• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.185-191
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• 2015

Objective : In order to provide normal values of the pediatric sub-axial cervical spinal canal and vertebral body growth pattern using computed tomographic scans, a total of 318 patients less than 10 years old were included. Methods : The growth of the vertebral body and canal space was investigated using four different age groups. The Torg ratio (TR) was calculated and all patients were classified into a low TR group and a high TR group according to a cutoff value of 1.0. To account for spinal curvature, the C3-7 angle was measured. Results : Very little axial expansion and growth in height were observed (2.9 mm and 3.4 mm, respectively), and the spinal canal increments (1.8 mm) were much smaller than the dimensions of the vertebral body. The mean TR values were $1.03{\pm}0.14$ at the C3 vertebral level, $1.02{\pm}0.13$ at C4, $1.05{\pm}0.13$ at C5, $1.04{\pm}0.13$ at C6, and $1.02{\pm}0.12$ at C7 in all patients. The mean sub-axial angle (C3-7) was $7.9{\pm}10.6^{\circ}$ (range: $-17-47^{\circ}$). Conclusion : The upper sub-axial spinal canal continuously increased in size compared to the lower sub-axial spine after 8 years of age. Considerable decrements in the TR was found after late childhood compared to younger ages. Generally, there were no significant differences between boys and girls in vertical length of the cervical vertebrae. However, the axial dimension of the vertebral body and the spinal canal space varied according to gender.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.261-265
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• 2006

A vertebral compression fracture can cause chronic back pain, and may also result in progressive kyphosis. The traditional treatments of a vertebral compression fracture include bed rest, analgesics and bracing. Balloon kyphoplasty can restore the vertebral height and allow safe bone cement injection into the cavity made by the balloon, which significantly reduces the risk of cement leakage compared to vertebroplasty. An 82-year-old female patient suffered from severe low back pain. Due to the intractable pain and immobility, which could not be relieved by conventional care, as well as the empty vertebral body associated with communicated fractures of the vertebral surfaces, balloon kyphoplasty, with a thicker bone cement injection than usual with balloon kyphoplasty, was chosen. The preoperative intractable pain and immobility were dramatically relieved soon after the procedure, without any complications.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.213-218
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• 2007

Percutaneous vertebroplasty and balloon kyphoplasty have been accepted as effective treatment modalities for vertebral compression fractures in patients with vertebral metastasis. However, when these procedures are conducted in patients with lytic lesions of the vertebral pedicle, polymethylmethacrylate leakage through the lytic lesions that occurs during percutaneous pediculoplasty can increase the procedural risks due to the immediate vicinity of neural structures. In spite of this risk, there are not many available reports on safer methods of pediculoplasty. Here we report a case of vertebral metastasis in which the pedicle infiltration of cancer was successfully treated by pediculoplasty using a bone filler device that contained thick bone cement during a balloon kyphoplasty procedure.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.365-371
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• 2000

Objectives : To describe a technique for percutaneous vertebroplasty of osteoporotic vertebral body compression fractures and to report preliminary results of its use. Methods : The technique was used over a 8-month period in 9 patients with 10 painful vertebral fractures. The technique involves percutaneous puncture of the involved vertebrae with a Jamshidi needle via a transpedicular approach followed by injection of polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA) into the vertebral body. Results : The procedure was technically successful in all patients, with an average injection amount of 5.9 cc per vertebral body. One patient complained of flank pain postoperatively in spite of improvement in back pain caused by the fractured vertebra. Remaining eight patients reported significant pain relief early after treatment. The patients were followed up for 3 to 15 months(average 7.2 months) and demonstrated no recurrence of pain or aggravation of deformity. Conclusion : Vertebroplasty appears to be a valuable tool in the treatment of painful osteoporotic vertebral fractures, providing acute pain relief and early mobilization in appropriate patients. However, it needs to have more extensive prospective clinical study to confirm its definitive role in the management of this condition.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.114-120
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• 1997

