• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제23권9호
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• pp.866-877
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• 2022

Objective: The optimal imaging approach for evaluating pathological nipple discharge remains unclear. We investigated the value of adding ductography to ultrasound (US) for evaluating pathologic nipple discharge in patients with negative mammography findings. Materials and Methods: From July 2003 to December 2018, 101 women (mean age, 46.3 ± 12.2 years; range, 23-75 years) with pathologic nipple discharge were evaluated using pre-ductography (initial) US, ductography, and post-ductography US. The imaging findings were reviewed retrospectively. The standard reference was surgery (70 patients) or > 2 years of follow-up with US (31 patients). The diagnostic performances of initial US, ductography, and post-ductography US for detecting malignancy were compared using the McNemar's test or a generalized estimating equation. Results: In total, 47 papillomas, 30 other benign lesions, seven high-risk lesions, and 17 malignant lesions were identified as underlying causes of pathologic nipple discharge. Only eight of the 17 malignancies were detected on the initial US, while the remaining nine malignancies were detected by ductography. Among the nine malignancies detected by ductography, eight were detected on post-ductography US and could be localized for US-guided intervention. The sensitivities of ductography (94.1% [16/17]) and post-ductography US (94.1% [16/17]) were significantly higher than those of initial US (47.1% [8/17]; p = 0.027 and 0.013, respectively). The negative predictive value of post-ductography US (96.9% [31/32]) was significantly higher than that of the initial US (83.3% [45/54]; p = 0.006). Specificity was significantly higher for initial US than for ductography and post-ductography US (p = 0.001 for all). Conclusion: The combined use of ductography and US has a high sensitivity for detecting malignancy in patients with pathologic nipple discharge and negative mammography. Ductography findings enable lesion localization on second-look post-ductography US, thus facilitating the selection of optimal treatment plans.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제23권10호
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• pp.1019-1027
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• 2022

Objective: Thyroidectomy bed lesions frequently show suspicious ultrasound (US) features after thyroid surgery. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) may not provide definitive pathological information about the lesions. Although core-needle biopsy (CNB) has excellent diagnostic performance in characterizing suspicious thyroid nodules, no published studies have evaluated the performance of CNB specifically for thyroidectomy bed lesions. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance and safety of CNB for characterizing thyroidectomy bed lesions. Materials and Methods: A total of 124 thyroidectomy bed lesions in 113 patients (79 female and 34 male; age, 23-85 years) who underwent US-guided CNB between December 2008 and December 2020 were included. We reviewed the US imaging features of the target lesions and the histories of previous biopsies. The pathologic results, diagnostic performance for malignancy, and complications of CNB were analyzed. Results: All samples (100%) obtained by CNB were adequate for pathological analysis. Pathological analysis revealed inconclusive results in two lesions (1.6%). According to the reference standard, 50 lesions were ultimately malignant (40.3%), and 72 were benign (58.1%), excluding the two inconclusive lesions. The performance of CNB for diagnosing malignant thyroidectomy bed lesions in the 122 lesions had a sensitivity of 98.0% (49/50), a specificity of 100% (72/72), positive predictive value of 100% (49/49), and negative predictive value of 98.6% (72/73). Eleven lesions were referred for CNB after prior inconclusive FNA results in thyroidectomy bed lesions, for all of which CNB yielded correct conclusive pathologic diagnoses. According to the pathological analysis of CNB, there were various benign lesions (58.9%, 73/124) besides recurrence, including benign postoperative lesions other than suture granuloma (32.3%, 40/124), suture granuloma (15.3%, 19/124), remnant thyroid tissue (5.6%, 7/124), parathyroid lesions (4%, 5/124), and abscesses (1.6%, 2/124). No major or minor complications were associated with the CNB procedure. Conclusion: US-guided CNB is accurate and safe for characterizing thyroidectomy bed lesions.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.180-188
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• 2022

