• Journal of Computing Science and Engineering
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2012

Computed tomography (CT) images are widely used for the analysis of the temporal evaluation or monitoring of the progression of a disease. The follow-up examinations of CT scan images of the same patient require a 3D registration technique. In this paper, an automatic and robust registration is proposed for the rigid registration of 3D CT images. The proposed method involves two steps. Firstly, the two CT volumes are aligned based on their principal axes, and then, the alignment from the previous step is refined by the optimization of the similarity score of the image's voxel. Normalized cross correlation (NCC) is used as a similarity metric and a downhill simplex method is employed to find out the optimal score. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated on phantom images and knee synthetic CT images. By the extraction of the initial transformation parameters with principal axis of the binary volumes, the searching space to find out the parameters is reduced in the optimization step. Thus, the overall registration time is algorithmically decreased without the deterioration of the accuracy. The preliminary experimental results of the study demonstrate that the proposed method can be applied to rigid registration problems of real patient images.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.222-230
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• 1994

Acupuncture-like transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation(ALTENS) on acupuncture site(dorsal and ventral side of finger) were compared with a placebo site(forearm) by infrared thermal imaging. Six disease-free volunteers underwent, on different days, an ALTENS treatment and a placebo treatment in a cross-over sequences of stimulation control and inhibition control in excess of 50 treatments. ALTENS treatments were given at 30Hz at an intensity just below pain threshold delivered to acupuncture points on fingers. Placebo stimulations were administered in similar manner. After every thirty minutes of ALTENS and placebo treatment with stimulation, inhibition control sequence and vice versa, we examined whole body infrared thermal imaging and checked changed skin temperature on frontal, anterior chest, upper and lower abdomen, dorsal and ventral aspect of hand, thoracic and lumbar area, anterior and posterior aspect of lower leg. There were significant skin temperature elevations with ALTENS treatment, especially finger control gate corresponding organ area. Placebo treatment revealed no skin temperature change. We concluded that ALTENS on finger control gate influence physiologic state as opposed to conventional electric stimulation.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.70-78
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• 2003

This study was a quasi-experimental study of nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design to investigate the effect of rhythmic dance movement training on the physical and psychological functions of the elderly. The data were collected from November, 2001 to February, 2002. The subjects for this study were 34 elderly who was over 65 years old and was living in J city. The elderly selected for this study were: free from heart and pulmonary disease and not regular exercise. The rhythmic dance movement training in watching video tape was rhythmic dance movement and education and supportive care. The rhythmic dance movement was 40-60 intensity, 8 weeks' period, three times a week, 60 minutes a day. The data were analysed by $X^2$-test, paired t-test and unpaired t-test and ANCOVA through SAS/PC program. The results of the study were as follows: 1. There was insignificant difference in the gait length experimental and control group. 2. There was significant difference in the gait speed between the two groups. 3. There was significant difference in the dynamic valance between the two groups. 4. There was no significant difference in the depression between the two groups. 5. There was no significant difference in the Quality of life between the two groups. As shown above, the results of the 8 weeks' rhythmic movement program for the elderly produced positive effects on gait speed, dynamic valance. And this program was expected that it was more effective in different intervention period, verified program. Also it was needed follow study.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.193-200
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• 2019

Purpose: To explore the role of salvage radiotherapy (RT) for recurrent thymoma as an alternative to surgery. Materials and Methods: Between 2007 and 2015, 47 patients who received salvage RT for recurrent thymoma at Yonsei Cancer Center were included in this study. Recurrent sites included initial tumor bed (n = 4), pleura (n = 19), lung parenchyma (n = 10), distant (n = 9), and multiple regions (n = 5). Three-dimensional conformal and intensity-modulated RT were used in 29 and 18 patients, respectively. Median prescribed dose to gross tumor was 52 Gy (range, 30 to 70 Gy), with equivalent doses in 2-Gy fractions (EQD₂). We investigated overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and patterns of failure. Local failure after salvage RT was defined as recurrence at the target volume receiving >50% of the prescription dose. Results: Median follow-up time was 83 months (range, 8 to 299 months). Five-year OS and PFS were 70% and 22%, respectively. The overall response rate was 97.9%; complete response, 34%; partial response, 44.7%; and stable disease, 19.1%. In multivariate analysis, histologic type and salvage RT dose (≥52 Gy, EQD₂) were significantly associated with OS. The high dose group (≥52 Gy, EQD₂) had significantly better outcomes than the low dose group (5-year OS: 80% vs. 59%, p = 0.046; 5-year PFS: 30% vs. 14%, p=0.002). Treatment failure occurred in 34 patients; out-of-field failure was dominant (intra-thoracic recurrence 35.3%; extrathoracic recurrence 11.8%), while local failure rate was 5.8%. Conclusion: Salvage RT for recurrent thymoma using high doses and advanced precision techniques produced favorable outcomes, providing evidence that recurrent thymoma is radiosensitive.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.385-394
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• 2015

Leishmaniasis is a worldwide uncontrolled parasitic disease due to the lack of effective drug and vaccine. To speed up effective drug development, we need powerful methods to rapidly assess drug effectiveness against the intracellular form of Leishmania in high throughput assays. Reporter gene technology has proven to be an excellent tool for drug screening in vitro. The effects of reporter proteins on parasite infectivity should be identified both in vitro and in vivo. In this research, we initially compared the infectivity rate of recombinant Leishmania major expressing stably enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) alone or EGFP-luciferase (EGFP-LUC) with the wild-type strain. Next, we evaluated the sensitivity of these parasites to amphotericin B (AmB) as a standard drug in 2 parasitic phases, promastigote and amastigote. This comparison was made by MTT and nitric oxide (NO) assay and by quantifying the specific signals derived from reporter genes like EGFP intensity and luciferase activity. To study the amastigote form, both B10R and THP-1 macrophage cell lines were infected in the stationary phase and were exposed to AmB at different time points. Our results clearly revealed that the 3 parasite lines had similar in vitro infectivity rates with comparable parasite-induced levels of NO following interferon-${\gamma}$/lipopolysaccharide induction. Based on our results we proposed the more reporter gene, the faster and more sensitive evaluation of the drug efficiency.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.147-151
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• 2016

