• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.78-86
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• 2005

This study considers the magnitude of the harmonic components radiated from the ultrasonic contrast agents (UCA) activated by a typical diagnostic ultrasound. The nonlinear dynamic response of UCA to a 2 MHz diagnostic ultrasound pulse was predicted using Gilmore Model. The elastic property of the shell membrane of the UCA was ignored in the numerical model. Simulation was carried out for the UCA varying from 1 - 9 $\mu$m in its initial radius and the driving diagnostic ultrasound whose mechanical index (MI) ranges from 0.125 to 8. The powers of the sub. ultra and second harmonics of the acoustic signal from the UCA activated were compared with that of the fundamental component. The results show that. if the UCA is bigger than its resonant size (2 $\mu$m in radius for the present case) the sub harmonic power was much bigger than the fundamental. In particular, the 2nd harmonic component currently used as an imaging parameter for the harmonic imaging, was predicted to be lower in power than both the sub and the ultra harmonic component. This study indicates that, for obtaining harmonic imaging with UCA, the sub or ultra harmonics could be taken as imaging parameters better than the 2nd harmonic component.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.4049-4057
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• 2016

Background: High-risk human papillomaviruses (HR-HPV), particularly types 16 and 18, have been found to play an important role in head and neck cancer, including oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). p16, a cell cycle inhibitor, has been postulated as a surrogate marker for HR-HPV, since p16 is aberrantly overexpressed in such lesions, especially in HR-HPV-positive OPSCC. However, p16 as a surrogate marker for HR-HPV infection in cancers of the oral cavity remains controversial. Objective: The objectives of the study were to investigate the expression of p16 and the presence of HR-HPV in OSCC and oral verrucous carcinoma (VC) and to determine if p16 could be used as a surrogate marker for HR-HPV. Materials and Methods: Forty one formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues of OSCC (n=37) or VC (n=4) with clinical and histopathologic data of each case were collected. Expression of p16 was determined by immunohistochemistry, focusing on both staining intensity and numbers of positive cells. The presence of HPV types 16 and 18 was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Descriptive statistics were employed to describe the demographic, clinical, and histopathologic parameters. Associations between p16 overexpression, HR-HPV and all variables were determined by Fisher's exact test, odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). In addition, the use of p16 as a surrogate marker for HR-HPV was analyzed by sensitivity and specificity tests. Results: p16 was overexpressed in 8/37 cases (21.6%) of OSCC and 2/4 cases (50%) of VC. HPV-16 was detected in 4/34 OSCC cases (11.8%) and HPV-18 was detected in 1/34 OSCC cases (2.9%). Co-infection of HPV-16/18 was detected in 1/4 VC cases (25%). Both p16 overexpression and HR-HPV were significantly associated with young patients with both OSCC and VC (p<0.05, OR 20, 95% CI 1.9-211.8; p<0.05, OR 23.3, 95% CI 2.4-229.7, respectively). p16 was able to predict the presence of HPV-16/18 in OSCC with 40% sensitivity and 79.3% specificity and in VC with 100% sensitivity and 66.7% specificity, respectively. Conclusions: p16 overexpression was found in 24.4% of both OSCC and VC. HR-HPV, regardless of type, was detected in 15.8% in cases of OSCC and VC combined. The results of sensitivity and specificity tests suggest that p16 can be used as a surrogate marker for HR-HPV in OSCC and VC.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1367-1370
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• 2015

Diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is difficult when patients do not show jaundice. The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility of using the total serum bile acid (TSBA) level as an aid for the diagnosis of CCA in patients without jaundice. For this purpose, TSBA of the following groups were measured using a Beckman Synchron CX4 clinical chemistry analyzer: 60 cases of CCA with total serum bilirubin ${\leq}2mg/dL$ (low total bilirubin group, LTB); 32 cases of CCA with total serum bilirubin >2 mg/dL (high total bilirubin group, HTB); and 115 healthy controls. Liver function parameters such as serum cholesterol, albumin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were also examined. The results showed that the TSBA of both LTB and HTB groups of the CCA patients were significantly higher than that of the healthy controls. Also, significant correlation was observed between TSBA and total bilirubin levels in the HTB group of CCA patients. However, no such correlation was seen in the LTB group. The cut-off value of TSBA was determined for the LTB group of CCA patients using the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, and it was $6.05{\mu}mol/L$ with the sensitivity and specificity of 46.7% and 84.4%, respectively. In addition, the ALP level was correlated well with the TSBA level and ALP in HTB group was significantly higher than that of LTB group. Moreover, the combination of high TSBA and high ALP levels gave higher specificity up to 97.4%. TSBA might be useful for the diagnosis of CCA patients without jaundice.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.77-81
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• 2007

