• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.68 no.5
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• pp.273-279
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• 2010

Background: Pulmonary hypertension is considered as a poor prognosis factor in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). There has been reported brain natriuretic peptide (pro-BNP) is related with increased right ventricular (RV) workloads. However, there are few studies that evaluate the relationship between BNP and pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), RV function and St. George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) score in patients with COPD, and the effects of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) on these parameters. Methods: Pulmonary function test, echocardiography, blood BNP, and SGRQ score were evaluated in stabilized moderate degree COPD patients ($FEV_1$/FVC< 70%, $50%{\leq}FEV_1$ < 80%) aged 45 years and over, without worsening of symptoms within recent 3 months. After treating with ramipril 10 mg for 3 months, the same evaluation was repeated. Results: Twenty-two patients were included in this study. BNP was significantly correlated with PAP (Pearson coefficient ${\rho}=0.51$, p=0.02), but not with RV ejection fraction (EF) and predicted $FEV_1%$. The values for predicted $FEV_1%$ showed significant correlation with SGRQ total score and activity score, but not with BNP or PAP. After ramipril treatment, PAP showed significant decrease ($42.8{\pm}8.1$ vs. $34.5{\pm}4.5mm$ Hg p=0.0003), tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion significant increase ($21.5{\pm}3.3$ vs. $22.7{\pm}3.1mm$ p=0.009). BNP showed a tendency to decrease without statistical significance ($40.8{\pm}59.6$ vs. $18.0{\pm}9.1pg/mL$ p=0.55). SGRQ scores showed no significant change. Conclusion: BNP showed significant correlation with resting PAP, which means BNP could be used as markers for pulmonary hypertension. Treatment with ACEI didn't show significant change in the level of BNP, while pulmonary hypertension and RV function were improved.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1458-1467
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• 2010

The present study was retrospectively designed to define whether preoperative levels of leukocytes and D-dimer are potentially useful factors in predicting perioperative outcomes of coronary heart disease (CHD). There was no relationship between preoperative leukocyte counts (Pre-OP leukocyte) and preoperative D-dimer levels (Pre-OP D-dimer). Pre-OP leukocyte counts each had positive correlation with cardiac troponin-I, creatine kinase-MB or C-reactive protein (cardiac markers) levels at preoperative and postoperative periods. Pre-OP D-dimer levels were positively associated with each cardiac marker at the same periods. Pre-OP leukocyte counts positively related with aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase (liver markers), whereas Pre-OP D-dimer level positively or negatively correlated with bilirubin (liver marker), creatinine (renal marker) or glucose levels at preoperative and/or postoperative periods. Pre-OP leukocyte and Pre-OP D-dimer were inversely associated with Pre-OP high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels or left ventricular ejection fraction. Pre-OP leukocyte counts each had positive correlation operation duration and postoperative mechanical ventilation-time (PMVT), whereas Pre-OP D-dimer levels had positive relationship with PMVT, intensive care unit-staying period and hospitalization. The retrospective data suggest that Pre-OP leukocyte and Pre-OP D-dimer levels may be clinically useful factors for predicting perioperative outcomes in patients with CHD.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.785-791
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• 2002

The results of reoperative valve replacement can be improved if appropriate analysis for the risk of reoperation was achieved. The purpose of our study was to analyze the results of reoperations for failure of bioprosthesis, and to define the risk factors in high-risk populations for reoperative procedures. Material and Method The series of 46 consecutive patients who had undergone first reoperative replacement for failed bioprosthesis between 1993 and 2001 were reviewed retrospectively. Mean age was 42 $\pm$ 12 years, mean body surface area was 1.52 $\pm$0.15 $m^2$. The reoperative procedure comprised of 36 MVR, 8 DVR, and 2 AVR. The first operation comprised of 2 DVR, 1 AVR, and 43 MVR. Factors which were choose to assess a predictor of results in reoperative valve replacement were sex, old age(＞60 years), early age at first operation(＜30 years), long interval between first and redo operation(.15years), poor NYHA functional class(＞3), LV dysfunction(LVEF＜45%), long operation time(＞8hours), endocarditis, combined procedures, and renal insufficiency, Result : Overall mortality was 4.3%(2 cases). The risk factors that influenced postoperative complications and unexpected postoperative results were lower ejection fraction(p＝0.012), older age(p＝0.045), endocarditis(p＝0.023), long operation time above 8 hours(p＝0.027). There was no statistically significant factor influencing hospital mortality. Conclusion : No factor influenced the mortality. Better results could be achieved if reoferation was performed carefully in poor left ventricular function, old aged patient, and with endocarditis. Effort to shorten the operation time would be helpful on postoperative results.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.189-194
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• 2012

