• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.269-278
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• 2012

Aquaplast Thermoplastic (AT) is a tissue-equivalent oral compensator that has been developed to improve dose uniformity at the common boundary and around the treated area during radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer. In order to assess the usefulness of AT, the degree of improvement in dose distribution and physical properties were compared to those of oral compensators made using paraffin, alginate, and putty, which are materials conventionally used in dental imprinting. To assess the physical properties, strength evaluations (compression and drop evaluations) and natural deformation evaluations (volume change over time) were performed; a Gafchromic EBT2 film and a glass dosimeter inserted into a developed phantom for dose verification were used to measure the common boundary dose and the beam profile to assess the dose delivery. When the natural deformation of the oral compensators was assessed over a two-month period, alginate exhibited a maximum of 80% change in volume from moisture evaporation, while the remaining tissue-equivalent properties, including those of AT, showed a change in volume that was less than 3%. In a free-fall test at a height of 1.5 m (repeated 5 times as a strength evaluation), paraffin was easily damaged by the impact, but AT exhibited no damage from the fall. In compressive strength testing, AT was not destroyed even at 8 times the force needed for paraffin. In dose verification using a glass dosimeter, the results showed that in a single test, the tissue-equivalent (about 80 Hounsfield Units [HU]) AT delivered about 4.9% lower surface dose in terms of delivery of an output coefficient (monitor unit), which was 4% lower than putty and exhibited a value of about 1,000 HU or higher during a dose delivery of the same formulation. In addition, when the incident direction of the beam was used as a reference, the uniformity of the dose, as assessed from the beam profile at the boundary after passing through the oral compensators, was 11.41, 3.98, and 4.30 for air, AT, and putty, respectively. The AT oral compensator had a higher strength and lower probability of material transformation than the oral compensators conventionally used as a tissue-equivalent material, and a uniform dose distribution was successfully formed at the boundary and surrounding area including the mouth. It was also possible to deliver a uniformly formulated dose and reduce the skin dose delivery.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 1996

Objectives: Although outbreak of MDR Tb has been a recent problem in western countries, it has been a longstanding problem in Korea. The poor outcome of MDR Tb is mainly due to poor compliance, high rate of side reaction of secondary drugs, and limitation in number of available drugs. Thus, to improve the outcome of MDR Tb, it is crucial to make individualized adequate prescription based on the knowledge of the patterns of resistance to each drugs in the community as well as the natural history. The purpose of present study is to evaluate the clinical features of Korean MDR Tb patients including patterns of drug resistance and success rate of treatment which was prescribed according to the sensitivity tests. Methods: Retroscpective analysis of 71 Korean patients with MDR Tb was made. All strains isolated from patients showed resistence to at least two first line drugs. Patients profile, previous treatment history, patterns of drug resistance, outcome of treatment was analysed. Initial treatment regimen was selected according to the previous treatment history and was modified according to the sensitivity reports. The regimen was composed to include at least 4 sensitive drugs when possible. Results: The patients showed resistance to 4.1 drugs on average. 90% of them were resistant to INH and RFP. Among 71 patients, 35 patients(49%) had cavitary lesions in CXR. Treatment outcome was analysed in 55 patients. 35 patients(67%) were improved after treatment and 18 patients(33%) showed treatment failure. 5 patients showed primary resistance. Treatment outcome could be evaluated in 4 of them and all showed improvement after treatment. 14 patients(20%) had to change their regimens due to drug side effects. The most frequent side effect was elevation of liver enzymes(6 patients). Others included dizziness, hyperuricemia, tinnitus, skin rash, GI troubles. More than 50% of side effects developed within 3 months. In repeated drug sensitivity test, the concordance rate of resistance to INH was 100% and RFP 98%. EMB, PZA showed 80% concordance rate. But in the other drugs, the concordances were less than 50%. Operation was done in 5 patient - 1 patients as a adjunctive means of chemotherapy -. In that case, negative conversion of sputum AFB was done. Conclusion: 2/3 patients of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis were improved by appropriate prescription and regular medication suggesting that more aggressive management and monitoring is indicated in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.388-393
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• 2006

