• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2003

In medical imaging, three-dimensional (3D) display using Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) as a portable file format can give intuitive information more efficiently on the World Wide Web (WWW). The web-based 3D visualization of functional images combined with anatomical images has not studied much in systematic ways. The goal of this study was to achieve a simultaneous observation of 3D anatomic and functional models with planar images on the WWW, providing their locational information in 3D space with a measuring implement using VRML. MRI and ictal-interictal SPECT images were obtained from one epileptic patient. Subtraction ictal SPECT co-registered to MRI (SISCOM) was performed to improve identification of a seizure focus. SISCOM image volumes were held by thresholds above one standard deviation (1-SD) and two standard deviations (2-SD). SISCOM foci and boundaries of gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the MRI volume were segmented and rendered to VRML polygonal surfaces by marching cube algorithm. Line profiles of x and y-axis that represent real lengths on an image were acquired and their maximum lengths were the same as 211.67 mm. The real size vs. the rendered VRML surface size was approximately the ratio of 1 to 605.9. A VRML measuring tool was made and merged with previous VRML surfaces. User interface tools were embedded with Java Script routines to display MRI planar images as cross sections of 3D surface models and to set transparencies of 3D surface models. When transparencies of 3D surface models were properly controlled, a fused display of the brain geometry with 3D distributions of focal activated regions provided intuitively spatial correlations among three 3D surface models. The epileptic seizure focus was in the right temporal lobe of the brain. The real position of the seizure focus could be verified by the VRML measuring tool and the anatomy corresponding to the seizure focus could be confirmed by MRI planar images crossing 3D surface models. The VRML application developed in this study may have several advantages. Firstly, 3D fused display and control of anatomic and functional image were achieved on the m. Secondly, the vector analysis of a 3D surface model was defined by the VRML measuring tool based on the real size. Finally, the anatomy corresponding to the seizure focus was intuitively detected by correlations with MRI images. Our web based visualization of 3-D fusion image and its localization will be a help to online research and education in diagnostic radiology, therapeutic radiology, and surgery applications.

• Neonatal Medicine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.211-220
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• 2011

Purpose: Late-onset hypotension in preterm infants is not a rare condition. Late circulatory collapse due to adrenal insufficiency (AI) is one of the major causes of late-onset hypotension. We assessed the incidence and causes of late-onset hypotension. We also compared the clinical findings according to the presence of AI. Methods: In total, 244 preterm infants with a gestational age ${\leq}$32 weeks and who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Seoul National University Boramae Hospital and Seoul National University Hospital from January 2009 to April 2011 were included. Clinical findings were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Forty-four infants (18%) suffered from late-onset hypotension. Hydrocortisone was administered to 30 infants (68.2%) and AI occurred in 16 infants (36.4%). Cesarean section, sepsis before hypotension, and gastrointestinal surgery were independently associated with late-onset hypotension. Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) was less frequent in the hydrocortisonetreated group than in infants not treated with hydrocortisone. The AI group had fewer IUGR infants, and the duration of hospitalization was shorter in the AI group than in infants who were not administered hydrocortisone. Blood pressure tended to normalize more quickly in the AI group, however, the difference was not significant. Conclusion: AI was a major cause of late-onset hypotension, and the use of hydrocortisone shortened the length of hospitalization.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2006

Purpose: Previous studies have not showed consistent results for the level of expression of sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) in thyroid diseases, especially malignant tumor. We undertook this study to evaluate the distribution of NIS expression in malignant thyroid diseases and compare with that in benign thyroid disease. Materials and Methods: Total patients were 119 cases (Men 15, $48{\pm}13$ yrs). Total number of samples were 205 pieces. In malignant thyroid disease, there were 153 samples: 90 in papillary carcinoma, 4 in follicular carcinoma, 2 in medullary carcinoma and 57 in metastatic lymph node. In benign thyroid disease, there were 52 samples: 36 in goiter/cyst, 11 in thyroiditis and 5 in follicular adenoma. Using immunohistochemical methods, we probed 205 samples with monoclonal anti-NIS Ab. Grading of staining was stored as 0 (negative or absent), 1 (weakly positive), 2 (moderately positive) or 3 (strongly positive). Expression rate (ER) of NIS positivity in individual disease entity was expressed as percentage of total number divided by number in 2 plus 3 grade. Results: ERs of malignant thyroid diseases were 63% in papillary carcinoma, 81% in metastatic lymph node, 71% in follicular carcinoma and 100% in medullary carcinoma. ERs of benign thyroid disease were 53% in goiter/cyst, 64% in thyroiditis and 40% in follicular adenoma. ER of malignant thyroid diseases was higher than benign thyroid diseases (71% vs 54%). Grading of NIS expression in papillary carcinoma or goiter/cyst was heterogeneously distributed in considerable cases. Normal tissue also showed heterogeneous distribution of NIS expression, which was not correlated with that of primary lesion. Conclusion: In papillary thyroid carcinoma, distribution of NIS expression was heterogeneous and increased, and not different compared with that of benign thyroid disease.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.301-312
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• 2001

