• 한국임상수의학회지
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• 제39권4호
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• pp.177-184
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• 2022

Caval syndrome is a severe complication of canine heartworm disease in which affected dogs present with various clinical signs that are often life-threatening. In cases of severe infection, adulticidal treatment has numerous complications as a result of a marked immune response against dead worms. Therefore, several surgical and non-surgical methods, including interventional extraction, have been applied in veterinary medicine. Despite the usefulness and efficiency of conventional retrieval devices, a few associated limitations must be addressed to reduce their risks and increase their applicability. Herein, we introduced a case of treating three dogs with caval syndrome by applying a newly developed heartworm basket device. The dogs were diagnosed with heartworm disease by heartworm antigen testing and direct smear. Imaging findings revealed remarkable remodeling of the right heart and pulmonary vessels and the presence of heartworms in the right heart. Additionally, heartworms were confirmed in the distal part of the abdominal aorta and femoral arteries in one dog, indicating aberrant systemic migration of the worms. Under general anesthesia, the heartworm basket device was introduced into the right heart via femoral venotomy and arteriotomy in one dog and jugular venotomy in the other two dogs. Although the number of cases in this study was small, the basket device was successful in gradual and cautious extraction of the heartworms in all three dogs. They exhibited good prognosis of clinical symptoms as indicated by imaging analyses.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제22권6호
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• pp.951-958
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• 2021

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of virtual monochromatic images (VMIs) obtained using dual-layer dual-energy CT (DL-DECT) for evaluating brain tumors. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 32 patients with brain tumors who had undergone non-contrast head CT using DL-DECT. Among them, 15 had glioblastoma (GBM), 7 had malignant lymphoma, 5 had high-grade glioma other than GBM, 3 had low-grade glioma, and 2 had metastatic tumors. Conventional polychromatic images and VMIs (40-200 keV at 10 keV intervals) were generated. We compared CT attenuation, image noise, contrast, and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between tumor and white matter (WM) or grey matter (GM) between VMIs showing the highest CNR (optimized VMI) and conventional CT images using the paired t test. Two radiologists subjectively assessed the contrast, margin, noise, artifact, and diagnostic confidence of optimized VMIs and conventional images on a 4-point scale. Results: The image noise of VMIs at all energy levels tested was significantly lower than that of conventional CT images (p < 0.05). The 40-keV VMIs yielded the best CNR. Furthermore, both contrast and CNR between the tumor and WM were significantly higher in the 40 keV images than in the conventional CT images (p < 0.001); however, the contrast and CNR between tumor and GM were not significantly different (p = 0.47 and p = 0.31, respectively). The subjective scores assigned to contrast, margin, and diagnostic confidence were significantly higher for 40 keV images than for conventional CT images (p < 0.01). Conclusion: In head CT for patients with brain tumors, compared with conventional CT images, 40 keV VMIs from DL-DECT yielded superior tumor contrast and diagnostic confidence, especially for brain tumors located in the WM.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.59-62
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• 2007

Electroencephalogram (EEG) is an indispensable tool for diagnosis of epilepsy and is the only assisting barometer of complete remission of epilepsy, which means prolonged, persistent suppression of cortical excitement in epileptic focus in addition to the clinical control of epileptic seizure. The specific morphologies or distribution of epileptic form discharges give us good information for the classification of seizure or epilepsy and epileptic syndromes, which consists of "Pros." in terms of diagnostic approach. In contrast, the EEG as a tool for long-term follow up might be limited due to the various clinical situation of each patient, which consists of "Cons." in terms of the usefulness of EEG for clinical decision. "Cons." aspect of EEG, which clinicians are more frequently coped with than those of "Pros", is an obstacle of utilization of follow up EEG in clinical practice. This is an overview about controversies in usefulness of EEG and the detailed aspects of "Pros." and "Cons." of EEG for clinical decision will be discussed following two articles. We tried to make consensus for the usefulness of EEG especially in the situation of "Cons." with plausible guideline.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
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• 제37권2호
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• pp.88-95
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• 2005