Objective: To validate the performance of 3T spin-echo echo-planar imaging (SE-EPI) magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) for staging hepatic fibrosis in a large population, using surgical specimens as the reference standard. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study initially included 310 adults (155 undergoing hepatic resection and 155 undergoing donor hepatectomy) with histopathologic results from surgical liver specimens. They underwent 3T SE-EPI MRE ≤ 3 months prior to surgery. Demographic findings, underlying liver disease, and hepatic fibrosis pathologic stage according to METAVIR were recorded. Liver stiffness (LS) was measured by two radiologists, and inter-reader reproducibility was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The mean LS of each fibrosis stage (F0-F4) was calculated in total and for each etiologic subgroup. Comparisons among subgroups were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Conover post-hoc test. The cutoff values for fibrosis staging were estimated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: Inter-reader reproducibility was excellent (ICC, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.97-0.99). The mean LS values were 1.91, 2.41, 3.24, and 5.41 kPa in F0-F1 (n = 171), F2 (n = 26), F3 (n = 38), and F4 (n = 72), respectively. The discriminating cutoff values for diagnosing ≥ F2, ≥ F3, and F4 were 2.18, 2.71, and 3.15 kPa, respectively, with the ROC curve areas of 0.97-0.98 (sensitivity 91.2%-95.9%, specificity 90.7%-99.0%). The mean LS was significantly higher in patients with cirrhosis (F4) of nonviral causes, such as primary biliary cirrhosis (9.56 kPa) and alcoholic liver disease (7.17 kPa) than in those with hepatitis B or C cirrhosis (4.28 and 4.92 kPa, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences in LS among the different etiologic subgroups in the F0-F3 stages. Conclusion: The 3T SE-EPI MRE demonstrated high interobserver reproducibility, and our criteria for staging hepatic fibrosis showed high diagnostic performance. LS was significantly higher in patients with non-viral cirrhosis than in those with viral cirrhosis.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제24권10호
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• pp.983-995
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• 2023

Objective: To compare the diagnostic performance and interobserver agreement between contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) and contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CE-MRI) with magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) for evaluating the resectability in patients with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (eCCA). Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included treatment-naïve patients with pathologically confirmed eCCA, who underwent both CECT and CE-MRI with MRCP using extracellular contrast media between January 2015 and December 2020. Among the 214 patients (146 males; mean age ± standard deviation, 68 ± 9 years) included, 121 (56.5%) had perihilar cholangiocarcinoma. R0 resection was achieved in 108 of the 153 (70.6%) patients who underwent curative-intent surgery. Four fellowship-trained radiologists independently reviewed the findings of both CECT and CE-MRI with MRCP to assess the local tumor extent and distant metastasis for determining resectability. The pooled area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity of CECT and CE-MRI with MRCP were compared using clinical, surgical, and pathological findings as reference standards. The interobserver agreement of resectability was evaluated using Fleiss kappa (κ). Results: No significant differences were observed between CECT and CE-MRI with MRCP in the pooled AUC (0.753 vs. 0.767), sensitivity (84.7% [366/432] vs. 90.3% [390/432]), and specificity (52.6% [223/424] vs. 51.4% [218/424]) (P > 0.05 for all). The AUC for determining resectability was higher when CECT and CE-MRI with MRCP were reviewed together than when CECT was reviewed alone in patients with discrepancies between the imaging modalities or with indeterminate resectability (0.798 [0.754-0.841] vs. 0.753 [0.697-0.808], P = 0.014). The interobserver agreement for overall resectability was fair for both CECT (κ = 0.323) and CE-MRI with MRCP (κ = 0.320), without a significant difference (P = 0.884). Conclusion: CECT and CE-MRI with MRCP showed no significant differences in the diagnostic performance and interobserver agreement in determining the resectability in patients with eCCA.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제23권1호
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• pp.30-41
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• 2022

Objective: Computed tomography enterography (CTE) and magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) are considered substitutes for each other for evaluating Crohn's disease (CD). However, the adequacy of mixing them for routine periodic follow-up for CD has not been established. This study aimed to compare MRE alone with the mixed use of CTE and MRE for the periodic follow-up of small bowel inflammation in patients with CD. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively compared two non-randomized groups, each comprising 96 patients with CD. One group underwent CTE and MRE (MRE followed by CTE or vice versa) for the follow-up of CD (interval, 13-27 months [median, 22 months]), and the other group underwent MRE alone (interval, 15-26 months [median, 21 months]). However, these two groups were similar in clinical characteristics. Three independent readers from three different institutions determined whether inflammation had decreased, remained unchanged, or increased within the entire small bowel and the terminal ileum based on sequential enterography of the patients after appropriate blinding. We compared the two groups for inter-reader agreement and accuracy (terminal ileum only) using endoscopy as the reference standard for enterographic interpretation. Results: The inter-reader agreement was greater in the MRE alone group for the entire small bowel (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]: 0.683 vs. 0.473; p = 0.005) and the terminal ileum (ICC: 0.656 vs. 0.490; p = 0.030). The interpretation accuracy was higher in the MRE alone group without statistical significance (70.9%-74.5% vs. 57.9%-64.9% in individual readers; adjusted odds ratio = 3.21; p = 0.077). Conclusion: The mixed use of CTE and MRE was inferior to MRE alone in terms of inter-reader reliability and could probably be less accurate than MRE alone for routine monitoring of small bowel inflammation in patients with CD. Therefore, the consistent use of MRE is favored for this purpose.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.343-354
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• 2022