Purpose: Stomach cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Korea, but there is no report on FDG PET in patients with stomach cancer. We observed findings of FDG PET in patients with stomach cancer. Materials and Methods: In 13 patients with pre-operative stomach cancer, PET and CT were performed. Primary lesion and regional lymph nodes detection were aualyzed. Correlation between FDG uptake ratio and each prognostic factor of primary lesion was analyzed. In 19 patients diagnosed as recurrence or displaying suspicious symptoms, conventional work up including tumor marker and PET were performed. Recurrence detection of anastomotic site, distant metastasis, and tumor marker elevation were analyzed. Results: Sensitivity for primary lesion detection was 83.3% (CT 71.4%) and two submucosal lesions were undetected. FDG uptake ratio was variable and had no correlation with invasion-depth, size, Borrmann type, staging and differentiation. Sensitivity for regional lymph node detection was 58.3% (CT 58.3%) and the lesions less than 1cm were undetected. Sensitivity for recurrence detection was 100% but there were three false positives. Sensitivity for distant metastasis detection was 64.3% and significantly higher than that of conventional work-up (21.4%). Average of tumor marker level in patients who were confirmed as recurrence was higher than false positive. Conclusion: PET is more useful than conventional work up in distant metastasis detection when recurrence is suspected. In pre-operative stomach cancer, PET is comparable to CT for detection of primary lesion and regional lymph node metastasis and detection of distant metastasis requires further study.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.385-398
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• 2002

The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether stromal cells supporting specific microenvironment for hematopoiesis of bone marrow are affected by toxicants and therapeutic drugs such as antibiotics and anticancer drugs and whether laminin-1 is associated with such effects. SD rats were intraperitoneally injected with 75 mg/kg of cyclophosphamide which is widely used to treat infant's solid tumor, leukemia and myeloma and sacrificed after 3 days, 1 week, 3 weeks or 5 weeks of injection. The bone marrow extracted and paraffin-sectioned was analyzed using immunohistochemical staining. A part of tissues was subjected to electron microscopy following reaction with rabbit anti-laminin antibody, biotinylated goat anti-rabbit IgG conjugated with 12 nm gold particles, and staining with uranyl acetate. 1. The bone marrow tissue at day 3 post injection with cyclophosphamide displayed dilated venous sinus, partial necrotic death, and decreased number of hematopoietic cells. Laminin-1 was intensively stained in the reticular and adipose tissues. 2. Up to 5 weeks post injection, laminin-1 was stained at a low level in the stromal tissue of bone marrow and the number of hematopoietic cell was increased. 3. Deposition of the gold particle which represents laminin-1 expression was observed at the highest level in the stromal cells of bone marrow obtained 3 days after injection, and decreased after 1 to 5 weeks. These results suggest that stromal cells which play a role in supporting microenvironment for bone marrow hematopoiesis augment induction of laminin-1 expression and activation upon administration of cyclophosphamide.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.42-65
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• 1992

