• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.566-569
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• 2007

Purpose: Analysis of volatile organic solvents in 2-deoxy-2-$[^{18}F]$ fluoro-D-glucose ($[^{18}F]$FDG) preparations was performed by gas chromatography (GC), in accordance with USP. Materials and Methods: Analyses were carried out on a Hewlett-Packard 6890 gas chromatography equipped with an FID. Results: We determined the amounts of ethanol and acetonitrile on every batch of our routine $[^{18}F]$FDG preparations, ranging between 5000 ppm and 100 ppm. In our routine preparation of $[^{18}F]$FDG, the amount of acetonitrile and ethanol in the final product were well below the maximum allowable limit described in the USP. Conclusion: Our $[^{18}F]$FDG preparations were in accordance with the suggested USP maximum allowable levels of the quality control analysis of volatile organic compounds.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.30 no.1_2
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• pp.139-151
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• 2018

Objectives : A self-made "Tomotherapy couch device" capable of correcting the Yaw direction was fabricated and evaluated for its usefulness. Materials and Methods : "Tomotherapy couch device" capable of correcting the Yaw direction is made of rigid fibreboard with a flexural strength of $200kg/cm^2$. CBCT Image from Novalis Tx and Iso-Align Phantom from MED-TEC were used to evaluate the physical accuracy. The treatment plan was designed using Accuray $Precision^{TM}$ and In House Head and Phantom. Accuray $PrecisionART^{TM}$ and $Precision^{TM}$ was used to evaluate dose. Results : Evaluation results, the self-fabricated device accurately corrected the setup error, Target dose was within 95 %~107 % of all. In order to directly evaluate the OAR dose according to the Yaw change, the absolute dose was measured. As a result, when the error in the Yaw direction was $3^{\circ}$, the specific OAR showed a maximum difference of 18.4 %. Conclusion : "Tomotherapy couch device" capable of correcting the Yaw direction can be manufactured at a lower cost compared to the effect, and it can prevent the patient's MVCT image dose for re-imaging. Accurate radiation therapy without errors can be performed.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.67 no.1
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• pp.67-75
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• 2022

Roots play important roles in water and nutrient uptake and in response to various environmental stresses. Investigating diversification of cultivars through root phenotyping is important for crop improvement in adzuki beans. Therefore, we analyzed the morphological and architectural root traits of 22 adzuki bean cultivars using 2-dimensional (2D) root imaging. Plants were grown in plastic tubes [6 cm (diameter) × 40 cm (height)] in a greenhouse from July 25^th to August 28^th. When the plants reached the 2^nd or 3^rd trifoliate leaf stage, the roots were removed and washed with tap water to remove soil particles. Clean root samples were scanned, and the scanned images were analyzed using the WinRHIZO Pro software. The cultivars were analyzed based on six root phenotypes [total root length (TRL), surface area (SA), average diameter (AD), and number of tips (NT) were included as root morphological traits (RMT); and link average length (LAL) and link average diameter (LAD) were included as root architectural traits (RAT)]. According to the analysis of variance (ANOVA), a significant difference was observed between the cultivars for all root morphological traits. Distribution analysis demonstrated that all root traits except LAL followed a normally distributed curve. In the correlation test, the most important morphological trait, TRL, showed a strong positive correlation with SA (r = 0.97^***) and NT (r = 0.94^***). In comparison, between RMT and RAT, TRL showed a significantly negative correlation with LAL (r = -0.50^***); however, TRL did not show a correlation with LAD. Based on RMT and RAT, we identified the cultivars that ranked 5% from the top and bottom. In particular, the cultivar "IT 236657" showed the highest TRL, SA, and NT, while the cultivar "IT 236169" showed the lowest values for TRL, SA, and NT. In addition, the coefficient of variance for the six tested root traits ranged from (14.26-40%) which suggested statistical variability in root phenotypes among the 22 adzuki bean varieties. Thus, this study will help to select target root traits for the adzuki bean breeding program in the future, generating climate-resilient adzuki beans, especially for drought stress, and may be useful for developing biotic and abiotic stress-tolerant cultivars based on better root trait attributes.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.438-448
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• 2024