Objective: To develop and evaluate a deep learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) model for detecting skull fractures on plain radiographs in children. Materials and Methods: This retrospective multi-center study consisted of a development dataset acquired from two hospitals (n = 149 and 264) and an external test set (n = 95) from a third hospital. Datasets included children with head trauma who underwent both skull radiography and cranial computed tomography (CT). The development dataset was split into training, tuning, and internal test sets in a ratio of 7:1:2. The reference standard for skull fracture was cranial CT. Two radiology residents, a pediatric radiologist, and two emergency physicians participated in a two-session observer study on an external test set with and without AI assistance. We obtained the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), sensitivity, and specificity along with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: The AI model showed an AUROC of 0.922 (95% CI, 0.842-0.969) in the internal test set and 0.870 (95% CI, 0.785-0.930) in the external test set. The model had a sensitivity of 81.1% (95% CI, 64.8%-92.0%) and specificity of 91.3% (95% CI, 79.2%-97.6%) for the internal test set and 78.9% (95% CI, 54.4%-93.9%) and 88.2% (95% CI, 78.7%-94.4%), respectively, for the external test set. With the model's assistance, significant AUROC improvement was observed in radiology residents (pooled results) and emergency physicians (pooled results) with the difference from reading without AI assistance of 0.094 (95% CI, 0.020-0.168; p = 0.012) and 0.069 (95% CI, 0.002-0.136; p = 0.043), respectively, but not in the pediatric radiologist with the difference of 0.008 (95% CI, -0.074-0.090; p = 0.850). Conclusion: A deep learning-based AI model improved the performance of inexperienced radiologists and emergency physicians in diagnosing pediatric skull fractures on plain radiographs.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제24권11호
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• pp.1142-1150
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• 2023

Objective: To evaluate ^99mtechnetium-three polyethylene glycol spacers-arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (^99mTc-3PRGD₂) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) imaging for diagnosing lymph node metastasis of primary malignant lung neoplasms. Materials and Methods: We prospectively enrolled 26 patients with primary malignant lung tumors who underwent ^99mTc-3PRGD₂ SPECT/CT and ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/CT imaging. Both imaging methods were analyzed in qualitative (visual dichotomous and 5-point grades for lymph nodes and lung tumors, respectively) and semiquantitative (maximum tissue-to-background radioactive count) manners for the lymph nodes and lung tumors. The performance of the differentiation of lymph nodes with and without metastasis was determined at the per-lymph node station and per-patient levels using histopathological results as the reference standard. Results: Total 42 stations had metastatic lymph nodes and 136 stations had benign lymph nodes. The differences between metastatic and benign lymph nodes in the visual qualitative and semiquantitative analyses of ^99mTc-3PRGD₂ SPECT/CT and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT were statistically significant (all P < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) in the semi-quantitative analysis of ^99mTc-3PRGD₂ SPECT/CT was 0.908 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.851-0.966), and the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 0.86 (36/42), 0.88 (120/136), 0.69 (36/52), and 0.95 (120/126), respectively. Among the 26 patients (including two patients each with two lung tumors), 15 had pathologically confirmed lymph node metastasis. The difference between primary lung lesions in patients with and without lymph node metastasis was statistically significant only in the semi-quantitative analysis of ^99mTc-3PRGD₂ SPECT/CT (P = 0.007), with an AUC of 0.807 (95% CI, 0.641-0.974). Conclusion: ^99mTc-3PRGD₂ SPECT/CT imaging may notably perform in the direct diagnosis of lymph node metastasis of primary malignant lung tumors and indirectly predict the presence of lymph node metastasis through uptake in the primary lesions.