To survey the specialties or sujects of practice displayed by the private practitioners the authors visited 691 clinics in Taegu from April 1 to May 18, 1991, At the same time, a mail questionnaire was administered to ask the number of displayed subjects of practice, and the reasons for displaying the subjects, reasons for not displaying in case of no specialty was displayed, composition of patients, and role as a specialist. The questionnaire was returned by 308(44.6%) practitioners. The distributions of private practitioners by specialty were 13.9% for internal medicine (IM), 11.7% for pediatrics(Ped), 13.0% for obstetrics '||'&'||' gynecology(OBGY), 11.1% for general surgery(GS), 10.0% for family practice(FP), and 5.3% for general practitioner(GP). Ninety percent of the specialists have displayed their specialty in their offices. Among all the private practitioners, 61.9% of them have displayed their subjects of practice and 23.7% have shown telephone number. Among private practitioners who displayed the subjects of practice, 80.6% have signs of 'subjects of practice'. Mean number of the displayed subjects of practice for the all private practitioners is 1.20, and 1.93 for the private practitioners who displayed subjects of practice. FP and GS have displayed their subjects of practice in 91.2% and 87.0% respectively and OBGY have displayed in 32.2%, the lowest percentage among all the soecuaktues. IM specialists displays pediatrics as a major subject of practice in 72.1% the pediatricians display IM in 88.9% the OBGYs display pediatrics in 77.8%, and the GSs display IM in 51.9%. Most commonly displayed subjects of practice are Ped and IM. Sixty-five percent of the private practitioners answered that they don't display their specialties because their clinics are "primary health care facility". The reasons for displaying the subjects of practice and its relevance with their own specialty(45.6%), and the difficulty in clinic management only with the patients for their own specialty(36.9%). The proportion of clinics whose patients of other specialty are than their own specialty accounted less than 10% was 52.8% and that accounted more than 51% was 16.0%. Specially, 51.4% of GS specialists cared more than 51% of patients of other specialty area than their own specialty. Most of the patients of IM, Ped, and OBGY specialists are the patients of their own specialty. However, 56.8% of GS care more of IM patients and only 24.3% of them care mostly GS patients, The respondents to the mail questionnaire who stated that they can not play the role of specialist well are 30.5% and especially 72.9% of the GS specialists state so. The proportion of respondents who do not suffort the private practice of specialists is 71.1%. Among the surgical specialists, 82.7% of them rarely perform operation. The reasons for not performing operation are insufficient insurance fee (76.9%), and risk of operation(58.0%), so as the OBGY specialists. Above finidngs suggest that most of the specialists, especially surgeons, in the private practice can not play their role as a specialist. It is necessary to develop a policy that facilitates the production of practice and the retention of the specialists in the hospitals.s.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.6 s.67
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• pp.913-919
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• 2004

Mitochondrial DNA mutations have been reported in recent years in association with sensorineural hering loss. The purpose of this study is to identify the association between the noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss and the A to G mutation at nucleotide 3243, 1555, 7445 of mitochondrial DNA. Study subjects were established by history and chart review, and audiological and clinical data were obtained. Blood was sampled from 214 normal controls, 102 noise-induced hearing loss, and 28 sensorineural hearing loss. The DNA of these individuals were extracted, and mitochondrial DNA fragments were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction. Subsequently, the coding sequence of mitochondrial DNA 3243, 1555, 7445 were sequenced, and compared to the normal sequence, and all sequence variations were analyzed by restriction enzymes. Mitochondrial DNA mutations $(3243A{\rightarrow}G,\;1555A{\rightarrow}4G,\;7445A{\rightarrow}G)$ were not detected by polymerase chain reactions in any patients with noise-induced hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, and normal controls. The DNA sequencing of PCR products did not revealed an A to G substitution at nucleotide 3243, 1555, 7445 of mitochondrial DNA. The noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss was not associated with mitochondrial DNA mutation $(3243A{\rightarrow}G,\;1555A{\rightarrow}4G,\;7445A{\rightarrow}G)$.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.9-13
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• 2016

Purpose PET-CT examinations using $^{18}F-FDG$ to treat urinary system cancer are limited in terms of anatomical structure and excretion route of $^{18}F-FDG$. But one of the ongoing examinations utilizing $^{11}C-Acetate$ can compensate for such defects. We would like to introduce a clinical application of $^{11}C-Acetate$ PET-CT in urinary cancer patients. Materials and Methods We conducted a clinical survey of 22 patients diagnosed with urinary cancer at our hospital, 10 prostate cancer patients, 10 renal cell carcinoma patients, and 2 bladder cancer patients. All patients were performed $^{18}F-FDG$ PET-CT examinations, $^{11}C-Acetate$ examinations were performed after two weeks on average. The equipment used to D-710 PET-CT in GE Company and we performed PET-CT procedures 15 minutes after injecting $^{11}C-Acetate$, and a medical doctor from the department of nuclear medicine appraised and compared images between $^{18}F-FDG$ and $^{11}C-Acetate$. Results According to our survey, prostate cancer patients generally had lower uptake of $^{18}F-FDG$ than other cancer patients did. In 2 out of 10 prostate cancer patients, metastasized cancer showed greater uptake in $^{11}C-Acetate$ than $^{18}F-FDG$. In renal cell carcinoma cases, 8 out of 10 patients displayed evidently greater uptake in $^{11}C-Acetate$ than $^{18}F-FDG$. We excluded bladder cancer cases in this study because uptake of $^{18}F-FDG$ in the bladder was too hot, the number of patients was insufficient, and the cases did not meet criteria such as the use of diuretics. Conclusion It is too premature to draw solid conclusions from the survey, since it involved only a small number of participants. However, there are a number of studies conducted abroad that prove the effectiveness of the $^{11}C-Acetate$ PET-CT examinations in treating urinary system cancer, and this study is still ongoing at our hospital. If the tests were to be conducted on a larger number of participants, this study could lead to numerous other potential research topics, such as the correlation between Prostatic specific antigen (PSA) values and $^{11}C-Acetate$ PET-CT, Gleason sum values from biopsy before surgery, Specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) between $^{18}F-FDG$ PET-CT examinations and $^{11}C-Acetate$ PET-CT examinations in other urinary system cancers.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.98-102
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• 2018