Even though the echocardiograph has been recognized as the method of choice among various diagnostic tools to detect congestive heart failure (CHF), there were some limitations in relation to the consumption of time, labor and process. We analyzed results of N-terminal probrain-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and various parameters of the echocardiographic findings to clarify the diagnostic usefulness of NT-proBNP in detecting patients with CHF. We analyzed the sera from total of 242 cases from in-patients and out-patients, which were requested from the cardiovascular section of department of Internal Medicine at Chungnam National University Hospital from March 2003 to May 2004. The procedures were performed in order as shown below; sampling, NT-proBNP analysis, data acquisition and data analysis. All data including personal information and echocardiographic findings ware acquired by medical record review. When classifying the study population into six groups according to the degree of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), the serum level of NT-proBNP was higher in the group with 51-60% of LVEF (P=0.023). There were low correlation between the serum level of NT-proBNP and various parameters of the echocardiographic findings with LVESD (r=0.1513), LVEDD (r=0.0831), LVEF (r=0.2035), IVST (r=0.03) and LVPWT (r=0.0728), respectively. When comparing NT-proBNP with atrial and/or ventricular enlargement, the patient group with both left atrial and left ventricular enlargement (p=0.186) or only left atrial (p=0.105) or only left ventricular enlargement (p=0.256) showed higher level of NT-proBNP without statistical significance than patient group with no enlargement. Searching the optimal cutoff of the serum level of NT-proBNP, the sensitivity (98.9%) and the specificity (100%) was highest at the cutoff of 300 pg/mL than any other cutoffs. These findings suggested that the analysis of NT-proBNP in serum might detect the patients with CHF earlier than with the echocardiograph, especially in patients with asymptomatic or mild symptomatic CHF. In conclusion, NT-proBNP test was proved to be clinically useful to diagnose CHF patients.

• 산업융합연구
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.87-94
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• 2019

본 연구의 목적은 노인 치매예방을 위해 스마트폰에서 제공되고 있는 치매예방 게임 앱과 치매진단 앱의 이용에 대한 유용성 및 그 기대효과를 예측하는 것이다. 연구방법은 첫째, 치매예방프로그램의 효과성을 검증하기 위하여 사용되고 있는 6개의 치매진단도구를 선정하고 각 진단도구가 검증하고 있는 인지기능영역을 추출하였다. 둘째는 29개의 스마트폰 치매예방 게임 앱과 치매관리 앱을 선정하여 이 앱들을 이용한 이후의 기대효과를 치매진단도구에서 추출된 인지영역과 연계하여 분석하였다. 연구 결과, 스마트폰 치매예방 앱을 이용하여 지속적으로 게임을 하거나 치매관리를 할 경우 특정 영역의 인지기능을 증진함으로써 치매예방 관리에 도움이 될 것으로 기대되었다. 스마트폰 치매예방 앱은 시공간을 초월한 이용의 용이성, 지속적 사용성 그리고 경제성을 통하여 오프라인으로 운영되고 있는 치매예방프로그램의 한계점을 보완함으로써 노인의 인지능력을 증진시키고 치매를 예방하는 데 유용할 것이다.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.79-86
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• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical usefulness of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) as an alternative testing of invasive diagnostic testing in pregnancies with ultrasound abnormalities. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study of pregnant women with abnormal ultrasound findings before 24 weeks of gestation between April 2016 and March 2017. Abnormal ultrasound findings included isolated increased nuchal translucency, structural anomalies, and soft markers. The NIPT or diagnostic test was conducted and NIPT detected trisomy 21 (T21), T18, T13 and sex chromosomal abnormalities. We analyzed the false positive and residual risks of NIPT based on the ultrasound findings. Results: During the study period, 824 pregnant women had abnormal ultrasound findings. Among the study population, 139 patients (16.9%) underwent NIPT. When NIPT was solely performed in the patients with abnormal ultrasound findings, overall false positive risk was 2.2% and this study found residual risks of NIPT. However, the discordant results of NIPT differed according to the type of abnormal ultrasound findings. Discordant results were significant in the group with structural anomalies with 4.4% false positive rate. However, no discordant results were found in the group with single soft markers. Conclusion: This study found different efficacy of NIPT according to the ultrasound findings. The results emphasize the importance of individualized counseling for prenatal screening or diagnostic test based on the type of abnormal ultrasound.

