• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.148-154
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• 2001

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the significance of serum SCC antigen, CA 19-9, CA 125 level and DNA microsatellite alterations (MSA) as prognostic factors and indicators for recurrences in the pre-treatment and post-treatment state, respectively in head and neck cancer patients. Materials and Methods: 120 patients who received curative treatment for head and neck cancer from 1995 to 2000 were followed up successfully, and were analyzed retrospectively. Thirty healthy subjects served as normal controls. Serum SCC Ag levels were measured by microparticle enzyme immunoassay technique via IMX SCC assay, CA 19-9 levels were measured by CA 19-9 RIA test kit, and CA 125 levels were measured by CA 125 IRMA kit. MSA were identified after PCR amplification. Heterozygosity was considered lost if the ratio of one allele was significantly decreased (>50%) in serum DNA compared with normal DNA from lymphocytes. Results: Preoperative tumor markers were higher in cancer patients than control, but not significant. Postoperative SCC Ag levels were lower than preoperative levels. The SCC Ag levels were remained low in no evidence of disease (NED) group, but increased in locoregional recurrence and distant metastasis group. CA 19-9 and CA 125 levels showed no correlation between levels and recurrences and were not decreased significantly after primary tumor removal. MSA were detected in five out of 21 cases, and highly detected in distant metastasis group. Conclusion: SCC Ag seems to be a helpful serum tumor marker for early detection of recurrence and distant metastasis of head and neck cancer after curative treatment. But, CA 19-9 and CA 125 were not reliable markers for head and neck tumors. MSA were not statistically significant because of the small number of study group. However they may be helpful for screening serum molecular markers for early detection of distant metastasis of head and neck cancers.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 1991

Serodiagnosis of Clonorchis sinensis infections will probably be a first choice tool for screening of clonorchiasis in a future because of increasing difficulties in collection and examination of stools. The sensitive test such as ELISA can he used effectively. However there are some limitations in serological diagnosis for the detection of serum antibody. One of the major problems is the non-specificity of the antigens which produce cross reaction with other helminthic infection sera. To solve this problem. many investigators have tried to purify the antigens used. In this study, we determined the antigenic profile of the crude saline extract antigen of C. sinensis at early developmental stage based on SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting techniques for the purpose of understanding the nature of C. sinensis worm antigen The following results were obtained : 1) The SDS-PAGE showed many protein hands ranging from 10Kd to 91Kd relative molecular weight. Among them, 66, 46, 40, 33, 27, 24, 16, 14 and 10Kd bands were observed as a principle bands. The protein components of C. sinensis changed chronologically during their early developmental period. 44Kd band was stained unclearly in antigen of 2 weeks worm, but changed to concentrated state in antigen of 5 weeks worm. 35Kd band was found in antigen of 2 weeks worm, however this band was disappeared in antigen of 5 weeks worm. 22Kd band also lost its staining property gradually. 2) In spite of differences in antigenic profile, there was no differences in the data obtained by microplate ELISA using each antigen preparation. Absorbance value began to rise in between 2 to 3 weeks after infection. 3) By EITB. serum antibody recognized major protein bands with molecular weight of 91, 85, 63, 46, 40, 33, 24, 14 and 10Kd hand respectively. Among them 66, 33, 17 and 14Kd bands were observed as non-specific band because they reacted even in normal control sera. Generally, gradual increase of positive reactions were observed as the infection period of C. sinensis was prolonged. In other hand, the reaction of 10Kd hand did not occurred when 26th week sera was tested. 4) The positive reactions using antigens of 2 weeks worm, especially on 40 and 24Kd bands, were most strong and sharply demarcated compared to those of 3~5 weeks worm antigen.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.208-211
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• 2006

Microalbuminuria is most frequently caused by kidney damage from diabetes. Moreover, many other conditions can lead to kidney damage, such as high blood pressure, heart failure, cirrhosis, or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The measurement of the microalbumin in urine may be useful for the early diagnosis or as a predictor of nephropathy in diabetes. The most common method for getting a quantitative measurement of urinary protein relies on a 24-hour urine collection. The result of this method is accurate. But 24hr urine collection is difficult to obtain and variations in volume are frequent. Also the patients complain about urine collection. We tried to measure reference values for microalbumin using fasting urine and compare them with the albumin/creatinine ratio using 24hr urine. The concentrations of microalbumin in fasting urine and 24hr urine were $7.1{\pm}3.8mg/L$, $5.7{\pm}2.9mg/L$ (r=0.61, p=0.27), respectively. The albumin/creatinine ratios using fasting urine and 24hr urine were $8.7{\pm}4.2{\mu}g/mg$, $8.7{\pm}4.0{\mu}g/mg$ (r=0.76, p=0.88), respectively. This study indicated that the measurement of microalbumin in fasting urine was an easy and simple method for early diagnosis or to predict nephropathy in diabetes. Thus, setting up the reference value using fasting urine may be useful in the screening test for the diabetic nephropathy patients instead of using the 24hr albumin excretion rate (AER).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.6
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• pp.1505-1523
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• 2021

