban areas. Comparison of the percentages of Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans (KDRIs) between the two groups showed that intakes of vitamin A and vitamin C were significantly lower in the rural elderly than in urban elderly. Conclusion: The elderly in rural areas showed unbalanced food and nutrient intakes compared to the elderly in urban areas. Therefore, customized nutrition education according to residential areas should be developed and provided to rural elderly to improve their health and nutritional status.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.140-147
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to estimate internal motion using molecular sieve for quantitative improvement of lung tumor and to localize lung tumor in the small animal PET image by evaluated data. Internal motion has been demonstrated in small animal lung region by molecular sieve contained radioactive substance. Molecular sieve for internal lung motion target was contained approximately 37 kBq Cu-64. The small animal PET images were obtained from Siemens Inveon scanner using external trigger system (BioVet). SD-Rat PET images were obtained at 60 min post injection of FDG 37 MBq/0.2 mL via tail vein for 20 min. Each line of response in the list-mode data was converted to sinogram gated frames (2~16 bin) by trigger signal obtained from BioVet. The sinogram data was reconstructed using OSEM 2D with 4 iterations. PET images were evaluated with count, SNR, FWHM from ROI drawn in the target region for quantitative tumor analysis. The size of molecular sieve motion target was $1.59{\times}2.50mm$. The reference motion target FWHM of vertical and horizontal was 2.91 mm and 1.43 mm, respectively. The vertical FWHM of static, 4 bin and 8 bin was 3.90 mm, 3.74 mm, and 3.16 mm, respectively. The horizontal FWHM of static, 4 bin and 8 bin was 2.21 mm, 2.06 mm, and 1.60 mm, respectively. Count of static, 4 bin, 8 bin, 12 bin and 16 bin was 4.10, 4.83, 5.59, 5.38, and 5.31, respectively. The SNR of static, 4 bin, 8 bin, 12 bin and 16 bin was 4.18, 4.05, 4.22, 3.89, and 3.58, respectively. The FWHM were improved in accordance with gate number increase. The count and SNR were not proportionately improve with gate number, but shown the highest value in specific bin number. We measured the optimal gate number what minimize the SNR loss and gain improved count when imaging lung tumor in small animal. The internal motion estimation provide localized tumor image and will be a useful method for organ motion prediction modeling without external motion monitoring system.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.141-149
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• 2015

The data of Duroc swine species that were born from 2000 to 2014 excluding missing ones collected by Korea National Institute of Animal Science were used in the present study. After removing missing data we used 9756 of productions data and 1728 of reproductive reference of breeding research to study the level of inbreeding and to investigate the impact on the reproductive traits, production traits. The correlation of reproductive traits and inbreeding coefficient are -0.07, -0.08 for total number pigs born, number of pigs born alive respectively and birth weight per litter is -0.10, number of pigs born alive per litter to 21days is -0.06 and body weight per litter to 21days is -0.09. The correlation coefficients of the inbreeding coefficients of reproductive traits are shown within 10% with negative correlation (P < 0.05). Days of 90kg and Backfat in the correlation coefficient and inbreeding coefficient production traits were not observed significant correlations, Average daily gain was investigated by the positive correlation of 0.05. According to the above results, the inbreeding level gave a negative effect on the improvement of the breed traits, investigating a relatively high compared to a negative effect on other traits. But overall correlation degree is less than 10% was observed. This inbreeding coefficient has not been clearly observed due to degeneration of the average inbreeding coefficients of these generations was maintained within 10% of the population. The scale of the experimental group was about 150 degree pig husbandry is very small compared to the advanced countries. However, the level of inbreeding in the population group with the appropriate mating combinations is maintained below 10% of population is thought to be small and can minimize the effects of inbreeding degeneration. further testing utilizing this selection is constantly considered to be necessary.