• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.82 no.3
• /
• pp.756-763
• /
• 2021

Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis (PLCH) is a rare, multi-systemic disease primarily affecting young male adults with a history of smoking. The two patients with PLCH in our report showed relatively early and atypical radiologic presentations at initial evaluation. On chest CT, PLCH presents variable radiologic features depending on the evolutional stage of the disease. Atypical CT features of PLCH may render precise radiologic diagnosis difficult and usually require lung biopsy for a confirmation of the diagnosis. Our case review is aimed at raising the awareness of radiologists on the atypical CT features of PLCH, to help make accurate radiologic diagnosis and prevent unnecessary and invasive diagnostic procedures.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.87 no.3
• /
• pp.319-328
• /
• 2024

Background: Although inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) is reportedly associated with a higher risk of pneumonia in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the clinical implications of ICS have not been sufficiently verified to determine their effect on the prognosis of pneumonia. Methods: The electronic health records of patients hospitalized for pneumonia with underlying COPD were retrospectively reviewed. Pneumonia was confirmed using chest radiography or computed tomography. The clinical outcomes of pneumonia in patients with COPD who received ICS and those who received long-acting bronchodilators other than ICS were compared. Results: Among the 255 hospitalized patients, 89 met the inclusion criteria. The numbers of ICS and non-ICS users were 46 and 43, respectively. The CURB-65 (confusion, uremia, respiratory rate, blood pressure, age ≥65 years) scores at the initial presentation of pneumonia were comparable between the two groups. The proportions of patients with multilobar infiltration, pleural effusion, and complicated pneumonia in the radiological studies did not vary between the two groups. Additionally, the defervescence time, proportion of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit admission, length of hospital stays, and mortality rate at 30 and 90 days were not significantly different between the two groups. ICS use and blood eosinophils count were not associated with all pneumonia outcomes and mortality in multivariate analyses. Conclusion: The clinical outcomes of pneumonia following ICS use in patients with COPD did not differ from those in patients treated without ICS. Thus, ICS may not contribute to the severity and outcomes of pneumonia in patients with COPD.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.792-809
• /
• 2024

Objectives: The purpose of this case study was to report the therapeutic effect of Korean medicine treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patient with dyspepsia and anorexia after surgery for colon cancer and chemotherapy. Methods: A patient with COPD was hospitalized to treat dyspnea, dyspepsia, and anorexia that occurred after surgery for colon cancer and chemotherapy during 22 days. The patient was treated with herbal medicine (Yangjin-tang), acupuncture, pharmaco-puncture, herbal steam therapy, moxibustion, and pulmonary rehabilitation. The effectiveness of the treatment was assessed with modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) scale, Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for dyspnea and dyspepsia, walking distance, weight, peak expiratory flow (PEF), radiography, pulmonary function test, and laboratory test. Results: The Korean medicine treatment improved mMRC from Grade 4 to Grade 3, NRS of both dyspnea and dyspepsia, walking distance, and maxillary sinusitis on paranasal sinus X-ray. However, there were no changes in weight, PEF, and chest X-ray. Conclusion: The Korean medicine treatment was effective in improving the symptoms of the COPD patient, including dyspnea, dyspepsia, and anorexia. This study suggests that Korean medicine treatment can have therapeutic effect on comorbidities such as dyspepsia and anorexia.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.21-28
• /
• 1985