Frequencies and the types of abnormal vertebrae in the juvenile of five cyprinid fishes collected from the Kumho River during 1995 and 1996 were examined. Types of vertebral anomalies in investigated species were spinal curvature, fused vertebrae, helical sutures of cetera and abnormal vertebrae with one or two additional spines. The frequencies and the types of vertebral anomalies were different among the species. Of all the examined species, the type with one or two additional spines showed the highest frequencies, 11.72~12.11%. The frequencies of fused vertebrae was 4.45~7.68%. Thes two types of vertebral anomalies were observed in all species. Among the several types of fused vertebrae, the frequencies of double fused vertebrae were higher than those of other types. Also, the incidence of fused vertebrae located in the caudal region of vertebral column was much higher than that in other regions. The percentages of spinal curvature and helical sutures of vertebrae in the investigated species were 0.02~0.15% and 0.02%, respectively. Among the examined specimens, vertebral anomalies include fused vertebrae and one or two additional spines were shown in the three species, Korean slender gudgeon (Squalidus gracilis majimae), False dace (Pseudorasbora parva) and Crucian carp (Carassius auratus). In addition to the two vertebral anomalies, spinal curvature was shown in the Korean gudgeon (Squalidus chankaensis tsuchigae). Dark chub (Zacco temmincki) had fused vertebrae, one or two additional spines, spinal curvature, and helical sutures of vertebrae. This species has the most variable vertebral anomalies. Frequencies of fused vertebrae and one or two additional spines in the all tested fishes were not related with their standard lengths measured. However, spinal curvature and helical sutures of vertebrae were shown only in the specimens smaller than 20mm in standard length.

• Journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Association
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.24-29
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• 2019

Purpose: To evaluate the characteristics and the risk factors of early onset subsequent vertebral compression fractures after percutaneous vertebroplasty. Materials and Methods: A total of 44 patients, who had a new subsequent vertebral fracture after percutaneous vertebroplasty for an osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture between January 2013 and December 2015, were recruited. The patients were divided into two groups according to the onset period of subsequent fracture. The number of patients who had a fracture within 3 months following vertebroplasty were 22 cases (Group A); after 3 months were 22 cases (Group B). Variables, including age, sex, bone mineral density (BMD), body mass index (BMI), preexisting vertebral compression fracture, location of the initial fracture, intradiscal cement leakage, injected cement volume, restoration of vertebral body height, and correction of kyphosis, in the two groups were analyzed and compared retrospectively. Results: The age, sex, BMD, BMI, preexisting vertebral compression fracture, location of the initial fracture, intradiscal cement leakage, and correction of kyphosis were similar in the two groups. Both a greater volume of bone cement injected and a greater degree of vertebral height restoration contributed significantly to the risk of fracture within 3 months. Conclusion: The cement volume and degree of height restoration are risk factors for early onset fracture at the adjacent vertebrae after percutaneous vertebroplasty and close attention is needed during the follow-up period.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.131-132
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• 2006

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.154-161
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• 2017