We report a case of cardiac lymphoma in a 40-year-old man, who had a mediastinal mass which was diagnosed as sclerosing mediastinitis pathologically. The mediastinal mass caused right pulmonary arterial stenosis. The patient developed myocardial hypertrophy and echocardiography showed restrictive physiology and severely decreased left ventricle ejection fraction, 6 months later. MRI showed global left ventricular myocardial hypertrophy and diffuse late gadolinium hyperenhancement after administration of contrast material. Thus, non-ischemic cardiomyopathy was suspected on MRI. However, pathology confirmed the myocardial abnormality as lymphoma after myocardial biopsy. Because a basal part of the left ventricle and global subendocardial myocardium were not involved on contrast-enhanced delayed MRI, the MRI abnormalities could be differentiated from amyloidosis and other myocardial diseases. The peculiar non-mass forming diffuse hypertrophy pattern of cardiac lymphoma has not been known in the MRI literature.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.2301-2305
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• 2016

Background: The early detection of anthracycline- induced cardiotoxicity is very important since it might be useful in prevention of cardiac decompensation. This study was designed with the intent of assessing the usefulness of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and NT- Pro BNP estimation in early prediction of anthracycline induced cardiotoxicity. Materials and Methods: In this prospective study histologically proven breast cancer patients who were scheduled to receive anthracycline containing combination chemotherapy as a part of multimodality treatment were enrolled. Baseline cardiac evaluation was performed by echocardiography (ECHO) and biomarkers like cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and N terminal- pro brain natriuretic peptide (NT- Pro BNP). All patients underwent cTnT and NT- Pro BNP estimation within 24 hours of each cycle of chemotherapy and were followed up after 6 months of initiation of chemotherapy. Any changes in follow up ECHO were compared to ECHO at baseline and cTnT and NT- Pro BNP levels after each cycle of anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Results: Initial data were obtained for 33 patients. Mean change in left ventricular diastolic diameter (LVDD) within 6 months was $0.154{\pm}0.433cms$ (p value=0.049). Seven out of 33 patients had an increase in biomarker cTnT levels (p value=0.5). A significant change in baseline and follow up LVDD was observed in patients with raised cTnT levels (p value=0.026) whereas no change was seen in ejection fraction (EF) and left atrial diameters (LAD) within 6 months of chemotherapy. NT- Pro BNP levels increased in significant number of patients (p value ${\leq}0.0001$) but no statistically significant change was observed in the ECHO parameters within 6 months. Conclusions: Functional monitoring is a poorly effective method in early estimation of anthracycline induced cardiac dysfunction. Estimation of biomarkers after chemotherapy may allow stratification of patients in various risk groups, thereby opening window for interventional strategies in order to prevent permanent damage to the myocardium.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.159-168
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• 1999

Cardiac disease is one of the leading causes of death in Korea. In quantitative analysis of cardiac function and morphological information by three-dimensional reconstruction of magnetic resonance images, left ventricle provides an important role functionally and physiologically. However, existing procedures mostly rely on the extensive human interaction and are seldom evaluated on clinical applications. In this study, we developed a system which could perform automatic extraction of enpicardial and endocardial contour and analysis of cardiac function to evaluate reliability and stability of each system comparing with the result of ARGUS system offered 1.5T Siemens MRI system and manual method performed by clinicians. For various aspects, we investigated reliability of each system by compared with left ventricular contour, end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), stock volume (SV), ejection fraction (EF), cardiac output (CO) and wall thickness (WT). When comparing with manual method, extracted results of developed process using minimum error threshold (MET) method that automatically extracts contour from cardiac MR images and ARGUS system were demonstrated as successful rate 90% of the contour extraction. When calculating cardiac function parameters using MET and comparing with using correlation coefficients analysis method, the process extracts endocardial and epicardial contour using MET, values from automatic and ARGUS method agreed with manual values within :t 3% average error. It was successfully demonstrated that automatic method using threshold technique could provide high potential for assessing of each parameters with relatively high reliability compared with manual method. In this study, the method developed in this study could reduce processing time compared with ARGUS and manual method due to a simple threshold technique. This method is useful for diagnosis of cardiac disease, simulating physiological function and amount of blood flow of left ventricle. In addition, this method could be valuable in developing automatic systems in order to apply to other deformable image models.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.487-496
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• 2000