We serveyed the actual condition of business of the departments of radiology of 45 health conters (except 3) in the area of Seoul, Kyungki and Inchon from March, 1984 to November, 1984. The results are summarized as follows : 1. T.O. of the radiologic technologist is three persons in each health center of Seoul area, and one person in each one of Kyungki and Inchon area. P.O. is 2-5 persons in Seoul area, 1-2 persons in Kyungki or Inchon area. 2. The number of all the radiologic technologists employed now is 75 persons, and among all of them, when analized by position class 7th is 54.7%, class 8th 28.0%, class 9th is 13.3%, and class 6th is 2.7%, and by sex, female is 68.0%, male is 32.0%, by educational background, for the most part, junior college graduates come to 73.3%, by age group 60% of them is in their twenties, 16.0% is in their thirties and forties, 8.0% is in their fifties, and by career after certificate 60% have the career of 1-5 years, 13.3% have the one of 6-7 years or mor than 21 years, and 6.7% have the one of 11-15 years of 16-20 years. 3. All the diagnostic x-ray equipment being kept is 62, and among them flxing equipment is 71.0%, portable equipment is 29.0% and by rating of X-ray equipment, maximum tube current 100 mA is 46.8%, maximum KV 100KVP is 72.6%, the most part. 4. Photofluorographic camera and hood are equipped in every health center. While, as to the radiographic cassettes, $14{\times}14"$ cassetts are equipped in every health center, but cassettes of other sizes are in half of them. 5. Bucky's table is equipped in 11.9% health centers, the automatic processor is in 21.4%, the photofluorographic film changer is 9.5%, the grid is 73.8%, the protective apron is in 88.1%, and the protective glove is in 57.1% health centers. 6. The number of the people who got the x-ray examination for one year (by the year 1989) is the most, 1,000-6,000 in direct radiography of the chest, or 15,0001-45,000 in the health centers of Seoul area, 5,000-20,000 in Kyungki and Inchon area in photofluorography of the chest. Moreover, other radiographies are being taken extremely limitedly in all health centers. 7. In processing types of x-ray film, automatic processing is used in 9 health centers (21.4%), manual tank processing is in 30 (71.4%), and manual tray processing in 3 (7.2%). 8. As for collimation of x-ray exposure field, "continual using restricted by a subject size" has the most part, 78.6% "restricted using at every radiography" has 19%, and the case of "never considered" has 2.4% response. 9. As for the dosimeter used for radiation control, film badge (35.7%) and pocket dosimeter (26.2%) are used, and in 38.1% health centers the dosimeter is not equipped at all. Consideration of the previous radiation exposure is being done in only one health center. 10. Reading of radiographs is mainly depended on the radiologists electively (45.2%) or on the genral practitioners(45.2%).

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.266-275
• /
• 1998

Purpose: We measured pulmonary epithelial permeability by $^{99m}Tc-DTPA$ radioaerosol clearance in patients with diabetes and correlated with the presence of microangiopathy to understand the pathophysiology of pulmonary microangiopathy and evaluate $^{99m}Tc-DTPA$ radioaerosol clearance as a diagnostic test to assess pulmonary microangiopathy. Materials and Methods: We performed $^{99m}Tc-DTPA$ radioaerosol scan in 10 normal subjects, 10 asymptomatic smokers, 20 diabetic patients without history of smoking (10 with microangiopathy, 10 without microangiopathy). $^{99m}Tc-DTPA$ clearance half-time ($T_{1/2}$) was calculated, then compared with the result of chest radiography and pulmonary function test. Results: Chest radiography and pulmonary function test were normal in all subjects. There were no significant difference of clinical or laboratory characteristics between these groups except age. The diabetic patients with microangiopathy were significantly older (p<0.05). The $T_{1/2}$ of normal subjects and asymptomatic smokers were significantly different ($65.2{\pm}23.7min$ vs $39.6{\pm}9.8min$, p<0.05). For diabetic patients with microangiopathy, the $T_{1/2}$ was $90.5{\pm}46.5min$ and significantly delayed when compared with those of normals and asymptomatic smokers (p<0.05). However, the $T_{1/2}$ of diabetic patients without microangiopathy, $70.0{\pm}12.7min$, was not significantly different from those of normals or asymptomatic smokers (p>0.05). No significant correlation was found between the $T_{1/2}$ and spirometric parameters including DLco, FVC, $FEV_1,\;FEV_1/FVC$ (%) and $FEF_{25-75%}$ in all subjects, and between the $T_{1/2}$ and duration of diabetes ;in diabetic patients. Conclusion: Eventhough the influence of age can't be excluded, delayed $^{99m}Tc-DTPA$ clearance half-time ($T_{1/2}$) in diabetic patients with microangiopathy indicates decreased pulmonary capillary permeability as one of the pathophysiologic results of pulmonary microangiopaththy. Further studies are needed in larger number of age matched control and diabetic patients to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.903-909
• /
• 2023