• 대한방사선기술학회지:방사선기술과학
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.49-53
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• 1999

To inquire its usefulness of the clinical application of intelligent replenishment system of automatic X-ray film processor based on film density, we processed the serial 300 sheets of radiographic film of chest [$14{\times}14"$, HR-C type] and bone [elbow & ankle($8{\times}10"$), skull($10{\times}12"$), hand & foot($11{\times}14"$), pelvis($14{\times}17"$), HR-G type, 68, 70, 77, 85 sheets respectively]. We analyzed the characteristic corves, relative speeds, average gradients and base plus fog densities every twenty five sheets. We also evaluated the developer and fixer replenishment volumes every that time. In the chest and bone radiograph two all, the characteristic curves were little change, and the relative speeds, average gradients and base plus fog densities were within the maximum control limits. The average developer replenishment volumes were about 43m1/sheet and 39m1/sheet respectively. It brings decreased results about 29% in comparison with the conventional replenishment system. In our experiences, we conclude that the intelligent replenishment system of automatic X-ray film processor based on film density maintains image quality consistently, decreases also the replenishment volumes. Therefore, this system will be resulted in economic and environmental effects, and solve problems of over and low replenishment volume.

• 대한수의학회지
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• 제44권4호
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• pp.669-676
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• 2004

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of two commercial ELISA tests (Allied- and CSL-ELISA) for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis in cattle, Meta-analysis using English language papers published during 1990-2001 was performed. Diagnostic odds ratios (DOR) were analyzed using regression analysis together with summary receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The difference in diagnostic performance between the two ELISA systems was evaluated by using linear regression. Publication bias was assessed by funnel plot and linear regression. The pooled sensitivity and specificity were 44% (95% CI, 38 to 51) and 98% (95% CI, 96 to 99) for the random-effect model. The DOR between studies was heterogeneous. The area under the fitted ROC curve (AUC) was 0.72 for the unweighted and 0.77 for the weighted model. Maximum joint sensitivity and specificity for the unweighted and weighted model from their summary ROC curve were 70% and 75%, respectively. Based on the fitted model, at a specificity of 95%, sensitivity was estimated to be 52% for the unweighted and 57% for the weighted model. From the final multivariable model study characteristic, the country was the only significant variable with an explained component variance of 13.3%. There were no significant differences in discriminatory power, sensitivity, and specificity between the two ELISA tests. The overall diagnostic accuracy of two commercial ELISA tests was moderate, as judged by the AUC, maximum joint sensitivity and specificity, and estimates from the fitted model and clinical usefulness of the tests for screening program is limited because of low sensitivity and heterogeneous of DOR. It is, therefore, recommended to use ELISA tests as a parallel testing with other diagnostic tests together to increase test sensitivity in the screening program.

• 대한방사선기술학회지:방사선기술과학
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.5-9
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• 2001

Over-density of pancreatic duct tail part on the endoscopic retrograde pancreatogram results from patient's position and inserted air during the study. The aim of this paper is to decide the filter angle to obtain an uniform density. Endoscopic retrograde pancreatography was performed to 234 patients, and angled wedge filter was used differently. They are $10^{\circ}$ (47), $20^{\circ}$ (45), $30^{\circ}$ (50), and $40^{\circ}$ (50). We also did not use wedge filter to 42 patients. We decided reliance degree in 95%. The statistical difference was p<0.05. The patients' sex rate was 1.8 : 1 between 18 and 87 years old(average age 58 years). Their body girth was 18.71 cm on the average. Of total 234 patients, difference of right and left average density was 0.01 by $30^{\circ}$ wedge filter, -0.08 $40^{\circ}$ wedge filter and 0.27 non-wedge filter. These average values of difference density were very significant statistically, and standard deviation also was close to regular distribution. In conclusion, there is a usefulness of angled wedge filter for increasing diagnostic value of pancreatic duct tall part on the endoscopic retrograde pancreatogram.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.665-682
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• 2005

The sample reuse bootstrap technique has been successful to attract both applied and theoretical statisticians since its origination. In recent years a good deal of attention has been focused on the applications of bootstrap methods in regression analysis. It is easier but more accurate computation methods heavily depend on high-speed computers and warrant tough mathematical justification for their validity. It is now evident that the presence of multiple unusual observations could make a great deal of damage to the inferential procedure. We suspect that bootstrap methods may not be free from this problem. We at first present few examples in favour of our suspicion and propose a new method diagnostic-before-bootstrap method for regression purpose. The usefulness of our newly proposed method is investigated through few well-known examples and a Monte Carlo simulation under a variety of error and leverage structures.