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the reproducibility of the quantitative assessment of segmental wall motion and systolic thickening provided by an automatic quantitation algorithm. Materials and Methods: Tc-99m-MIBI gated myocardial SPECT with dipyridamole stress was performed in 31 patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease (4 with single, 6 with two, 11 with triple vessel disease; ejection fraction $51{\pm}14%$) twice consecutively in the same position. Myocardium was divided into 20 segments. Segmental wall motion and systolic thickening were calculated and expressed in mm and % increase respectively, using $AutoQUANT^{TM}$ software. The reproducibility of this quantitative measurement of wall motion and thickening was tested. Results: Correlations between repeated measurements on consecutive gated SPECT were excellent for wall motion (r=0.95) and systolic thickening (r=0.88). On Bland-Altman analysis, two standard deviation was 2 mm for repeated measurement of segmental wall motion, and 20% for that of systolic thickening. The weighted kappa values of repeated measurements were 0.807 for wall motion and 0.708 for systolic thickening. Sex, perfusion, or segmental location had no influence on reproducibility. Conclusion: Segmental wall motion and systolic thickening quantified using $AutoeUANT^{TM}$ software on gated myocardial SPECT offers good reproducibility and is significantly different when the change is more than 2 mm for wall motion and more than 20% for systolic thickening.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.172-176
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• 1994

As the Tc-99m-MIBI myocardial SPECT demonstrated wide application in the diagnosis of myocardial function, the quantitative and severity-dependent information is currently re quired. In this study, we proposed a computerized method for scoring the fixed defects in terms of extent-weighted severity and for identifying the reversibility in ischemic regions. At the first stage of this method, the transverse slices were reconstructed with 0.4 Nyquist freq. and order 5 Butterworth filter. From the oblique/sagittal slices, maximal count per pixel circumferential profiles were extracted for each sector, and then stress/redist. polar maps were normalized and plotted. For reversibility, the stress polar map was subtracted from the de-layed image and positive-valued pixels were categorized into three grades. The extent-weight-ed severity scores were calculated using the assigned grades and their number of pixels. This procedure was done automatically and the reversibility and severity scores were produced for each of the coronary territories (LAD, RCA, LCX) or any combination of these. Clinical ap-plication has shown that the changes In reversibility scores after PTCA were correlated linearly with the pre PTCA scores(r>0.8) in postinfarct cases as well as in angina, and severity scores of persistent defects in stress/rest SPECT study matched to the regional ejection fraction and visual analysis of regional wall motion of gated blood pool scan(r>0.6). We conclude that the computerized severity scoring method for the analysis of myocardial SPECT could be useful in the assessment of the myocardial ischemia and fixed defect.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.362-368
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• 2008

Purpose: It is well known that lung to heart ratio (LHR) is one of the high risk findings in TI- 201 myocardial perfusion SPECT. We evaluated the clinical efficacy of LHR to identify severe coronary artery disease in adenosine stress Tc-99m tetrofosmin gated myocardial perfusion SPECT (gSPECT). Materials and Methods: The study population was 157 patients who underwent both adenosine stress Tc-99m gSPECT and coronary angiography (CAG) within one month. According to the results of CAG and gSPECT LHR and the incidence of increased LHR were compared. Results: Among 53 patients with normal coronary arteries increased LHR was found in 2 patients (3.8%) and 0 in 44 patients (0%) with one vessel disease, 2 in 27 with two vessel disease (7.4%) and 8 in 33 with triple vessel disease (24.2%). Significant differences were found in LHR between subgroups of summed stress score, summed rest score and LV ejection fraction (LVEF). There were weak negative correlation between LHR and LVEF and weak positive correlation between LHR and SSS and SRS. Conclusion: Increased LHR had higher incidence in patients with triple vessel disease, severe LV dysfunction and/or extensive perfusion defect than those of normal group. Although its sensitivity might be low to identify severe coronary artery disease, LHR could be helpful in abnormal myocardial perfusion SPECT to stratify risk and prognosis.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.273-283
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• 2012

Drug-eluting stents (DES) have significantly reduced in-stent restenosis, compared to bare-metal stents (BMS). However, there remains concern for the increased risk of stent thrombosis (ST) associated with DES. The present study sought to evaluate the incidence, clinical characteristics and outcome of ST in patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) during a 1-year follow-up. 80 patients who developed ST were divided into 2 groups according to stent type: group I (DES-ST, n = 57 ) and group II (BMS-ST, n = 23 ). There were no differences between group I and II in the overall incidence of ST (2.7% vs. 4.3%, p=0.064) and in the incidence of each type of ST: acute ST (8.8% vs. 2.3%), subacute ST (50.9% vs. 60.9%), late ST (19.3% vs. 8.7%), and very late ST (21.1% vs. 17.4%) (p=0.605). Predictors of 1-year mortality were the occurrence of ST (OR 8.12, 95% CI 2.83-23.61, p<0.001), left ventricular ejection fraction<40% (OR 6.41, 95% CI 2.42-16.96, p<0.001), and age${\geq}$75 years (OR 4.98, 95% CI 1.95-12.74, p=0.001).