Purpose : We compared the pain reducing effect of orally administered glucose solution with EMLA cream and pacifiers during venipuncture in newborn infants. Methods : Fifty newborn infants(30 prematures) were enrolled in this study. We performed these four pain-reducing methods to all infants in serial order. Group A(control) did not receive any treatment; to group B, EMLA cream was applied on the skin for 1 hour; group C(or D) received 10 percent(or 30 percent) glucose solution orally; group E used pacifiers. Symptoms and signs associated with pain at venipuncture were measured with the Premature Infants Pain Profile(PIPP) scale. Results : There was no significant difference in the PIPP scores between preterm and fullterm infants. The mean PIPP scores of groups were A : $12.5{\pm}2.5$, B : $10.1{\pm}2.6$, C : $9.4{\pm}2.0$, D : $6.5{\pm}2.1$ and E : $8.7{\pm}2.3$; the mean scores of groups B, C, D and E were significantly lower than that of group A(all, P<0.001 except B(P<0.05)), and the mean score of D was significantly lower than those of B, C and E(P<0.001, P<0.005, P<0.05, respectively). The percentages of patients with PIPP scores above 6, which means pain, were A : 100 percent, B : 82 percent, C : 56 percent, D : 40 percent and E : 70 percent. The percentages of patients with PIPP scores above 12, which means severe pain, were A : 72 percent, B : 30 percent, C : 22 percent, D : 0 percent and E : 14 percent; that of group D was clearly lowest. Conclusion : These results support the use of oral glucose solution, EMLA, and pacifiers for pain reduction as effective intervention at venipuncture in newborn infants. The most effective method was a 30 percent oral glucose solution.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2010

In this paper we evaluated small field dose characteristics of exclusive cone fields versus square fields for stereotactic radiosugery (SRS) which is based on linear accelerators (LINAC). For this test, we used a small beam detector (stereotactic fields detector : SFD) with a 6 MV photon beam and a water phantom system (IBA, Germany). Percentage depth dose (PDD) was measured for different field sets (cones : ${\Phi}1\;cm$, ${\Phi}2\;cm$, ${\Phi}3\;cm$ ; square fields : $1{\times}1\;cm^2$, $2{\times}2\;cm^2$, $3{\times}3\;cm^2$) at a source skin distance (SSD) of 100 cm. We measured the point depths at 1.5 cm, 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm. The output factors were measured under the same geometrical conditions of the PDD and normalized at the maximum dose depth. To analyze the penumbra, we measured the dose profile with 95 cm of SSD, 5 cm of depth for each field sizes (${\Phi}1\;cm$, ${\Phi}3\;cm$, $1{\times}1\;cm^2$, and $3{\times}3\;cm^2$) using SFD. We obtained the values for every 1 mm interval in the physical field (90%) and 0.5 mm interval in the penumbra region (20 to 80%). The PDD variation of exclusive cones and square fields were 4.3 to 7.9% lesser than the standard field size ($10{\times}10\;cm^2$. The variation of PDD was reduced while the field size was increased. To compare the beam quality, we analyzed the $PDD_{20,10}$ and the results showed under the 1% of variations for all experiments except for ${\Phi}1\;cm$ cone and $1{\times}1\;cm^2$ fields. Output factors of exclusive cone were increased 3.1~4.6% than the square fields, and the penumbra region of exclusive cone was reduced 20% as compared to the square fields. As the previous researches report, it is very important for SRS and SFD that precise dosimetry in small beam fields. In this paper, we showed the effectiveness of exclusive cone, compared to square field. And we will study on the various detector characteristics for small beam fields.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.31 no.1 s.60
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• pp.139-156
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• 1998

Diving related disease including decompression sickness is an important occupational health problem and diving fishermen remain a fairly hazardous occupation in Korea. To prevent diving related disease, we investigate diving patterns, incidence of diving related diseases, and contributing factors of 433 diving fishermen of three coast interviewing and mailing questionnaire in 1996. Mean age of divers was 39.7 years, ranged from 24 to 58 years, 92.8% of these were male, and 58.4% of divers were high school graduates. Mean duration of work as a diver was 12.9 years, ranged from 2 to 40 years. It was found that 70.4% of divers were using hookah system, 22.2% of helmet, and only 2.5% SCUBA. About half of them have learned diving skills from other divers. The peak season of diving was from April to June and mean working days were 20.3 days per month during the peak season. On the average, the divers dived 5-6 times, ranged from 1 to 10 times a day with 51.1 minutes of diving time, ranged from 20 to 120 minutes, at 30 m or 40 m in depth, and 35.5 minute of interval on surface. Most divers ascended slowly making decompression stop, yet the decompression profile used was not based on any scientific knowledge except for their own experiences. It appeared that each diving system had slightly different diving patterns. There were 282(65.0%) divers that suffered from DCS in 1995 and 31.2% of divers were given recompression therapy at a medical facility since they worked as diving fishermen. Skin and musculoskeletal complaints were common symptoms of DCS and 39% of divers experienced a voiding difficulty. In univariate analysis, females have an increased frequency of DCS(93% vs 66% for males). Old age, long duration of work, helmet diving, diving time, diving depth, repetitive diving, and blow up were all contributing factors to DCS. It was found that most diving patterns exceed no decompression limit and did not use the standard decompression table. This suggests that most of divers are at high risk of developing diving related disease with prolonged dives and lengthy repetitive diving in deep depth. Considering the diving patterns and economic aspect of professional diving, the incidence of DCS among diving fishermen in Korea will not decrease in the near future. These findings suggest that periodical health surveillance for divers, and education of health and safety are important for reducing the risk of diving related disease in the population of diving fishermen.