Purpose Although chest CT has been discussed as a first-line test for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), little research has explored the implications of CT exposure in the population. To review chest CT protocols and radiation doses in COVID-19 publications and explore the number needed to diagnose (NND) and the number needed to predict (NNP) if CT is used as a first-line test. Materials and Methods We searched nine highly cited radiology journals to identify studies discussing the CT-based diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. Study-level information on the CT protocol and radiation dose was collected, and the doses were compared with each national diagnostic reference level (DRL). The NND and NNP, which depends on the test positive rate (TPR), were calculated, given a CT sensitivity of 94% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 91%-96%) and specificity of 37% (95% CI: 26%-50%), and applied to the early outbreak in Wuhan, New York, and Italy. Results From 86 studies, the CT protocol and radiation dose were reported in 81 (94.2%) and 17 studies (19.8%), respectively. Low-dose chest CT was used more than twice as often as standard-dose chest CT (39.5% vs.18.6%), while the remaining studies (44.2%) did not provide relevant information. The radiation doses were lower than the national DRLs in 15 of the 17 studies (88.2%) that reported doses. The NND was 3.2 scans (95% CI: 2.2-6.0). The NNPs at TPRs of 50%, 25%, 10%, and 5% were 2.2, 3.6, 8.0, 15.5 scans, respectively. In Wuhan, 35418 (TPR, 58%; 95% CI: 27710-56755) to 44840 (TPR, 38%; 95% CI: 35161-68164) individuals were estimated to have undergone CT examinations to diagnose 17365 patients. During the early surge in New York and Italy, daily NNDs changed up to 5.4 and 10.9 times, respectively, within 10 weeks. Conclusion Low-dose CT protocols were described in less than half of COVID-19 publications, and radiation doses were frequently lacking. The number of populations involved in a first-line diagnostic CT test could vary dynamically according to daily TPR; therefore, caution is required in future planning.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.199-206
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• 2001

Purpose: To review the clinical and laboratory features of patients with Wilson disease at diagnosis. Methods: In this retrospective study, records of all 20 patients, who were diagnosed as having Wilson disease at the Paik hospital in Busan from 1990 to 2000, were reviewed. Results: Out of 20 patients, 12 pateints (60%) have hepatic presentation alone, 2 patients (10%) have neurologic presentation, 4 patients (20%) have hepatic and neuropsychiatric presentation, and one patient (5%) has hematologic presentation at diagnosis. One patient (5%) has neither symptom nor laboratory finding of Wilson disease except very low serum ceruloplasmin level and positive family history. Family screening test revealed 3 cases of Wilson disease. 12 patients were revealed to be combined with liver cirrhosis at diagnosis. Conclusion: Early diagnosis and treatment is very important in patients with Wilson disease. Children or adolescents who manifest symptoms of hepatitis, who has prolonged elevation of liver enzymes, and has family history of hapatitis of unknown origin, with mild hematologic or urinary abnormalities must be suspected to have Wilson disease. Also, in adolescents with extrapyramidal symptoms or other neuropsychiatric symptoms, liver function test should be done.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.346-355
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• 2005

To investigate the application of biochemical markers' and small-sample methods using whole-wheat flours for screening in early generation in Korean wheat breeding system, 74 Korean wheats, including cultivars, local breeding lines and experimental lines, were analyzed. Seed storage protein and amylose contents of grains were evaluated. Biochemical makers, including granule bound starch synthase (GBSS), high molecular weigh glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) and friabilin were also evaluated by using one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacryla-mide gel electrophoresis with a single kernel. The small­sample methods, including modified SDS-sedimentation test (MST), micro-alkaline water retention capacity (AWRC) and whole-wheat flour swelling volume (WSV) were also tested in this study. Protein content, MST and AWRC was $11.0 - 15.8\%$, 2.7 - 26.2 ml and $71.9 - 109.7\%$, respectively. Apparent and total amylose content and WSV was $20.6 - 25.0\%$, $26.1 - 32.4\%$ and 9.0 - 16.9 ml, respectively. There were highly significant correlations between MST and AWRC (r=0.592, P<0.001), but Korean wheats showed no significant difference in protein content, amylose content and small-sample methods. In the biochemical markers, Korean wheats contained all three GBSS encoded by Wx loci, except for Suwon 252. Korean wheats showed the high frequency ($58.1\%$) of 1Dx2.2 + 1Dy12 subunits of HMW-GS. Friabilin band was present in 46 lines ($62.2\%$) and absent in 28 lines ($37.8\%$). Friabilin-absence lines showed the higher MST (14.9 ml) and AWRC ($92.1\%$) value than friabilin-presence lines (8.5 ml and $82.4\%$, respectively).