Objective: To evaluate the therapeutic outcomes of no-touch radiofrequency ablation (NT-RFA) using twin cooled wet (TCW) electrodes in patients experiencing recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after undergoing locoregional treatments. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective, single-arm study of NT-RFA involving 102 patients, with a total of 112 recurrent HCCs (each ≤ 3 cm). NT-RFA with TCW electrodes was implemented under the guidance of ultrasonography (US)-MR/CT fusion imaging. If NT-RFA application proved technically challenging, conversion to conventional tumor puncture RFA was permitted. The primary metric for evaluation was the mid-term cumulative incidence of local tumor progression (LTP) observed post-RFA. Cumulative LTP rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression was used to explore factors associated with LTP. Considering conversion cases from NT-RFA to conventional RFA, intention-to-treat (ITT; including all patients) and per-protocol (PP; including patients not requiring conversion to conventional RFA alone) analyses were performed. Results: Conversion from NT-RFA to conventional RFA was necessary for 24 (21.4%) out of 112 tumors. Successful treatment was noted in 111 (99.1%) out of them. No major complications were reported among the patients. According to ITT analysis, the estimated cumulative incidences of LTP were 1.9%, 6.0%, and 6.0% at 1, 2, and 3 years post-RFA, respectively. In PP analysis, the cumulative incidence of LTP was 0.0%, 1.3%, and 1.3% at 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively. The number of previous locoregional HCC treatments (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.265 per 1 treatment increase; P = 0.004), total bilirubin (aHR, 7.477 per 1 mg/dL increase; P = 0.012), and safety margin ≤ 5 mm (aHR, 9.029; P = 0.016) were independently associated with LTP in ITT analysis. Conclusion: NT-RFA using TCW electrodes is a safe and effective treatment for recurrent HCC, with 6.0% (ITT analysis) and 1.3% (PP analysis) cumulative incidence of LTP at 2 and 3-year follow-ups.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.671-682
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• 2019

Objective: To investigate whether computed tomography (CT) and fluorine-18-labeled fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) may be applied to distinguish thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) from benign cysts in the anterior mediastinum. Materials and Methods: We included 262 consecutive patients with pathologically proven TETs and benign cysts 5 cm or smaller who underwent preoperative CT scans. In addition to conventional morphological and ancillary CT findings, the relationship between the lesion and the adjacent mediastinal pleura was evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. Mean lesion attenuation was measured on CT images. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) was obtained with FDG-PET scans in 40 patients. CT predictors for TETs were identified with multivariate logistic regression analysis. For validation, we assessed the diagnostic accuracy and inter-observer agreement between four radiologists in a size-matched set of 24 cysts and 24 TETs using a receiver operating characteristic curve before and after being informed of the study findings. Results: The multivariate analysis showed that post-contrast attenuation of 60 Hounsfield unit or higher (odds ratio [OR], 12.734; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.506-64.705; p = 0.002) and the presence of protrusion from the mediastinal pleura (OR, 9.855; 95% CI, 1.749-55.535; p = 0.009) were the strongest CT predictors for TETs. SUVmax was significantly higher in TETs than in cysts (5.3 ± 2.4 vs. 1.1 ± 0.3; p < 0.001). After being informed of the study findings, the readers' area under the curve improved from 0.872-0.955 to 0.949-0.999 (p = 0.066-0.149). Inter-observer kappa values for protrusion were 0.630-0.941. Conclusion: Post-contrast CT attenuation, protrusion from the mediastinal pleura, and SUVmax were useful imaging features for distinguishing TETs from cysts in the anterior mediastinum.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.105-121
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• 2016

Objectives The purpose of this study was to compare the effects between the degree of herniated intervertebral lumbar disc (HIVD) at L4-5 level and improvement of low back pain treated by Korean Medicine therapy. Methods 567 patients who received inpatient treatment from May 2014 to December 2015 in the Daejeon-Jaseng of Korean Medicine Hospital were divided into 6 groups by the degree of HIVD at L4-5 level confirmed with a Lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging. All patients received a combination of treatment including acupunture, chuna manual therapy, pharmacopunture, herbal medication. They were compared and analyzed on the basis of improvement between measuring Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), EuroQol-5 Dimension Index (EQ5D Index) as they were hospitalized and as they were discharged. The statistically significance was evaluated by SPSS 23.0 for windows. Results After treatment, Normal stage on Intervertebral Lumbar Disc at L4-5 level group's Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), EuroQol-5 Dimension Index (EQ5D Index) improvement was $1.30{\pm}1.62$, $4.52{\pm}11.82$ and $0.04{\pm}0.11$ respectively. Bulging group's improvement was $3.25{\pm}2.81$, $8.28{\pm}13.02$ and $0.09{\pm}0.17$ respectively. Spinal canal occupying ratio (SOR) less than 20 group's improvement was $2.15{\pm}1.92$, $11.79{\pm}17.81$ and $0.13{\pm}0.23$ respectively. SOR 20 to less than 40 stage group's improvement was $2.13{\pm}1.92$. $10.79{\pm}15.93$ and $0.10{\pm}0.26$ respectively. SOR 40 to less than 60 group's improvement was $2.16{\pm}2.24$, $9.80{\pm}16.62$ and $0.15{\pm}0.25$ respectively. Surgery group's improvement was $2.47{\pm}2.21$, $11.64{\pm}18.53$ and $0.15{\pm}0.27$ respectively (p<0.03). But there was no statistically significance between 6 group's improvement after treatment (p>0.05). Conclusions After inpatient treatment by Korean Medicine therapy, Most patient's pain, disability and Health Related Quality of Life was improved significantly. But there was no statistically correlation between the degree of HIVD at L4-5 level and improvement of low back pain. So We think that future research of higher quality and correct statistics shall be necessary.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.485-494
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• 2013