Neonatal hemochromatosis (NH) is a severe neonatal liver injury that is confirmed by extra-hepatic iron accumulation. Although a recent study described treating NH with exchange transfusions and intravenous immunoglobulin, liver transplantation should be considered for patients with severe liver failure that does not respond to other medical treatment. Herein, we report the case of a two-month-old female infant who presented with persistent ascites and hyperbilirubinemia. Her laboratory findings demonstrated severe coagulopathy, high indirect and direct bilirubin levels, and high ferritin levels. Abdominal magnetic resonance imaging presented low signal intensity in the liver on T2-weighted images, suggesting iron deposition. The infant was diagnosed with NH as a result of the clinical findings and after congenital infection and metabolic diseases were excluded. The infant was successfully treated with a living-donor liver transplantation. Living related liver transplantation should be considered as a treatment option for NH in infants.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.126-130
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• 2008

Avascular necrosis(AVN) is a disease characterized by the temporary or permanent loss of the blood supply to the bones, resulting from many possible causes, including radiation therapy. The femoral head is known to be the most common site of AVN. The authors encountered two cases of AVN of the femoral head among 557 patients with cervical cancer treated with whole pelvic radiation therapy at the Samsung Medical Center. AVN of the femoral head was presented with a sclerotic density change in a plain roentgenography and a decreased signal intensity lesion on the T1 and T2 weighted phases of a magnetic resonance image(MRI). Although it is a very rare complication after whole pelvic radiation therapy, AVN of the femoral head should be considered when characteristic imaging findings appear on follow-up examinations.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to establish reproducible ischemic infarction model using allogenic blood clot in beagle dogs and identify induced ischemic lesion after middle cerebral artery occlusion using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and histopathologic findings. Twenty eight male beagle dogs with no evidence of neurologic disease were experimented. Allogenic embolus was made using a healthy beagle dog. After internal carotid artery (ICA) was exposure, 16G catheter was introduced through the ICA. The dog was administered 0.3 ml blood clot for 15 seconds followed by 3 ml of saline for 15 seconds. MRI scans were performed with 1.5T to evaluate ischemic lesion at 7 days after middle cerebral artery occlusion procedure. Evaluation parameters of MRI include location, distribution, infarction type, margin, shape, mass effect and intensity of T1-weighted imaging (T1WI), T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence, diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). On MRI, all dogs (28/28) showed focal or multifocal lesion including telencephalon and thalamus lesions, especially caudate nucleus (24/28). These lesions had well-defined margin from adjacent brain parenchyma, none or mild mass effect and various shape. Most of dogs appeared hyperintensity on T1WI, T2WI, FLAIR, and DWI/ADC, corresponding to chronic infarction. These lesions were histopathologically confirmed atrophic changes and unstained lesion. In conclusion, MRI is the useful method to provide information about ischemic infarction in dogs and the best reproducible ischemic infarction model was developed by using allogenic blood clot.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.167-174
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• 2008

The introduction of confocal microscopy makes it possible to observe the structural change of live neuronal cell. Neuro-degenerative disease, such as Alzheimer;s and Parkinson’s diseases are especially related to the morphological change of dendrite spine. That’s the reason for the study of segmentation and extraction from confocal microscope image. The difficulty comes from uneven intensity distribution and blurred boundary. Therefore, the image processing technique which can overcome these problems and extract the structural information should be suggested. In this paper, we propose robust structural information extracting technique with confocal microscopy images of dendrite in brain neurons. First, we apply the nonlinear diffusion filtering that enhance the boundary recognition. Second, we segment region of interest using iterative threshold selection. Third, we perform skeletonization based on Fast Marching Method that extracts centerline and boundary for analysing segmented structure. The result of the proposed method has been less sensitive to noise and has not been affected by rough boundary condition. Using this method shows more accurate and objective results.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.551-557
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• 2014

In this study, we demonstrated multimodal nonlinear optical (NLO) microscopy integrated simultaneously with two-photon excitation fluorescence (TPEF), second-harmonic generation (SHG), and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) in order to obtain targeted cellular and label-free images in an immunofluorescence assay of the atherosclerotic aorta from apolipoprotein E-deficient mice. The multimodal NLO microscope used two laser systems: picosecond (ps) and femtosecond (fs) pulsed lasers. A pair of ps-pulsed lights served for CARS (817 nm and 1064 nm) and SHG (817 nm) images; light from the fs-pulsed laser with the center wavelength of 720 nm was incident into the sample to obtain autofluorescence and targeted molecular TPEF images for high efficiency of fluorescence intensity without cross-talk. For multicolor-targeted TPEF imaging, we stained smooth-muscle cells and macrophages with fluorescent dyes (Alexa Fluor 350 and Alexa Fluor 594) for an immunofluorescence assay. Each depth-sectioned image consisted of $512{\times}512$ pixels with a field of view of $250{\times}250{\mu}m^2$, a lateral resolution of $0.4{\mu}m$, and an axial resolution of $1.3{\mu}m$. We obtained composite multicolor images with conventional label-free NLO images and targeted TPEF images in atherosclerotic-plaque samples. Multicolor 3-D imaging of atherosclerotic-plaque structural and functional composition will be helpful for understanding the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease.