• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.401-405
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• 2013

Complex regional pain syndrome secondary to brachial plexus injury is often severe, debilitating and difficult to manage. Percuteneous radiofrequency sympathectomy is a relatively new technique, which has shown promising results in various chronic pain disorders. We present four consecutive patients with complex regional pain syndrome secondary to brachial plexus injury for more than 6 months duration, who had undergone percutaneous T2 and T3 radiofrequency sympathectomy after a diagnostic block. All four patients experienced minimal pain relief with conservative treatment and stellate ganglion blockade. An acceptable 6 month pain relief was achieved in all 4 patients where pain score remained less than 50% than that of initial score and all oral analgesics were able to be tapered down. There were no complications attributed to this procedure were reported. From this case series, percutaneous T2 and T3 radiofrequency sympathectomy might play a significant role in multi-modal approach of CRPS management.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2008

A test as a form of diagnostic of algorithm and logic abilities is considered. Such test for measuring abilities and achievements of talented children has been designed and used at the Kharkiv Regional Olympiad in Informatics. Quality of the test and its items is analyzed. Correlation between the test results of children and their success in creating mathematical models, designing of complicated algorithms and translating these algorithms into computer programs is discussed.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.1052-1056
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• 1999

The pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma is a rare malignant tumor, which is composed of an admixture of carcinomatous and sarcomatous components, and accounts for 0.3% of all pulmonary neoplasms. Clinicopathological features are often related to anatomical location: central endobronchial type and peripheral parenchymal type. Noninvasive diagnostic test had a low yield in detection sarcomatoid carcinoma. Metastasis to the regional lymph nodes and to distant organ is common. The prognosis is poor and the median survival is about 15 months. We report two cases of pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma with review of literatures.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.564-567
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• 1993

Carcinosarcoma of the lung is an admixture of cardinomatous and sarcomatous lesion and accounts for 0.3% of all pulmonary neoplasm. Clinicopathological features are often related to anatomical location : central endobronchial type and peripheral parenchymal type. Noninvasive diagnostic tests had a low yield in detection carcinosarcoma. Metastasis to regional lymph nodes and to distant organ is common. The prognosis is poor and the median survival is less than one year.Two cases of carcinosarcoma patients are reported here - one case is composed of undifferent cell carcinoma and spindle cell sarcoma in the male of 72 year old and the other case squamous cell carcinoma and spindle cell sarcoma in the male of 65 year old.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.83 no.1
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• pp.89-95
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• 2020

Background: Same-day sputum microcopy is recommended in areas where sputum smear microscopy external quality assessment (EQA) is effectively implemented and sturdy. In Addis Ababa, the status of EQA and drop-out of same-day sputum smear microcopy has not yet been assessed. The objective of this study was to assess the quality of same-day sputum smear microscopy and diagnostic drop-out of presumptive tuberculosis (TB) patients in health facilities (HFs) across Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: Amulti-analysis was conducted from September 2016 to July 2017 to determine the status of external quality assessment and diagnostic drop-out of presumptive TB patients registered for same-day sputum smear microscopy. Data was coded and entered in Microsoft Excel, and subsequently transferred and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: The drop-out of same-day sputum smear microscopy was 209 (6.2%). More than 33% of the specimens collected for purposes of same-day sputum smears were of poor quality. Among the selected HFs for the study: 13 (46.4%) used filter reagents prior to sputum smear staining while 75% of the selected HFs for the study used smear microscopy services interruption in a year. The sensitivity and specificity of the HFs participating in regional quality assessment scheme for the diagnosis of TB was 97.4% and 99.6%, respectively. Conclusion: The diagnostic drop-out of same-day sputum smear microscopy was high in Addis Ababa. Strengthening EQA, competency-based laboratory professionals training on sputum smear microscopy might reduce the reading errors in sputum smear. Awareness creation of the community on the benefits gained from completion of specimen provision for the same-day approach decreases diagnostic drop-out and enhances TB control program.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.80-86
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• 1990

Fifty seven patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma were performed radioactive iodine-131 whole body scans after administration of diagnostic dose $(2\sim10\;mCi)$ and therapeutic dose $(30\sim150\;mCi)$ within three months. We evaluated the state of radioactive iodine-131 uptakes in whole body scan to detect correct metastasis of thyroid carcinoma. The results are as follows: 1) In 20 of the 57 patients (35%), the therapeutic scan showed the additional uptakes that were not seen in the diagnostic scan. 2) In 9 (64.2%) of the 14 patients who had been received the thyroid ablation theraphy with I-131 previously, new additional lesions were found in the therapeutic scan but only 11 (25%) of the 32 patients who had not been received the thyroid ablation theraphy disclosed new uptake lesions (p < 0.01). 3) The additional uptake lesions of therapeutic scan were significantly more common in the bony metastatic foci (55.7%) than other areas (p < 0.01). In 11 (55%) of 20 patients, additional uptake regions were anterior neck areas (thyroid bed or regional lymph node). We conclude that diagnostic scan with $2\sim5$ mCi I-131 is inadequate in evaluating residual iodine avid tissues of patients with thyroid carcinoma. Also post-theraphy I-131 whole body scan would be important to evaluate the correct staging and prognosis of thyroid carcinoma, and to follow-up patients.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.51-65
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• 2019