$CO_2$ Monitoring, Mitigation and Verification (MMV) is the essential part in the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project in order to assure the storage permanence economically and environmentally. In large-scale CCS projects in the world, the seismic time-lapse survey is a key technology for monitoring the behavior of injected $CO_2$. In this study, we developed a basic process procedure for 3-D seismic baseline data from the Aquistore project, Estevan, Canada. Major target formations of Aquistore CCS project are the Winnipeg and the Deadwood sandstone formations located between 1,800 and 1,900 ms in traveltime. The analysis of trace energy and similarity attributes of seismic data followed by spectral decomposition are carried out for the characterization of $CO_2$ injection zone. High trace energies are concentrated in the northern part of the survey area at 1,800 ms and in the southern part at 1,850 ms in traveltime. The sandstone dominant regions are well recognized with high reflectivity by the trace energy analysis. Similarity attributes show two structural discontinuities trending the NW-SE direction at the target depth. Spectral decomposition of 5, 20 and 40 Hz frequency contents discriminated the successive E-W depositional events at the center of the research area. Additional noise rejection and stratigraphic interpretation on the baseline data followed by applying appropriate imaging technique will be helpful to investigate the differences between baseline data and multi-vintage monitor data.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.281-290
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• 2012

The difference of radiation dose of MDCT due to different protocols between hospitals was analyzed by CTDI, DLP, the number of Slice and the number of DLP/Slice in 30 cases of the head, the abdomen and the chest that have 10 cases each from MDCT examination of the department of diagnostic imaging of three general hospitals in Gyeongsangbuk-do. The difference of image quality, CTDI, DLP, radiation dose in the eye and radiation dose in thyroid was analyzed after both helical scan and normal scan for head CT were performed because a protocol of head CT is relatively simple and head CT is the most frequent case. Head CT was significantly higher in two-thirds of hospitals compared to A hospital that does not exceed a CTDI diagnostic reference level (IAEA 50mGy, Korea 60mGy) (p<0.001). DLP was higher in one-third of hospitals than a diagnostic reference level of IAEA 1,050mGy.cm and Korea 1,000mGy.cm and two-thirds exceeded the recommendation of Korea and those were significantly higher than A hospital that does not exceed a diagnostic reference level (p<0.001). Abdomen CT showed 119mGy that was higher than a diagnostic reference level of IAEA 25mGy and Korea 20mGy in one-third. DLP in all hospitals was higher that Korea recommendation of 700mGy.cm. Among target hospitals, C hospital showed high radiation dose in all tests because MPR and 3D were of great importance due to low pitch and high Tube Curren. To analyze the difference of radiation dose by scan methods, normal scan and helical scan for head CT of the same patient were performed. In the result, CTDI and DLP of helical CT were higher 63.4% and 93.7% than normal scan (p<0.05, p<0.01). However, normal scan of radiation dose in thyroid was higher 87.26% (p<0.01). Beam of helical CT looked like a bell in the deep part and the marginal part so thyroid was exposed with low radiation dose deviated from central beam. In addition, helical scan used Gantry angle perpendicularly and normal scan used it parallel to the orbitomeatal line. Therefore, radiation dose in thyroid decreased in helical scan. However, a protocol in this study showed higher radiation dose than diagnostic reference level of KFDA. To obey the recommendation of KFDA, low Tube Curren and high pitch were demanded. In this study, the difference of image quality between normal scan and helical scan was not significant. Therefore, a standardized protocol of normal scan was generally used and protective gear for thyroid was needed except a special case. We studied a part of CT cases in the local area. Therefore, the result could not represent the entire cases. However, we confirmed that patient's radiation dose in some cases exceeded the recommendation and the deviation between hospitals was observed. To improve this issue, doctors of diagnostic imaging or technologists of radiology should perform CT by the optimized protocol to decrease a level of CT radiation and also reveal radiation dose for the right to know of patients. However, they had little understanding of the situation. Therefore, the effort of relevant agencies with education program for CT radiation dose, release of radiation dose from CT examination and addition of radiation dose control and open CT contents into evaluation for hospital services and certification, and also the effort of health professionals with the best protocol to realize optimized CT examination.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.32
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• pp.7-15
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• 2020

