• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.773-780
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• 2000

Background : pH measurement is an important test in assessing the etiology of pleurisy and in identifying complicated parapneumonic effusion. Although the blood gas analyzer is the gold standard method' for pleural pH measurement, pH meter & pH strip methods are also used for this purpose interchangably. However, the correlation among the pH data measured by the three different methods needs to be evaluated. In this study, we measured the pH of pleural fluid with the three different methods respectively and evaluated the correlation among the measured data. Methods : From August 1999 to March 2000, we measured the pleural fluid pH in 34 clinical samples with three methods-blood gas analyzer, pH meter, and pH strip. In the blood gas analyzer and pH meter methods, the temperature of pleural fluid was maintained around $0^{\circ}C$ in air-tight condition before analysis and measurement was performed within 30 minutes after collection. As for the pH strip method, the pleural fluid pH was checked in the ward immediately after tapping and in the clinical laboratory of our hospital. This part is unclear. Results : The causes of pleural effusion were tuberculosis pleurisy in 16 cases, malignant pleural effusion 5 cases, parapneumonic effusion 9 cases, empyema 3 cases, and congestive heart failure 1 case. The pH of pleural fluid (mean$\pm$SD) was 7.34$\pm$0.12 with blood gas analyser, 7.52$\pm$0.25 with pH meter, 7.37$\pm$0.16 with pH strip of immediate measurement and 6.93$\pm$0.201 with pH strip of delayed measurement. The pH measured by delayed pH strip measurement was lower than those of other methods (p<0.05). The correlation of the results between the blood gas analyzer and pH meter(p=0.002, r=0.518) and the blood gas analyzer and pH strip of immediate measurement(p<0.001, r=0.607). Conclusion : In the determination of pH of pleural fluid, pH strip method could be a simple and reliable method under immediate measurement conditions after pleural fluid tapping.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1992 no.11
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• pp.103-104
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• 1992

Automatic transmission of data from the blood analyzer to the request site is one of the most important part in hospital computerization. We have developed a system to automatically transmit the data from the atrial blood gas analyzer. In this system, HOST computer, FILE server, LAN(Local Area Network), 3270 Emulator and Multi-port card were integrated. Also, 3 blood gas analyser(NOVA Inc., USA) were connected to a single multi-port card which is attached in a personal computer for data acquisition. When specimen is collected from sampling sites, it is transfered to the lab. After analysis, the result is transmitted to the personal computer via serial communication between machine and multi-port card using interrupt method. Then, the patient's information (Name, Sex, etc.) is obtained from the HOST computer througth the emulator. The combined data(patient information & lab data) is transmitted to the each request site via LAN automatically. From the collected data, patient's previous data could be reviewed, and it could be used for the various statistics and the flow chart for clinical research. Also, we found that this system reduces the personal labor.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2006

Hospitals these days are trying to introduce the a practice has recently been generalized in the test or diagnosis process, where test results and images from different test labs are interlinked together. This process is identical to that of physical aspect in EMR process, which computerizes the paper results within the hospital. One of the prerequisites for the process of computerizing test results is the interface between clinical test devices in the test labs. However, due to the variety of prescription inputs, disparity of test result papers, complexity of job in test labs and diversify of interfaces among the different devices, interconnection with the hospital information system is a complicated job. A universal control of clinical test devices which have independent communication protocols has become possible by connecting them with an interface workstation. As for the patients, waiting time for test has been reduced, and, thanks to the synchronized result retrieval system, it has become possible to check the test results on the very day of the test. As a result, the length of hospitalization has been reduced, too. In terms of workflow, as the transfer of charts and transfer of result papers are separated, the embarrassing job of collecting result papers has disappeared. As patients' test appointment and the results processing can be made on-line, extra work for doctors have disappeared. And, thanks to the computerization of test results information management, the job of statistical processing has become convenient.