• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.3229-3232
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• 2015

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is known to be associated with aggressive biologic features and a poor clinical outcome. Therefore, early detection of TNBC without missed diagnosis is a requirement to improve prognosis. Preoperative ultrasound features of TNBC may potentially assist in early diagnosis as characteristics of disease. Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate the sonographic features of TNBC compared to ER (+) cancers which include HER(-) and HER2 (+), and HER2 (+) cancers which are ER (-). Materials and Methods: From June 2012 through June 2014, sonographic features of 321 surgically confirmed ER (+) cancers (n=214), HER2 (+) cancers (n=66), and TNBC (n=41) were retrospectively reviewed by two ultrasound specialists in consensus. The preoperative ultrasound and clinicopathological features were compared between the three subtypes. In addition, all cases were analyzed using morphologic criteria of the ACR BI-RADS lexicon. Results: Ultrasonographically, TNBC presented as microlobulated nodules without microcalcification (p=0.034). A lower incidence of ductal carcinoma in situ (p<0.001), invasive tumor size that is>2 cm (p=0.011) and BI-RADS category 4 (p<0.001) were significantly associated with TNBC. With regard to morphologic features of 41 TNBC cases, ultrasonographically were most likely to be masses with irregular (70.7%) microlobulated shape (48.8%), be circumscribed (17.1%) or have indistinct margins (17.1%) and parallel orientation (68.9%). Especially TNBC microlobulated mass margins were more more frequent than with ER (+) (2.0%) and HER2 (+) (4.8%) cancers. Conclusions: TNBC have specific characteristic in sonograms. Ultrasonography may be useful to avoid missed diagnosis and false-negative cases of TNBC.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.189-193
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• 1999

Objectives: Fine needle aspiration cytology(FNAC) is a well established preoperative diagnostic procedure in the thyroid nodules. However, diagnostic accuracy of FNAC varies according to the size and the structural characteristics of thyroid nodule. We performed the ultrasound guided FNAC(US-guided FNAC) for impalpable thyroid nodule, and estimated the sampling accuracy rate through a comparison study between the cytologic diagnosis and the final histologic diagnosis of the postoperative specimens in order to determine clinical efficacy of the US-guided FNAC. Materials and Methods: We evaluated 117 patients underwent US-guided FNAC from January 1997 to December 1998. These patients had 129 thyroid nodules to need cytologic examination. Whereas the nodules were so no graphically classified into cystic, solid, and mixed type according to echo pattern, the aspirated thyroid specimens were classified into benign, malignant, suspicious, and insufficient. Results: Positive sampling for diagnositc examination was achieved in 75 nodules(58.1%), and US-guided FNAC in our study showed the accuracy rate of 95.2%, false positivity rate of 0%, and false negativity rate of 5.5%. Conclusions: US-guided FNAC is a powerful techniques for evaluating cytologic characterics and allowing a reliable diagnositc result in the impalpable thyroid nodule. However, the experienced technique is recommanded in order to obtain the sufficient samples for reliable results.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.17
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• pp.7187-7193
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• 2014

Background: The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare sensitivities and specificities of fine needle aspiration (FNA) and core needle biopsy (CNB) in the diagnosis of thyroid cancer. Materials and Methods: Articles were screened in Medline, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE and Google Scholar, and subsequently included and excluded based on the patient/problem-intervention-comparison-outcome (PICO) principle. Primary outcome was defined in terms of diagnostic values (sensitivity and specificity) of FNA and CNB for thyroid cancer. Secondary outcome was defined as the accuracy of diagnosis. Compiled FNA and CNB results from the final studies selected as appropriate for meta-analysis were compared with cases for which final pathology diagnoses were available. Statistical analyses were performed for FNA and CNB for all of the selected studies together, and for individual studies using the leave-one-out approach. Results: Article selection and screening yielded five studies for meta-analysis, two of which were prospective and the other three retrospective, for a total of 1,264 patients. Pooled diagnostic sensitivities of FNA and CNB methods were 0.68 and 0.83, respectively, with specificities of 0.93 and 0.94. The areas under the summary ROC curves were 0.905 (${\pm}0.030$) for FNA and 0.745 (${\pm}0.095$) for CNB, with no significant difference between the two. No one study had greater influence than any other on the pooled estimates for diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. Conclusions: FNA and CNB do not differ significantly in sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of thyroid cancer.