Purpose: In modern radiotherapy technology, several methods of image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) are used to deliver accurate doses to tumor target locations and normal organs, including CBCT (Cone Beam Computed Tomography) and other devices, ExacTrac System, other than CBCT equipped with linear accelerators. In previous studies comparing the two systems, positional errors were analysed rearwards using Offline-view or evaluated only with a Yaw rotation with the X, Y, and Z axes. In this study, when using CBCT and ExacTrac to perform 6 Degree of the Freedom(DoF) Online IGRT in a treatment center with two equipment, the difference between the set-up calibration values seen in each system, the time taken for patient set-up, and the radiation usefulness of the imaging device is evaluated. Materials and Methods: In order to evaluate the difference between mobile calibrations and exposure radiation dose, the glass dosimetry and Rando Phantom were used for 11 cancer patients with head circumference from March to October 2017 in order to assess the difference between mobile calibrations and the time taken from Set-up to shortly before IGRT. CBCT and ExacTrac System were used for IGRT of all patients. An average of 10 CBCT and ExacTrac images were obtained per patient during the total treatment period, and the difference in 6D Online Automation values between the two systems was calculated within the ROI setting. In this case, the area of interest designation in the image obtained from CBCT was fixed to the same anatomical structure as the image obtained through ExacTrac. The difference in positional values for the six axes (SI, AP, LR; Rotation group: Pitch, Roll, Rtn) between the two systems, the total time taken from patient set-up to just before IGRT, and exposure dose were measured and compared respectively with the RandoPhantom. Results: the set-up error in the phantom and patient was less than 1mm in the translation group and less than 1.5° in the rotation group, and the RMS values of all axes except the Rtn value were less than 1mm and 1°. The time taken to correct the set-up error in each system was an average of 256±47.6sec for IGRT using CBCT and 84±3.5sec for ExacTrac, respectively. Radiation exposure dose by IGRT per treatment was measured at 37 times higher than ExacTrac in CBCT and ExacTrac at 2.468mGy and 0.066mGy at Oral Mucosa among the 7 measurement locations in the head and neck area. Conclusion: Through 6D online automatic positioning between the CBCT and ExacTrac systems, the set-up error was found to be less than 1mm, 1.02°, including the patient's movement (random error), as well as the systematic error of the two systems. This error range is considered to be reasonable when considering that the PTV Margin is 3mm during the head and neck IMRT treatment in the present study. However, considering the changes in target and risk organs due to changes in patient weight during the treatment period, it is considered to be appropriately used in combination with CBCT.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2017

This study is related to a lamellar liquid crystal make-up cleansing formulation with a hologram-like unique appearance between two polarizing plates. Make-up cleansing formulations with a lamellar liquid crystal phase have been extensively studied for a long time, but there have been limitations in practical commercialization because of increasing turbidity and viscosity. In this study, to solve this problem, alkyl chains of surfactants were modified to increase the fluidity of the liquid crystal phase, and electrostatic repulsion force was increased by introducing anionic surfactant. The lamellar liquid crystal make-up cleansing formulation which introduced anionic surfactants can easily inhibit crystallization through electrostatic repulsion force, thereby showing excellent stability overtime, maintaining transparent appearance and viscosity. In addition, we have newly introduced an in vitro cleansing evaluation method using fluorescent material and in vivo imaging system (IVIS) for objective and quantitative cleansing ability evaluation. The excellent cleansing ability of lamellar liquid crystal cleansing formulation has been confirmed by newly developed evaluation method. On the other hand, when lamellar liquid crystal make-up cleansing formulation was placed between orthogonally arranged two polarizing plates, a specific pattern like a hologram can be observed. This phenomenon is presumably interpreted as the interference between the visible light passing through the liquid crystal formulation and the lamellar structure. The lamellar structure of cleansing formulation was confirmed by SAXS analysis, exhibiting Bragg spacing ratio of 1 : 2. The lamellar liquid crystal make-up cleansing formulation prepared in this study would be useful for future application in make-up cleansing due to its excellent stability, cleansing ability, and unique hologram-like pattern placed between two polarizing plates.