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of diffusion-weighted steady-state free precession (DW-SSFP) in comparison to diffusion-weighted echo-planar imaging (DW-EPI) for differentiating the neoplastic and benign osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. Materials and Methods: The subjects were 40 patients with recent vertebral compression fractures but no history of vertebroplasty, spine operation, or chemotherapy. They had received 3-Tesla (T) spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including both DW-SSFP and DW-EPI sequences. The 40 patients included 20 with neoplastic vertebral fracture and 20 with benign osteoporotic vertebral fracture. In each fracture lesion, we obtained the signal intensity normalized by the signal intensity of normal bone marrow (SI norm) on DW-SSFP and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) on DW-EPI. The correlation between the SI norm and the ADC in each lesion was analyzed using linear regression. The optimal cut-off values for the diagnosis of neoplastic fracture were determined in each sequence using Youden's J statistics and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses. Results: In the neoplastic fracture, the median SI norm on DW-SSFP was higher and the median ADC on DW-EPI was lower than the benign osteoporotic fracture (5.24 vs. 1.30, P = 0.032, and 0.86 vs. 1.48, P = 0.041, respectively). Inverse linear correlations were evident between SI norm and ADC in both neoplastic and benign osteoporotic fractures (r = -0.45 and -0.61, respectively). The optimal cut-off values for diagnosis of neoplastic fracture were SI norm of 3.0 in DW-SSFP with the sensitivity and specificity of 90.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 81.0-99.0) and 95.3% (95% CI: 90.0-100.0), respectively, and ADC of 1.3 in DW-EPI with the sensitivity and specificity of 90.5% (95% CI: 80.0-100.0) and 70.4% (95% CI: 60.0-80.0), respectively. Conclusion: In 3-T MRI, DW-SSFP has comparable sensitivity and specificity to DW-EPI in differentiating the neoplastic vertebral fracture from the benign osteoporotic vertebral fracture.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.27 no.3 s.62
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• pp.481-492
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• 1997

In order to investigate the possibility of using a cervical vertebral maturation indicator as a mandibular growth indicator, the relationship of cervical vertebral maturation and mandibular & body height growth changes was assessed in biennial serial lateral cephalometric radiographs of eighteen korean male and fourteen korean female while they were 8.5 to 18.5 years old. The following results were obtained. 1. It was a reliable method to evaluate skeletal maturation by using cervical vertebrae. 2. In general, cervical vertebral maturation stages of females were higher than those of males at the same age and there were significant differences in statistics at the age of 10.5, 14.5. 3. The age of a female at the same cervical vertebral maturation stage were earlier than that of a male. 4. In the case of males, significant Ar-Gn increases were found between stage 3 and 4,5; Ar-Go increases between stage 4 and 5. 5. In the case of females, significant S-Gn and Ar-Gn increases were (end between stage 3 and 4. 6. Significant body height increases were found between stage 3 and 4 in both sexes. 7. The peak velocity of body height and mandibular length was observed between cervical vertebral maturation stage 3 and 4 in both sexes. 8. The relationship between mandibular & body height changes and specific maturation stage of cervical vertebra was found, therfore using a cervical vertebral maturation indicator as mandibular growth indicator is quite within realms of possibility.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.158-165
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of X-rays in patients with acute traumatic vertebral fractures visiting the emergency department and to analyze the diagnostic value of X-rays for each spine level. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed basal characteristics by reviewing medical records of 363 patients with adult traumatic vertebral fractures, admitted to the emergency center from March 1, 2014 to February 28, 2017. We analyzed spine X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to determine distribution according to the vertebral level, and we evaluated the efficacy of X-rays by comparing discrepancies between X-rays and MRI scans. Results: For a total of 363 patients, the mean age was 56.65 (20-93) and 214 (59%) were males. On the basis of X-rays, 67 cases (15.1%) were of the cervical spine, 133 cases (30.0%) were of the thoracic spine, and 243 cases (54.9%) were of the lumbar spine. In particular, the thoracolumbar region (T11-L2) was the most common, with 260 cases (58.7%). In X-rays, fractures were the least in the upper thoracic region (T1-T3), whereas MRI scans revealed fairly uniform distribution across the thoracic spine. Sensitivity of X-rays was lowest in the upper thoracic spine and specificity was almost always greater than 98%, except for 94.7% in L1. Positive predictive value was lower in the mid-thoracic region (T4-T9) and negative predictive value was slightly lower in C6, T2, and T3 than at other sites. Diagnostic accuracy of X-rays by vertebral body, transverse process, and spinous process according to fractured vertebral structures was significantly different according to vertebral level. Conclusions: Diagnostic accuracy of X-rays was lower in the upper thoracic region than in other parts. Further studies are needed to identify better methods for diagnosis considering cost and neurological prognosis.