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the effect of changes in the patient's central position on the exposure dose and image quality of surrounding organs during a chest lateral examination using an Auto Exposure Control(AEC). The experiment was conducted on a human body phantom. A needle was attached to the lower part of the center of the coronal plane of the phantom, and a lead ruler was attached to the lower part of the detector so that the 50 cm point was located at the lower center of the AEC ion chamber. The exposure conditions were 125 kVp, 320 mA, the distance between the source and the image receptor was 180 cm, and the exposure field size was 14 × 17 inches. Only one AEC ion chamber was used at the bottom center, and the density was set to '0' and sensitivity to 'Middle', and the central X-ray was incident vertically toward the 6th thoracic vertebra. With AEC mode applied, the 50 cm point of the needle and lead ruler were aligned and the phantom was moved 5 cm toward the stomach (F5) and 5 cm toward the back (B5), and the dose factor was analyzed by measuring ESD. The ESD of the thyroid gland according to the change in patient center position was 232.60±2.20 μGy for Center, 231.22±1.53 μGy for F5, and 184.37±1.19 μGy for B5, and the ESD of the breast was 288.54±3.03 μGy for Center, F5 was 260.97±1.93 μGy, B5 was 229.80±1.62 μGy, and the ESD of the center of the lung was 337.02±3.25 μGy for Center, F5 was 336.09±2.29 μGy, and B5 was 261.76±1.68 μGy. As a result of comparing the average values of dose factors between each group, the difference in average values was statistically significant (p<0.01), and each group appeared to be independent. As a result of the study, there was no significant difference in the dose to the thyroid, breast, and center of the lung according to the change in the patient's central position, except for the breast (10%) when the patient moved forward about 5 cm. However, movement of about 5 cm posteriorly resulted in an average dose reduction of 23.7%. Additionally, when the patient's central position was moved to the rear, image quality deteriorated.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.109-115
• /
• 2016

Despite of increasing the use of the digital imaging device in the radiology area, the setting on the optimal irradiation conditions are insufficient. In this study, the exposure dose and image quality by exposure condition of digital radiography device were compared. The exposure doses were obtained by adjusting the exposure condition as 5 steps respectively based on the exposure conditions that are currently used of CR and DR radiography devices. The acquired image has been assessed by 20 medical image professors using the assessment method of the Japanese Society for Tuberculosis Prevent. As a result, in the case of the CR system, the better image quality was obtained in the condition of 120 kVp and 1.5 mAs~2.4 mAs (quality score 91~95.5 points) than standard exposure condition(110 kVp, 3.2 mAs, 86 points). And exposure dose was evaluated as low with $61.3{\sim}98.4{\mu}Gy$ than standard condition($105.11{\mu}Gy$). In DR system, however, the image quality score was higher as 97~98.6 points in the lower tube voltage range (112 kVp, 2.4~3.2 mAs) condition than the standard exposure condition (125 kVp, 3.2 mAs, 91 points). In addition, the exposure dose was $61.5-77.2{\mu}Gy$ lower than standard condition($93{\mu}Gy$). In addition, the exposure dose was low as $61.5-77.2{\mu}Gy$ than standard condition($93{\mu}Gy$). With the results of this study, we confirmed that it is possible to reduce the patient exposure dose with the same image quality by adjusting the optimal exposure condition of digital device.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.239-246
• /
• 2014