This study developed diagnostic system to understand the level of welfare cultural service and infrastructure in rural areas. The applicability was reviewed through the Delphi survey and the sample survey of 60 villages. The diagnostic indicators consist of three areas: the demand area, supply area, and delivery area. The demand area consists of 8 indicators, 25 indicators for welfare services and infrastructure (healthcare, social welfare) and 32 indicators for cultural services and infrastructure (culture, education, leisure sports). The service delivery area was divided into service supply area access and traffic accessibility (public transport use status and rural transport model status) by each indicator. A diagnostic system was applied to 60 villages. Services and infrastructure for rural welfare and culture were supplied more in the Si area than Gun area. The delivery area was easier to access the Gun area than Si area. In the case of traffic access, public transportation was more frequently used in the Si area than Gun area, and the rural transportation model was found to have a relatively large amount in the Gun area compared to Si area. The diagnosis system about services and infrastructure for rural welfare and culture will provide information necessary for establishment and decision making of regional development policy taking into account characteristics of rural areas in the future.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.79-83
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• 2015

The Cucurbitaceae are a plant family that consist of over a hundred genera, the most important of which are squash, pumpkin, zucchini, some gourds, cucumber and watermelon. These are among the top imported seeds in Korea. At the time of their import, the Squash mosaic virus (SqMV), the Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) and the Kyuri green mottle mosaic virus (KGMMV) are designated as regulated viruses for quarantine in Korea. This study was conducted to develop specific primer sets for easy and rapid detection of SqMV, CGMMV and KGMMV. RT-PCR with the nested PCR primer sets and modified positive control plasmids were capable of highly sensitive detection and verification of such viruses. In addition, developed diagnostic PCR systems applied to quarantine sites detected 47 cases of SqMV, 67 cases of CGMMV and 17 cases of KGMMV between 2010 and the first half of 2014.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.322-323
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• 2002

Partial volume averaging effect of PET data influences on the accuracy of quantitative measurements of regional brain metabolism because spatial resolution of PET is limited. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of partial volume correction carried out on $^{18}$ F-PET images using Hoffman brain phantom. $^{18}$ F-PET Hoffman phantom images were co-registered to MR slices of the same phantom. All the MR slices of the phantom were then segmented to be binary images. Each of these binary images was convolved in 2 dimensions with the spatial resolution of the PET. The original PET images were then divided by the smoothed binary images in slice-by-slice, voxel-by-voxel basis resulting in larger PET image volume in size. This enlarged partial volume corrected PET image volume was multiplied by original binary image volume to exclude extracortical region. The evaluation of partial volume corrected PET image volume was performed by region of interests (ROI) analysis applying ROIs, which were drawn on cortical regions of the original MR image slices, to corrected and original PET image volume. From the ROI analysis, range of regional mean values increases of partial volume corrected PET images was 4 to 14%, and average increase for all the ROIs was about 10% in this phantom study. Hoffman brain phantom study was useful for the objective evaluation of the partial volume correction method. This MR-based correction method would be applicable to patients in the. quantitative analysis of FDG-PET studies.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.79-94
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• 2022

Due to the highly contagious nature and severity of the respiratory diseases caused by COVID-19, economical and accurate tests are required to better monitor and prevent the spread of this contagion. As the structural and molecular properties of SARS-CoV-2 were being revealed during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, many manufacturers of COVID-19 diagnostic kits actively invested in the design, development, validation, verification, and implementation of diagnostic tests. Currently, diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2 are the most widely used and validated techniques for rapid antigen, and immuno-serological assays for specific IgG and IgM antibody tests and molecular diagnostic tests. Molecular diagnostic assays are the gold standard for direct detection of viral RNA in individuals suspected to be infected with SARS-CoV-2. Antibody-based serological tests are indirect tests applied to determine COVID-19 prevalence in the community and identify individuals who have obtained immunity. In the future, it is necessary to explore technical problems encountered in the early stages of global or regional outbreaks of pandemics and provide future directions for better diagnostic tests. This article evaluates the commercially available and FDA-approved molecular and immunological diagnostic assays and analyzes their performance characteristics.