• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.119-123
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• 2023

Although various imaging evaluation methods have been developed and utilized, thoracic radiography remains essential and is the top priority for diagnosing and managing cardiac diseases. Thoracic radiographic measurements associated with the vertebral heart scale (VHS) and caudal vena cava (CVC) can objectively diagnose cardiac disease in many animals. In particular, VHS measurement is primarily used to evaluate the dimensions of the heart size on thoracic radiographs and can measure cardiomegaly more objectively. Additionally, the value of the CVC compared with the aorta (Ao) and the length of vertebrae (VL) can be used as valuable parameters in right congestive heart failure. To describe the CVC/Ao and CVC/VL ratios in 10 long-tailed gorals (Naemorhedus caudatus) without subjective radiographic evidence of cardiac diseases. The VHS, CVC, Ao, and VL of gorals were measured in the right lateral (RL) view of the thoracic radiographs. In the RL view of 10 gorals, the VHS was 9.31 ± 0.55 vertebrae (v), the CVC/Ao ratio was 0.84 ± 0.13, and the CVC/VL ratio was 0.67 ± 0.09. Additionally, the thoracic morphology of gorals was determined to be intermediate (thoracic depth-to-width ratio, 1.04 ± 0.09, 0.75-1.25). This study confirmed that VHS was significantly correlated with CVC and Ao, and measuring and comparing each value would help diagnose cardiac diseases in gorals. The radiographic measurements in this study will allow veterinarians to diagnose several cardiac diseases in gorals.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.161-165
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• 2007

Objective : Percutaneous approach to the middle thoracic vertebra through the transpedicular route for the patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures is difficult due to the small size of the pedicle and parasagittally oriented vertebra body anatomy. The percutaneous vertebral body access [PVBA] technique utilizing the posterolateral extrapedicular approach avoids the pedicle and provides direct access to the vertebral body. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the vertebroplasty utilizing PVBA technique for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures in the middle thoracic vertebrae. Methods : A retrospective review was done on 20 patients who underwent vertebroplasty utilizing PVBA technique performed for painful osteoporotic compression fracture in the middle thoracic vertebrae at 22 levels from May 2003 to June 2006. The average amount of the injected cement was 1.5-2.5ml. The postprocedural outcome was assessed using a visual analogue scale [VAS]. Results : The treated vertebrae were T5 [1 level], T6 [5 levels], 17 [7 levels], and T8 [9 levels]. The compression rate and kyphotic angle were improved after procedure from $18%{\pm}13.4$ to $16%{\pm}13.8$ [p > 0.05] and from $6.9^{\circ}{\pm}6.7$ to $6.6^{\circ}{\pm}6.2$ [p>005], respectively. Preprocedural VAS was $8.2{\pm}0.70$ and was decreased to $2.1{\pm}1.02$ [p < 0.01] after treatment. Postprocedural cement leakage was noted in 3 levels [13.7%]. There were no cases of leakage to epidural space or neural foramen, segmental artery injury, and pneumothorax. Conclusion : These results suggest that the complication rates are low and good results can be achieved with vertebroplasty utilizing PVBA technique for the osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures especially in the middle thoracic vertebrae.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.207-211
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• 2019

This study was performed to compare the radiographic and echocardiographic features of cardiovascular changes between small and large dogs with heartworm diseases. Total of 49 dogs from two institutions were included in this study. The dogs were diagnosed with heartworm infestation and underwent thoracic and echocardiography. On thoracic radiographs, vertebral heart scale, reverse D shape, main pulmonary artery dilation, peripheral pulmonary artery dilation, and evidence of right heart failure were evaluated. On echocardiographs, visibility of worms, main pulmonary artery to aortic root (MPA/Ao) ratio, right to left ventricular basal diameter (RVD/LVD) ratio, and pulmonary hypertension were evaluated and analyzed between small and large dogs. The proportion of reverse D shape of the heart and accuracy for right ventricular hypertrophy in small dogs were lower than those of the large dogs. For echocardiographic parameter, the MPA/Ao and RVD/LVD ratio in the small dogs were significantly lower than those of the large dogs. As the results, thoracic radiography have a tendency to underestimate the severity of HWD in small dogs and should be used with echocardiography.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2023

In this paper, we propose an organ segmentation technique for the automatic extraction of medical diagnostic indicators from X-ray images. In order to calculate diagnostic indicators of heart disease and spinal disease such as VHS(vertebral heart scale) and Cobb angle, it is necessary to accurately segment the thoracic spine, carina, and heart in a chest X-ray image. A deep neural network model in which the high-resolution representation of the image for each layer and the structure converted into a low-resolution feature map are connected in parallel was adopted. This structure enables the relative position information in the image to be effectively reflected in the segmentation process. It is shown that learning performance can be improved by combining the OCR module, in which pixel information and object information are mutually interacted in a multi-step process, and the channel attention module, which allows each channel of the network to be reflected as different weight values. In addition, a method of augmenting learning data is presented in order to provide robust performance against changes in the position, shape, and size of the subject in the X-ray image. The effectiveness of the proposed theory was evaluated through an experiment using 145 human chest X-ray images and 118 animal X-ray images.