• Korean Journal of Cleft Lip And Palate
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• v.14 no.1_2
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• pp.29-36
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• 2011

The frequency of fetal malformations accounts for around 3-5% and evaluation of the health of the fetus and screening for fetal malformations has become an important part of prenatal care. Improvements in prenatal diagnosis have allowed identification of malformation in fetuses during first and second trimesters of pregnancy. Prenatal ultrasonography has become routine part of antenatal examination. For development of imaging, the accuracy of diagnosis is getting higher and earlier diagnosis of congenital malformation, such as cleft lip and palate, can provide to parent counseling, and opportunity to prepare the further treatment. For the better understanding of congenital cleft lip diagnosis to the oral and maxillofacial surgeons, as healthcare providers, we reviewed around 19 english-written articles and summarized some knowledges of ultrasound findings in the prenatal cleft lip fetus.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.109-119
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• 2014

In accordance with the government's plan to expand the national health insurance (NHI) coverage for severe diseases such as cancer, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and rare and incurable disease, the diagnostic ultrasound services have been covered by NHI from October 1, 2013. The quality is very important factor in providing diagnostic services because they influence on the diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of diseases. In particular, equipments and health care providers plays an important role in providing qualitative services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the major feature of ultrasound services covered by health security system and to review quality assurance policies in other countries such as Australia, Japan, the USA, and Canada. In addition, we assessed the implication of those policies. We especially put emphasis on the types and qualifications of healthcare professionals and measures to manage equipments. All countries have reviewed on policies to promote the quality such as educational requirements of professionals or restrictions on the duration of equipment usage. Various measures should be implemented to assure the qualitative ultrasound service.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.2206-2212
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• 2013

We propose a method for the classification of fatty liver by ultrasound imaging using Fuzzy Contrast Enhancement Technique and FCM. ROI images are extracted after removal of information data except ultrasound image of the liver and the kidney then image contrast is improved by Fuzzy Contrast Enhancement Algorithm. The images applied Fuzzy Contrast Enhancement Technique is applied average binarization then ROI images of liver and kidney parenchyma are extracted using Blob algorithm. Representative brightness is extracted in the liver and kidney images using the most frequent brightness level after classification of 10 brightness levels. We applied this method to ultrasound images and a radiologist confirmed the accuracy of diagnosis for fatty liver. This method would be a model for automatic method in the diagnosis of fatty liver.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.693-699
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• 2023

Ultrasound is widely used in the medical field for non-destructive and non-invasive disease diagnosis. In order to improve the disease diagnosis accuracy of diagnostic medical images, improving spatial resolution is a very important factor. In this study, we aim to model the super resolution convolutional neural network (SRCNN) algorithm in ultrasound images and analyze its applicability in the medical diagnostic field. The study was conducted as an experimental study using Field II simulation and open source clinical liver hemangioma ultrasound imaging. The proposed SRCNN algorithm was modeled so that end-to-end learning can be applied from low resolution (LR) to high resolution. As a result of the simulation, we confirmed that the full width at half maximum in the phantom image using a Field II program was improved by 41.01% compared to LR when SRCNN was used. In addition, the peak to signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index (SSIM) evaluation results showed that SRCNN had the excellent value in both simulated and real liver hemangioma ultrasound images. In conclusion, the applicability of SRCNN to ultrasound images has been proven, and we expected that proposed algorithm can be used in various diagnostic medical fields.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.911-917
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• 2023

The method of observing nodular changes on the liver surface using clinical ultrasonography is useful for diagnosing cirrhosis. However, the speckle noise that inevitably occurs in ultrasound images makes it difficult to identify changes in the liver surface and echo patterns, which has a negative impact on the diagnosis of cirrhosis. The purpose of this study is to model the median modified Wiener filter (MMWF), which can efficiently reduce noise in cirrhotic ultrasound images, and confirm its applicability. Ultrasound images were acquired using an ACR phantom and an actual cirrhotic patient, and the proposed MMWF algorithm and conventional noise reduction algorithm were applied to each image. Coefficient of variation (COV) and edge rise distance (ERD) were used as quantitative image quality evaluation factors for the acquired ultrasound images. We confirmed that the MMWF algorithm improved both COV and ERD values compared to the conventional noise reduction algorithm in both ACR phantom and real ultrasound images of cirrhotic patients. In conclusion, the proposed MMWF algorithm is expected to contribute to improving the diagnosis rate of cirrhosis patients by reducing the noise level and improving spatial resolution at the same time.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.387-391
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• 2013

A 64-year-old woman visited our pain clinic with the pain of right lateral side of thigh for one year. Her pain always started from knee and was radiated to buttock area when symptom was severe. She showed significant tenderness at knee lateral side and local tightness at lateral thigh. Magnetic resonance image of the knee was performed and we could identify high signal intensity of iliotibial band through coronal and axial view. In spite of medication and physical stretching exercise of iliotibial band for one month, she did not show any improvement of pain. To alleviate her symptom, ultrasound guided local corticosteroid injection targeting beneath the iliotibial band was performed. After the procedure, the reduction of pain was significant and there was no need for further management.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.481-484
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• 2002

In every cancer early detection and early treatment is the best way to decrease mortality of patients. Moreover early detection of breast cancer increases the possibility of breast conservation treatment. Although mammography is the most powerful modality for early detection, it is hazardous to be used for young women due to X-ray exposure. Another modality of image diagnosis is ultrasound echo technique. But it is not so powerful to detect breast cancer compared to mammography. Palpation is another modality, but is largely dependent on the skill and experience of medical doctors. A new technique is tested its validity in phantom experiments with good results.