• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2001

We have synthesized $^{99m}$Tc-mercaptoacetyltriglycine (MAG3)-biocytin as a new imaging agent for hepatobiliary scintigraphy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of $^{99m}$Tc-MAG3-biocytin scintigraphy in differentiating carbon tetrachloride ( $CCl_4$)-induced hepatotoxicity from $\alpha$-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT)-induced cholestasis in mice, which reflecting the differential diagnosis of neonatal jaundice caused by neonatal hepatitis from congenital biliary atresia in humans. Methods: Balb/c mice (female, 20 g, n=4-6) were pretreated with $CCl_4$(0.5 or $1.0m\ell$/kg) and ANIT ($150 or 300 m\ell$/kg) 18 h before scintigraphy. Biochemical and histopathological examinations showed a pattern of typical acute hepatitis (increase of transaminases and hepatocellular necnsis) in $CCl_4$-treated mice and cholestasis (increase of alkaline phosphatase and ${\gamma}$-glutamyltransferase, and biliary hyperplasia) in ANIT-treated mice, respectively, Mice were fasted at least 4 hr prior to the intravenous injection of $^{99m}$Tc-MAG3-biocytin (18.5 MBq/20$\mu\textrm{g}$) in 2% human serum albumin in saline. Scintigraphy was performed with a ${\gamma}$-camera equipped with a 1-mm diameter pin-hole collimator for 30 min and images were acquired every 15 s. We compared the values of physical parameters, such as peak liver/heart ratio ($${\gamma}$_{max}$) and peak ratio time ($t_{max}$) far $^{99m}$Tc-MAG3-biocytin scintigraphy. Results: Scintigraphic parameters of the $CCl_4$-pretreated (0.5 $m\ell$/kg) group showed a 81.9% decrease of r$_{max}$, and 42.2% decrease of $t_{max}$, whereas the ANIT-pretreated ( $150m\ell$/kg) group showed a 53% decrease of $r_{max}$, and 2.36-fold increase of $t_{max}$, (P<0.05). These results demonstrate that the decrease of $r_{max}$ and the shortening of $t_{max}$ are characteristic features for hepatotoxicity, in contrast to the increase of $t_{max}$ and decrease of $r_{max}$ for biliary hyperplasia. Conclusion: $^{99m}$Tc-MAG3-biocytin hepatobiliary scintigraphy can distinguish hepatitis from cholestasis in mice model and may be similarly useful in humans which differentiating the cause of neonatal jaundice in clinical study.cal study.cal study.cal study.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.58-73
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• 2010

Background : Cancer is a disease that not only places a significant burden on patients clinically but also requires significant expense for diagnosis and treatment. Although the cancer coverage of health insurance has recently been expended, the need for financial assistance among cancer patients and their families is still expected to be significant. In this study, cancer patients' need for financial assistance in Korea was examined and its influence factors were analyzed. Methods : Target study subjects were those who are over 18 years of age and were diagnosed with cancer more than four months prior at the National Cancer Center and 9 Regional Cancer Centers in Korea during the period from July to August of 2008. Quarter sampling was conducted according to the ratio of the type of each cancer. A face to face interview survey was conducted. A total of 2,661 cancer patients finished the survey. Medical charts were reviewed in order to obtain the cancer type and SEER stage of cancer patients. An ordered logistic regression model was used to examine the level of need for financial assistance according to the demographical, clinical, and socio-economic variables of cancer patients. Result : The percentage of cancer patients who needed financial assistance was 69.0%, and 36.9% needed significant financial assistance. The need for financial assistance was perceived to be greater in males, younger age group, low income group, low education group, medical aid recipients, those who were diagnosed recently, those with a low level of quality of life measured through EQ5D, and those with decreased income after cancer diagnosis. Conclusion : In spite of the current policy to increase health insurance coverage, the majority of cancer patients and their families in Korea still need financial assistance due to cancer. In particular, there were more vulnerable groups, such as the low income, or low education group. In the future, policies that focus on the disadvantaged, which strengthen social security, should be considered for achievement of a substantially better quality of life for cancer patients and their families.

• Journal of Breast Disease
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.52-59
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• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to determine whether clinicopathological factors are potentially associated with successful breast-conserving surgery (BCS) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and develop a nomogram for predicting successful BCS candidates, focusing on those who are diagnosed with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative tumors during the pre-NAC period. Methods: The training cohort included 239 patients with an HR-positive, HER2-negative tumor (${\geq}3cm$), and all of these patients had received NAC. Patients were excluded if they met any of the following criteria: diffuse, suspicious, malignant microcalcification (extent >4 cm); multicentric or multifocal breast cancer; inflammatory breast cancer; distant metastases at the time of diagnosis; excisional biopsy prior to NAC; and bilateral breast cancer. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the possible predictors of BCS eligibility after NAC, and the regression model was used to develop the predicting nomogram. This nomogram was built using the training cohort (n=239) and was later validated with an independent validation cohort (n=123). Results: Small tumor size (p<0.001) at initial diagnosis, long distance from the nipple (p=0.002), high body mass index (p=0.001), and weak positivity for progesterone receptor (p=0.037) were found to be four independent predictors of an increased probability of BCS after NAC; further, these variables were used as covariates in developing the nomogram. For the training and validation cohorts, the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve were 0.833 and 0.786, respectively; these values demonstrate the potential predictive power of this nomogram. Conclusion: This study established a new nomogram to predict successful BCS in patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Given that chemotherapy is an option with unreliable outcomes for this subtype, this nomogram may be used to select patients for NAC followed by successful BCS.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.547-554
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• 2021