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.321-329
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• 2017

This paper presents a bone metastasis Detection algorithm on abdominal computed tomography images for early detection using fully convolutional neural networks. The images were taken from patients with various cancers (such as lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, etc), and thus the locations of those lesions were varied. To overcome the lack of data, we augmented the data by adjusting the brightness of the images or flipping the images. Before the augmentation, when 70% of the whole data were used in the pre-test, we could obtain the pixel-wise sensitivity of 18.75%, the specificity of 99.97% on the average of test dataset. With the augmentation, we could obtain the sensitivity of 30.65%, the specificity of 99.96%. The increase in sensitivity shows that the augmentation was effective. In the result obtained by using the whole data, the sensitivity of 38.62%, the specificity of 99.94% and the accuracy of 99.81% in the pixel-wise. lesion-wise sensitivity is 88.89% while the false alarm per case is 0.5. The results of this study did not reach the level that could substitute for the clinician. However, it may be helpful for radiologists when it can be used as a screening tool.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.124-133
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• 2010

Objectives: This study is to offer basic data to understand the relationships between mental health, level of depression, and internet addiction of high school students in farming communities for developing a mental health management program for adolescents. Methods: The survey was carried out on a convenience sample of 299 high school students in farming communities during May of 2008. Data analysis procedure included $X^2$-test, t-test, Pearson correlation among Adolescent Mental Health & Problem-behavior Screening Questionnaire (AMPQ), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and Scales of Internet addiction (K-scales). Results: First, the level of mental health according to the AMPQ for subjects from this study showed problematic behavior was lower when compared to other researches. There were statistically significant differences according to the school type for externalization problems and overall problematic behavior. Based on gender, it was even more problematic for male students in regards to externalization problems. Secondly, the level of depression was relatively low : 5.1% for potential risk and 0.3% for high risk. Thirdly, a total of 96.9% were considered normal for Internet addition levels. 1.7% for potential risk, 1.4% for high risk; however, there was no statistically significant difference between each variable. Fourthly, there was a strong relationship between subjects AMPQ, level of depression and Internet addiction. As depression worsens, Internet addiction also becomes stronger. Conclusion: There is a need for awareness of the mental health of adolescents and precautionary measures, the development of a program for early treatment, adequate management, and decisions on the direction of treatment.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2010

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to find out cognitive function of the patients with subjective memory complaint. Material and Methods : From March 1st 2005 to May 31st 2009, 155 normal individuals without any medical illness who visited Yeungnam University Hospital to undergo medical checkup with neurocognitive test was enrolled, and checked by using Cognitive Assessment & Reference Diagnostic System. Results : 107 of the patients had normal cognitive function, 21 patients (about 15%) were diagnosed with dementia, and 10 patients (about 7%) were diagnosed with considerable psychiatric illness, such as depression, anxiety disorder, adjustment disorder. In amnesia, agnosia, aphasia, attention, calculation, dysexecution, Dementia group and Psychiatric illness group has worse score than Normal individuals group. But, in apraxia, Dementia group has worse score than Psychiatric illness group and Normal individual group. Conclusion : Because the patients with subjective memory complaint can be diagnosed as any psychiatric illness as well as dementia, sensitive screening test and early psychiatric approach is needed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.20
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• pp.9005-9008
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• 2014

Background: Gastric cancer is the second leading course of cancer death worldwide and H. pylori infection is an important risk factor for gastric cancer development. This study was design to evaluate the clinical, pathological features, survival rate and prevalence of H. pylori infection in gastric cancer in Thailand. Materials and Methods: Clinical information, histological features, endoscopic findings and H. pylori status were collected from gastric cancer patients from Thammasat university hospital during June 1996-December 2011. H. pylori infection was assessed by histological evaluation, rapid urease test and serological test. Clinical information, endoscopic findings and histopathology of all patients were recorded and compared between patients with active or non-active H. pylori infection. Results: A total of 100 gastric cancer patients (55 men and 45 women with mean age of $55{\pm}16.8years$) were enrolled in this study. Common presenting symptoms were dyspepsia (74%), weight loss (66%), anemia (63%) and anorexia (38%). Mean duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis was 98 days. Overall prevalence of H. pylori infection was 83% and active H. pylori infection was 40%. 1-year and 5-year survival rates were 43% and 0%. There was no significant difference between active H. pylori infection in different locations (proximal vs non-proximal: 47.1% vs 48.5%; P-value = 0.9, OR=0.9; 95%CI=0.3-3.1) and histology of gastric cancer (diffuse type vs intestinal type: 47.4% vs 50%; P-value = 0.8, OR=0.9, 95%CI=0.3-2.7). However, linitis plastica was significantly more common in non-active than active H. pylori infection (27.9% vs 0%; P-value<0.0001, OR=13.3, 95%CI=3.2-64.5). Moreover, gastric cancer stage 4 was higher in non-active than active H. pylori infection (93% vs 50%, P-value<0.001). Conclusions: Prevalence of H. pylori infection in Thai gastric cancer patients was high but active infection was low. Most gastric cancer patients presented in advance stage and had a grave prognosis. Screening for gastric cancer in high risk individuals might be an appropriate tool for early detection and improve the treatment outcome for this particular disease in Thailand.