Filter absorbs low-energy X-ray to increase the average energy and reduces patient exposure dose. This study investigates if the materials of Mo and W could be used for the digital imaging device CR by conducting image assessment and dose measurement of SNR, FOM and histogram. In addition, measurement of beam quality was conducted depending on the material of the filter, and at the same time, a proper combination of filters was examined depending on the change in tube voltage (kVp). In regard to entrance skin dose, Mo filter showed the dose reduction by 42~56%, compared to Cu filter. Moreover, Mo filter showed higher transmission dose by around 1.5 times than that of Cu filter. In image assessment, it was found that W was unsuitable to be used as a filter, whereas Mo could be used as a filter to reduce dose without decline in image quality at the tube voltage of 80 kVp or higher. As tube voltage increased, 2.0 mm Al+0.1 mm Mo almost had a similar histogram width to that of 2.0 mm Al+0.2 mm Cu. Therefore, Mo filter can be used at relatively high tube voltage of 80 kVp, 100 kVp and 120 kVp. The SNR of 2.0 mm Al+0.1 mm Mo did not show any significant difference from those of 2.0 mm Al+0.2 mm Cu and 2.0 mm Al+0.1 mm Cu. As a result, if Mo filter is used to replace Cu filter in general radiography, where 80 kVp or higher is used for digital radiation image, patient exposure dose can be reduced significantly without decline in image quality, compared to Cu filter. Therefore, it is believed that Mo filter can be applied to chest X-ray and high tube voltage X-ray in actual clinical practice.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.26-32
• /
• 2012

The magnification technique has recently become popular in bone radiography, mammography and other diagnostic examination. However, because of the finite size of X-ray focal spot, the magnification influences various imaging properties with resolution, noise and contrast. The purpose of study is to investigate the influence of magnification and focal spot size on digital imaging system using eDQE (effective detective quantum efficiency). Effective DQE is a metric reflecting overall system response including focal spot blur, magnification, scatter and grid response. The adult chest phantom employed in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was used to derive eDQE from eMTF (effective modulation transfer function), eNPS (effective noise power spectrum), scatter fraction and transmission fraction. According to results, spatial frequencies that eMTF is 10% with the magnification factor of 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 are 2.76, 2.21, 1.78, 1.49 and 1.26 lp/mm respectively using small focal spot. The spatial frequencies that eMTF is 10% with the magnification factor of 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 are 2.21, 1.66, 1.25, 0.93 and 0.73 lp/mm respectively using large focal spot. The eMTFs and eDQEs decreases with increasing magnification factor. Although there are no significant differences with focal spot size on eDQE (0), the eDQEs drops more sharply with large focal spot than small focal spot. The magnification imaging can enlarge the small size lesion and improve the contrast due to decrease of effective noise and scatter with air-gap effect. The enlargement of the image size can be helpful for visual detection of small image. However, focal spot blurring caused by finite size of focal spot shows more significant impact on spatial resolution than the improvement of other metrics resulted by magnification effect. Based on these results, appropriate magnification factor and focal spot size should be established to perform magnification imaging with digital radiography system.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.35-41
• /
• 2006

Purpose: A various find of radiotherapy treatment plans have been made to determine appropriate doses for breasts, chest walls and loco-regional lymphatics in the radiotherapy of breast cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the optimum radiotherapy plan technique method by analyzing dose distributions qualitatively and quantitatively. Materials and Methods: To evaluate the optimum breast cancer radiotherapy plan technique, the traditional method(two dimensional method) and computed tomography image are adopted to get breast volume, and they are compared with the three-dimensional conformal radiography (3DCRT) and the intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). For this, the regions of interest (ROI) such as breasts, chest walls, loco-regional lymphatics and lungs were marked on the humanoid phantom, and the computed tomography(Volume, Siemens, USA) was conducted. Using the computed tomography image obtained, radiotherapy treatment plans (XiO 5.2.1, FOCUS, USA) were made and compared with the traditional methods by applying 3DCRT and IMRT. The comparison and analysis were made by analyzing and conducting radiation dose distribution and dose-volume histogram (DVH) based upon radiotherapy techniques (2D, 3DCRT, IMRT) and point doses for the regions of interest. Again, treatment efficiency was evaluated based upon time-labor. Results: It was found that the case of using 3DCRT plan techniques by getting breast volume is more useful than the traditional methods in terms of tumor delineation, beam direction and confirmation of field boundary. Conclusion: It was possible to present the optimum radiotherapy plan techniques through qualitative and quantitative analyses based upon radiotherapy plan techniques in case of breast cancer radiotherapy. However, further studies are required for the problems with patient setup reproducibility arising from the difficulties of planning target volume (PVT) and breast immobilization in case of three-dimensional radiotherapy planning.