• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.753-756
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• 2005

In the cases of severe arrythmia and conduction failure, a permanent implanted pacemaker is considered an essential treatment modality with less complication rate, broad indications and low morbidity. However, some pacemakers needs to be removed or replaced due to infection, in need of a lead upgrade, elective replacement, conduction failure or insulation failure. The most common indication for pacemaker extraction is infection. Conservative treatments such as administration of intravenous antibiotics and limitation of debridement are not effective and the removal of the entire pacing system is considered to be the best approach to pacemaker pocket infection. Although a locking stylet, a laser sheath and other newer methods of transvenous lead extraction have been proven to be effective, all leads cannot be removed. Moreover, major complications such as, cardiac tamponade and respiratory arrest during leads extraction procedure should not be ignored. We experienced two cases of exposed pacemakers in the subclavicular region. After removing the pacemaker body, exposed proximal lead was pulled out and cut off. The end of remnant external insulation tube was tied to prevent infection propagation between external insulation tube and inner metalic coil. Wounds were covered by local flap coverage. No other problems were detected during the one-year follow-up. Since there are few reports on lead-preserving method of treating limited infection of exposed pacemakers, we would like to present our new method for treating exposed pacemakers.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.234-238
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• 2002

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is based on a photochemical reaction which is initiated by light activation of a photosensitizer. The photosensitizer accumulates more in tumor tissues than in normal tissues and is activated with specific wavelength of light, usually laser. The photochemical reaction produces highly reactive oxygen products causing cytotoxiciy and vascular shutdown to the tumor. The advantages of PDT are its relative selective tumor destruction and tissue healing by regeneration, which can maintain important structures with very good functional and esthetic results. Therefore, PDT is considered as an alternative modality for cancers of the head and neck. In this article, we will report three cases of photodynamic therapy for treatment of oral leukoplakia, squamous cell carcinoma, and basal cell carcinoma of head and neck. It was observed that premalignant and malignant lesions responded well to the photodynamic therapy with Aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and $Foscan^{(R)}$. Photodynamic therapy can be considered as a new treatment method for the premalignant and malignant tumors in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.197-202
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• 2015

Numerous challenges in treating permanent dentition are encountered, especially in treating immature teeth with pulp necrosis. Historically, calcium hydroxide application during long periods of time was used to induce the formation of a calcific barrier across the open apex. In 2004, a new treatment modality for the management of the open apex was introduced. This treatment was named as 'revascularization' and gained acceptance among dentists. The protocol was different from the traditional apexification techniques in that the canal was irrigated and disinfected with a combination of three antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, metronidazole and minocycline). At the next appointment, bleeding was induced and the canal was sealed with MTA. Successful regenerative endodontic treatment of necrotic immature permanent teeth can provide continued root development, increased thickness in the dentinal walls and apical closure. These developments of a functional pulp-dentin complex have a promising impact on retaining the natural teeth, the goal of the dental health care.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 1996

There are many reports of the surgical management for the craniofacial abnormalities arising from the irradiation of the head and face for treatment of childhood cancers. Since the mordern combined-modality theraphy for childhood cancers began in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, recent reports have described the occular, dental and maxillo-facial abnormalities after irradiation in long-term survivors of cancers of the head and face. The resultant deformities may be known to be difficult to reconstruct with surgical techniques. This paper describes the late reconstructive surgery for the unilateral orbital and malar hypoplasia after eyeball enucleation and irradiation during childhood to correct the facial asymmetry and expand the contracted orbital socket into the functional dimension for the retaining eyeball prosthesis with spherical implant. We reports the satisfactory preliminary results from the midfacial osteotomy through the supero-lateral orbital rim and malar bone and the antero-lateral repositioning with the autogenous bone grafting in 26 year-old female patient who will be planned to make the new eyeball prosthesis by the department of ophthalmology.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.36-44
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• 2012

Electrical impedance tomography is a relatively new imaging modality in which the internal conductivity (or resistivity) distribution of a object is reconstructed based on the injected currents and measured voltages through the electrodes placed on the surface of the object. In this paper, it is assumed that the relationship between the resistivity distribution and the resistance of electrodes is linear. From this linear relation, the weighting matrix can be obtained and modified iterative Landweber method is applied to estimate the internal resistivity distribution. Additionally, to accelerate the convergence rate and improve the spatial resolution of the reconstructed image, optimal step lengths for the iterative Landweber method are computed from the objective function in the least-square sense. The numerical experiments have been performed to illustrate the superior reconstruction performance of the proposed scheme.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.10-13
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• 2009