Purpose When examining patients with digestive system Leakage, it is not easy to distinguish between bile leakage and bleeding only with Planar images. I would like to evaluate the utility of leakage of bile, confirmation of gastrointestinal bleeding and location discrimination using SPECT-CT. Materials and Methods SPECT-CT was performed according to the request of the reading room after acquiring Planar image for a total of 13 patients, including 8 patients suspected of bile leakage and 5 patients suspected of gastrointestinal bleeding, among patients visiting this specification went. We used Symbia T16 from SIEMENS and Discovery 670 from GE. Planar and SPECT-CT images were evaluated with a score of 1 to 10 by 4 experienced nuclear medicine doctors. Using the sensitivity and the specificity, the evaluation of the inspection by the ROC curve was carried out. The final diagnosis was confirmed by follow-up observation as a result of reoperative surgery. Results The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of SPECT-CT were 91.7%, 100% and 94.2%, respectively. Planar images were 83.3%, 68.8% and 78.8%, respectively. Planar images showed lower diagnostic accuracy compared to SPECT-CT (78.8%, 94.2%, p<0.05). Moreover, the reliability of the diagnosis of SPECT-CT by ROC curve analysis showed a more useful result than the Planar image (p<0.05). Conclusion SPECT-CT had high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of biliary leakage and gastrointestinal bleeding and location discrimination. When SPECT-CT is additionally performed together with Planar images, it may be considered to improve bile leakage and diagnosis of gastrointestinal bleeding patients and position discrimination evaluation. There is usefulness depending on the patient's age and position, but consideration of additional CT exposure may be done sufficiently.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.17-24
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• 2010

Hemoptysis which is comparatively common symptom in respiratory disease patients is a clinical symptom which has high risk of death in spite of many curative means. Bronchial tube embolization is a very useful medical procedure when hemoptysis does not stop for treatment of internal medicine or surgery and in addition to the purpose of instant hemostasis, for patients for whom surgical operation is impossible or for the purpose of gaining time to improve the state of the patient before surgical operation. In relation to this, this study is to know of the usefulness of bronchial tube artery embolization. The objects were 60 persons for whom bronchial tube artery embolizations are conducted because of large hemoptysis occurred from March 2007 to December 2009 in J hospital. They had large hemoptysis of 400ml or more per day and 200ml or more at a time or though the quantity of hemoptysis was less than 400ml they did not respond to the treatment of internal medicine for 10 days or longer. The average age was 60.5 years and cause diseases were tuberculosis, bronchiectasis, and pneumonia and lung cancer. Embolus parts were Rt bronchial artery 19 examples, Lt bronchial artery, both bronchial artery, Rt Intercostobronchial artery, and they were the case where embolization for many blood vessels were simultaneously carried out. As embolus materials, PVA (conteour) and microcoil were used. In 76.6% of 60 persons of patients hemorrhage stopped with the lapse of time after the procedure and in 4 examples (6.6) re-embolization was carried out due to re-bleeding after the procedure. Bronchial tube artery embolization has high early success rate and effectively controls hemoptysis in the treatment of hemoptysis and is an effective emergency remedy for hemorrhage due to large hemoptysis and will be a good medical procedure which reduces death rate. In addition, primarily if it is conducted together with the treatment of internal medicine it will be, as an effective curative means for hemorrhage due to large hemoptysis, a good mediate radial rays medical procedure which reduces death rate.