• 한국음향학회지
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• 제25권5호
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• pp.213-221
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• 2006

합성음의 음질을 향상시키기 위하여 분할된 corpora로부터 합성유닛을 선택하여 사용하는 연속음성합성에서 정확한 음소분할은 매우 중요하다. 일반적으로 음소분할은 사람에 의해 수행되지만 많은 작업량으로 인한 시간적 지연, 일관 성 유지 어려움 등 많은 문제가 발생한다. 이에 따라 음성인식에서 도입된 HMM 기반의 자동음소분할이 음성인식, 음성 합성에서 널리 사용되어지고 있지만 음성전문가의 수작업 결과와 비교할 때 HMM 기반 자동음소분할은 오류가 있고, 이는 합성음 품질의 열화의 주요 원인이 되고 있다. 본 논문에서는 HMM 기반의 자동음소분할기를 사용하여 나타난 자동음소분할 결과와 수작업에 의한 음소분할 결과를 비교하고 유형별로 분석함으로써 음성합성의 성능향상을 위해 개선해야 할 문제점들을 제시한다. 실험에서는 ETRI의 표준형 한국어 공통 음성 DB을 사용하였고, 오차의 범위가 20ms를 벗어난 경우를 분절 오류로 간주하였다. 실험 결과 여성화자의 경우 파열음 + 모음, 파찰음 + 모음, 모음 + 유음 음소쌍에서는 각각 약 99%, 99.5%, 99%의 높은 정확률을 보인 반면, 폐쇄음 + 비음, 폐쇄음 + 유음, 비음 + 유음 음소쌍에서는 44.89%, 50%, 55% 의 낮은 정확률을 보였으며, 남성화자에 대한 실험결과에서도 유사한 경향을 보였다.

• 대한영상의학회지
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• 제84권6호
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• pp.1324-1336
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• 2023

목적 이첨 대동맥 판막의 아형과 판막 석회화의 정도에 따른 심장 CT와 경흉부심초음파의 이첨 대동맥 판막 진단 능력을 비교해 보고자 한다. 대상과 방법 대동맥 판막 치환술 전 심장 CT와 경흉부 심초음파를 시행한 266명의 환자(이첨 대동맥 판막, 106명; 삼첨 대동맥 판막, 166명)를 후향적으로 포함하였다. 심장 CT를 이용하여 판막의 모양을 평가하였고, 관상동맥 칼슘 측정 CT를 이용하여 판막의 칼슘 정도를 정량화하였다. 대동맥 판막은 융합형과 2-대동맥동형 아형으로 분류하였다. 심장 CT와 경흉부 심초음파의 진단정확도는 수술 소견을 대비표준으로 하여 계산하였다. 결과 CT는 이첨 대동맥 판막을 진단함에 있어서 경흉부 심초음파보다 민감도, 음성 예측도, 정확도에서 통계적으로 유의하게 높은 값을 보여주었다(각각 p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.003). 경흉부 심초음파는 판막의 석회화가 증가할수록 민감도가 감소하는 경향을 보였다. CT와 경흉부 심초음파 간의 진단 오류율은 2-대동맥동형 아형에서 10.9%, 융합형 아형에서 28.3%였다(p = 0.044). 결론 심장 CT는 이첨 대동맥 판막을 진단함에 있어 경흉부 심초음파보다 높은 진단능을 보여주며, 특히 판막 석회화가 심하거나 융합형의 아형인 환자에서 이첨 대동맥 판막을 진단하는데 도움을 줄 수 있다.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• 제57권2호
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• pp.244-260
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• 2024

본 연구에서 개정된 한국인을 위한 식생활 지침을 기반으로 식품 및 영양소 섭취, 식생활 습관, 환경을 고려한 식생활 문화를 평가할 수 있는 항목을 개발하였다. 예비 문항을 확보하기 위하여 국내·외 평가도구 및 최신 문헌을 조사하여 항목을 조사하였고, 전문가 11명 대상 타당도 평가를 통해 70개의 항목을 선정하였다. 선정된 후보 항목 평가를 위해 서울·수도권 지역 중심으로 성인 332명을 대상으로 온·오프라인 조사를 시행하였고, 하루 총 에너지 섭취가 500 kcal 미만 또는 5,000 kcal 이상으로 섭취한 대상자 2명을 제외한 330명의 조사 자료를 활용하여 수렴타당도 분석 및 탐색적 요인분석을 진행하였다. 분석 결과 최종 선정된 문항은 총 34개로 식품 및 영양소 섭취 영역 11개, 식생활 습관 영역 9개, 식생활 문화 영역 14개로 구성되었다. 본 연구에서 개발한 평가 항목은 2021년 개정된 식생활지침을 기반으로 영역별로 성인의 전반적인 식사의 질과 지속가능한 식생활을 동시에 평가하는 데 용이하다는 점에서 건강한 식생활 개선을 위한 평가 도구로써 활용이 기대된다.