Diagnostic performance of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detecting Dirofilaria immitis in dogs was evaluated when no gold standard test was employed. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test kit (SnapTM, IDEXX, USA) with unknown parameters was also employed. The sensitivity and specificity of the PCR from two-population model were estimated by using both maximum likelihood using expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm and Bayesian method, assuming conditional independence between the two tests. A total of 266 samples, 133 samples in each trial, were randomly retrieved from the heartworm database records during the year 2002-2004 in a university animal hospital. These data originated from the test results of military dogs which were brought for routine medical check-up or testing for heartworm infection. When combined 2 trials, sensitivity and specificity of the PCR was 96.4-96.7% and 97.6-98.8% in EM and 94.4-94.8% and 97.1-98% in Bayesian. There were no statistical differences between estimates. This finding indicates that the PCR assay could be useful screening tool for detecting heartworm antigen in dogs. This study was provided further evidences that Bayesian approach is an alternative approach to draw better inference about the performance of a new diagnostic test in case when either gold test is not available.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2023

Canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2) and canine coronavirus (CCoV) are major pathogens that can induce gastroenteritis in dogs. They are highly contagious and have a high morbidity rate. There are no specific treatments available for them to date. Therefore, rapid and accurate diagnosis becomes essential. The rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for animals can be used widely in the field because it is fast and easy to use for diagnosis. Thus, this study aimed to clinically evaluate and confirm the clinical utility of CPV-2/CCoV RDT. The parameters evaluated included the limit of detection (LoD), cross-reactivity, interference, sensitivity, specificity, negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and kappa value. The results revealed that the LoD values for CPV-2 and CCoV were 9.7×10 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCID₅₀)/mL and 2.5×10² TCID₅₀/mL, respectively. There was no cross-reactivity with nine pathogens or interference by interfering materials. The RDT showed a sensitivity of 90.0%, a specificity of 100.0%, NLR of 0.1, and a kappa value of 0.90 for diagnosing both viruses. In conclusion, CPV-2/CCoV RDT is useful as a screening test because of its high sensitivity, specificity, kappa value, and low NLR.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.1001-1006
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• 2011

To determine the efficiency of copper (Cu) supplementation, a feeding experiment was carried out with 240 day old broiler chicks (vencobb-100). Birds were divided into four dietary treatments: i) C - no additives, ii) $T_1$-75 mg inclusion of Cu/kg diet, iii) $T_2$-150 mg inclusion of Cu/kg diet, iv) $T_3$-250 mg inclusion of Cu/kg diet. The present study was carried out in the Department of Animal Physiology, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, India for a period of 42 days (6 weeks). Growth performance was measured in terms of live weight gain, cumulative feed intake and feed conversion ratio at the end of $21^{st}$ and $42^{nd}$ day of the experiment and the result was found to be encouraging for commercial enterprises when the chickens were fed at 150 mg Cu/kg ($T_2$) of their diet. Excess dietary copper more than 150 mg/kg reduced the haemoglobin (Hb) concentration in blood and resulted in the accumulation of copper in the liver with decreased blood Hb concentration and packed cell volumes (PCV). Copper supplementation increased the total erythrocyte count (TEC) as copper is involved in erythropoiesis. But, from the result it is indicated that the dietary copper concentration could not alter the total leukocyte count (TLC). In case of different leucocytes count (DLC), there were no significant differences observed among the different treated groups. Statistical analysis showed significant (p<0.01) difference in plasma concentration of copper, zinc, ferrous and cholesterol among the different copper treated groups. The result indicates that supplementation of copper is an effective way of improving the production performance and haematological parameters in broiler chicken.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.183-190
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• 2015

Invasive blood pressure (IBP) is measured for the patient's real time arterial pressure (ABP) to monitor the critical abrupt disorders of the cardiovascular system. It can be used for the estimation of cardiac output and the opening and closing time detection of the aortic valve. Although the unexplained inflections on ABP make it difficult to find the mathematical relations with other cardiovascular parameters, the estimations based on ABP for other data have been accepted as useful methods as they had been verified with the statistical results among vast patient data. Previous windkessel models were composed with systemic resistance and vascular compliance and they were successful at explaining the average systolic and diastolic values of ABP simply. Although it is well-known that the blood pressure reflection from peripheral arteries causes complex inflection on ABP, previous models do not contain any elements of the reflections because of the complexity of peripheral arteries' shapes. In this study, to simulate a reflection wave of blood pressure, a new mathematical model was designed with four elements that were the impedance of aorta, the compliance of aortic arch, the peripheral resistance, and the compliance of peripheral arteries. The parameters of the new model were adjusted to have three types of arterial blood pressure waveform that were measured from a patient. It was used to find the relations between the inflections and other cardiovascular parameters such as the opening-closing time of aortic valve and the cardiac output. It showed that the blood pressure reflection can bring wide range errors to the closing time of aortic valve and cardiac output with the conventional estimation based on ABP and that the changes of one-stroke volumes can be easily detected with previous estimation while the changes of heart rate can bring some error caused by unexpected reflections.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.27-38
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• 2016