In order to quickly and accurately diagnose pneumonia on a chest X-ray image, different batch sizes of 4, 8, 16, and 32 were applied to the same Xception deep learning model, and modeling was performed 3 times, respectively. As a result of the performance evaluation of deep learning modeling, in the case of modeling to which batch size 32 was applied, the results of accuracy, loss function value, mean square error, and learning time per epoch showed the best results. And in the accuracy evaluation of the Test Metric, the modeling applied with batch size 8 showed the best results, and the precision evaluation showed excellent results in all batch sizes. In the recall evaluation, modeling applied with batch size 16 showed the best results, and for F1-score, modeling applied with batch size 16 showed the best results. And the AUC score evaluation was the same for all batch sizes. Based on these results, deep learning modeling with batch size 32 showed high accuracy, stable artificial neural network learning, and excellent speed. It is thought that accurate and rapid lesion detection will be possible if a batch size of 32 is applied in an automatic diagnosis study for feature extraction and classification of pneumonia in chest X-ray images using deep learning in the future.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.81-86
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• 2022

In this work, we propose a method for automatically determining the domain of columns of file data structured by csv format. New data can be generated through convergence between data and data, and the consistency of the joined columns must be maintained in order for these new data to become an important resource. One of the methods for measuring data quality is a domain-based quality diagnosis method. Domain is the broadest indicator that defines the nature of each column, so a method of automatically determining it is necessary. Although previous studies mainly studied domain automatic discrimination of relational databases, this study developed a model that can automate domains using the characteristics of file data. In order to specialize in the domain discrimination of file data, the data were simplified and patterned using a regular expression, and the contents of the data header corresponding to the column name were analyzed, and the suffix used was used as a derived variable. When derivatives of regular expressions and suffixes were added, the result of automatically determining the domain with an accuracy of 95% greater than the existing method of 87% was derived. This study is expected to reduce the quality measurement period and number of people by presenting an automation methodology to the quality diagnosis of public data.

• 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.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.221-228
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• 2021

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of easily accessible machine learning application to identify mesiodens, and to compare the ability to identify mesiodens between trained model and human. A total of 1604 panoramic images (805 images with mesiodens, 799 images without mesiodens) of patients aged 5 - 7 years were used for this study. The model used for machine learning was Google's teachable machine. Data set 1 was used to train model and to verify the model. Data set 2 was used to compare the ability between the learning model and human group. As a result of data set 1, the average accuracy of the model was 0.82. After testing data set 2, the accuracy of the model was 0.78. From the resident group and the student group, the accuracy was 0.82, 0.69. This study developed a model for identifying mesiodens using panoramic radiographs of children in primary and early mixed dentition. The classification accuracy of the model was lower than that of the resident group. However, the classification accuracy (0.78) was higher than that of dental students (0.69), so it could be used to assist the diagnosis of mesiodens for non-expert students or general dentists.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1857-1863
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• 2015

Background: Alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase(AMACR) is thought to play key roles in diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer. However, studies of associations between AMACR gene polymorphisms and prostate cancer risk reported inconsistent results. Therefore, we conducted the present meta-analysis to clarify the link between AMACR gene polymorphisms and prostate cancer risk. Materials and Methods: A literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang and Weipu databases. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were calculated to assess the strength of any association between AMACR polymorphisms and prostate cancer risk. Subgroup analyses by ethnicity, source of controls, quality control and sample size were also conducted. Results: Five studies covering 3,313 cases and 3,676 controls on five polymorphisms (D175G, M9V, S201L, K277E and Q239H) were included in this meta-analysis. Significant associations were detected between prostate cancer and D175G (dominant model: OR=0.89, 95%CI=0.80-0.99, P=0.04) and M9V (dominant model: OR=0.87, 95%CI=0.78-0.97, P=0.01) polymorphisms as well as that in subgroup analyses. We also observed significant decreased prostate cancer risk in the dominant model (OR=0.90, 95%CI=0.81-0.99, P=0.04) for the S201L polymorphism. However, K277E and Q239H polymorphisms did not appear to be related to prostate cancer risk. Conclusions: The current meta-analysis indicated that D175G and M9V polymorphisms of the AMACR gene are related to prostate cancer. The S201L polymorphism might also be linked with prostate cancer risk to some extent. However, no association was observed between K277E or Q239H polymorphisms and susceptibility to prostate cancer.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.469-481
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• 2016

The number of single households in Korea has been sharply increasing due to dissolution of the family community and changes in housing culture. Therefore, there is a need to develop a plan for diagnosis of changes in the housing market in response to a rapid increase of single household to suggest a proper direction of housing policy. This study was conducted to clarify the factors influencing housing occupancy type targeting a single adult household. To accomplish this, a cross-sectional analysis was conducted using the multi-nominal logit model and the Korea Welfare Panel's 9th survey materials. Occupants of ingle households in their 20s and 30s were found to be much poorer than those in their 40s, or older. Additionally, single household in their 20s and 30s, the characteristic of a household having an influence on the choice of housing occupancy type showed a result in a different direction even from the same household characteristic of those in their 40s, or older. Finally, the characteristics of occupants of single households in their 20s and 30s showed room for improvement through public support. Overall, the results of this study implied the need to inquire into the government's periodic support in more diverse ways.