The prognosis of gastric cancer with hepatic metastasis is very poor, even though several treatment modalities exist, such as surgical resection. Indeed, a standard therapy has not been established in such patients. Recently, attempts were made to treat hepatic metastasis of gastric cancer with radiofrequency (RF), which was originally used in primary or metastatic liver cancer. RF has been reported to show similar survival compared to surgical resection and is emerging as a new treatment modality even though it is still not conclusive with respect to efficacy and safety due to the paucity of reports. A prospective study is warranted to evaluate the efficacy of RF in the treatment of gastric cancer with hepatic metastasis compared with conventional modalities.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.151-159
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• 2014

Computed tomography (CT) is one of the most widely used medical imaging modality. However, substantial x-ray dose exposed to the human subject during the CT scan is a great concern. Region-of-interest (ROI) CT is considered to be a possible solution for its potential to reduce the x-ray dose to the human subject. In most of ROI-CT scans, the ROI is set to a circular shape whose diameter is often considerably smaller than the full field-of-view (FOV). However, an arbitrarily shaped ROI is very desirable to reduce the x-ray dose more than the circularly shaped ROI can do. We propose a new method to make a non-circular convex-shaped ROI along with the image reconstruction method. To make a ROI with an arbitrary convex shape, dynamic collimations are necessary to minimize the x-ray dose at each angle of view. In addition to the dynamic collimation, we get the ROI projection data with slightly lower sampling rate in the view direction to further reduce the x-ray dose. We reconstruct images from the ROI projection data in the compressed sensing (CS) framework assisted by the exterior projection data acquired from the pilot scan to set the ROI. To validate the proposed method, we used the experimental micro-CT projection data after truncating them to simulate the dynamic collimation. The reconstructed ROI images showed little errors as compared to the images reconstructed from the full-FOV scan data as well as little artifacts inside the ROI. We expect the proposed method can significantly reduce the x-ray dose in CT scans if the dynamic collimation is realized in real CT machines.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.126-140
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• 2006

Purpose: Contrary to the human study, it has rarely investigated metabolic alterations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of depressed rats versus age and sex-matched controls using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Thus, the purpose of this research was to verify the feasibility of metabolic differences between the normal rat and the depression model rat. Materials and Methods: A homogeneous group of 20 SD male rats was used for MRI and in vivo 1H MRS. To induce a depressed status in SD rats, we performed the forced swimming test (FST). Using image-guide, water suppressed in vivo 1H MRS with 4.7 T MRI/MRS system, NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios were mainly measured between depressed rats and normal subjects. Results: In depressed rats, increased Cho/Cr ratio was measured versus control subjects. However, no significant group effect for NAA/Cr was observed between case-control pairs. Discussion and Conclusions: The present 1H MRS study shows significant brain metabolic alterations of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with experimental depressed status of SD rat induced by FST compared to normal subjects. This result provides new evidence that in vivo 1 H MRS may be a useful modality for detecting localized functional neurochemical markers alterations in left DLPFC in SD rats.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.427-437
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• 2011

Purpose: Composite tissue allotransplantation is a new therapeutic modality to reconstruct major tissue defects of the head and neck region and extremities. However, there is a serious ethical debate about whether the risks posed by the life-long immunosuppression that a recipient would have to take justify the benefits of receiving this non-life saving procedure. The purpose of this study is to examine differences between expert and non-expert groups in risk acceptance and expectations regarding hand and foot allotransplantations. Methods: The author conducted a survey of 345 subjects in total (lay public n=110; medical students, n=120; doctors, n=115), using a questionnaire-based instrument, the Louisville Instrument for Transplantation (translated to Korean). Results: Of the three groups studied, risk acceptance was found to be lowest in the doctor group and highest in the non-expert group, and the difference was significant (p < 0.05). The expectations of aesthetic and functional improvement from the procedure, however, were found to be highest in the non-expert group and lowest in the doctor group, and the differences were also significant (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study shows that the three populations have noticeable differences in risk acceptance and expectations regarding hand and foot allotransplantations. Therefore, accurate and sufficient information on these procedures should be provided to patients from both medical and ethical perspectives.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.179-181
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• 1986

Computed tomography (CT) adds a new dimension in the study of body contour, organs, and tissues as well as various pathologic conditions. This modality provides a great degree of accuracy in radiation therapy Planning (RTP). However, CT images are usually taken on a small reduced format so that possible errors can be made during inputting the CT data into an automatic planner. Authors have designed a simple inexpensive magnifying device of CT images to obviate errors created by reduced image.