Objectives: According to Korean Medicine theory, the skin color of LU10 serves as a diagnostic clue to dyspeptic symptoms. The aims of this study were (1) to find the difference of skin color in LU10 region between functional dyspepsia (FD) and healthy control (HC) and (2) to examine the relationship between LU10 skin color parameters and dyspeptic symptoms. Methods: 39 participants (29 FD and 10 HC) have participated in this study. They were asked to complete gastrointestinal scale (GIS), gastrointestinal symptom rating scale (GSRS), Nepean dyspepsia index (NDI), functional dyspepsia-related quality of life (FD-QoL), visual analogue scale (VAS) for dyspeptic symptoms, food retention questionnaire (FRQ) and cold heat questionnaire (CHQ). $L^*$ (luminance), $a^*$ (red-green balance) and $b^*$ (yellow-blue balance) values of LU10 region were calculated through digital images of the participant's hand. Then we evaluated test-retest reliability of $L^*$, $a^*$ and $b^*$ values of LU10 region. Additionally, we compared $L^*$, $a^*$ and $b^*$ values of LU10 between FD and HC, and examined the relationship between LU10 color parameters and seven questionnaires scores. Results: Only $L^*$ values in LU10 region were significantly higher in FD compared with HC. GIS scores and the subset scores of NDI had a positive correlation with $L^*$ values significantly. Correlation coefficients of test-retest reliability of skin color measurement of LU10 ranged from 0.871 to 0.936 representing very strongly statistically significant (P<0.001). Conclusions: We confirmed the difference of skin color in LU10 region between FD and HC, and relationship between LU10 skin color parameters and dyspeptic symptoms.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.975-981
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• 2014

Cervical cancer is an issue of foremost importance globally, specifically affecting the developing nations. Significant advances have taken place with regard to diagnosis of cervical cancer, especially with screening. Appropriate screening measures can thus reduce the incidence of cervical cancer. The most desirable screening technique should be less invasive, easy to perform, cost-effective and cover a wide range of diagnostic icons. Manual liquid based cytology (MLBC) can be considered as one of the suitable technique for screening with the above-mentioned benefits. The aim of the current study was to compare two cervical screening techniques on the basis of different morphological parameters and staining parameters by using modified acetic acid Pap staining to see the possibility of reducing time economy involved in conventional Pap staining (CPS). The study was conducted on a total 88 cases and all were analyzed with both MLBC and CPS. Forty eight cases that were regarded as satisfactory on the basis of Bethesda system by both methods were further recruited for investigation. Their morphological parameters and staining quality were compared and scored according to a scoring system defined in the study. Quality indices was calculated for both staining procedures and smear techniques.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.111-121
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• 2005

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of mortality in adult population. Whereas the association between periodontal disease and coronary heart disease (CHD) are controversial, recent studies reported the association between periodontal disease and acute myocardial infarction or prognosis of CHD. This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between periodontal disease and angiographically defined CHD, and acute myocardial infarction, and the prognosis of treated CHD. Patients under the age of 60 who had undergone the diagnostic coronary angiography were enrolled in this study, Subjects were classified as positive CHD (+CHD, n=37) with coronary artery stenosis more than 50% in at least one of major epicardial arteries, and negative CHD (-CHD, n=20) without stenosis. After recording the number of missing teeth, periodontal disease status was measured by means of plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), bleeding on probing (BOP), probing depth (PD), and clinical attachment level (CAL), Positive CHD subjects were classified into acute myocardial infarction group (AMI), and non-AMI with angina pectoris and old myocardial infarction. Six months postoperatively, positive CHD subjects were followed and had undergone the coronary angiography again. Even though there was no significant difference in the periodontal parameters and status between positive CHD and negative CHD, some periodontal parameters, such as mean probing depth and proportion of sites with probing depth greater than 4mm or 6mm were significantly different between AMI and Non-AMI(p<0.05). There was no significant difference in the periodontal parameters according to in angiographically follow-up status. These results indicate that periodontal disease may be associated with the occurrence of acute myocardial infarction.