• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.43-47
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• 2013

Introduction: ALT/AST enzymes are present inside the cells. AST is found in cardiac and skeletal muscle and red blood cells but the ALT is checked mainly in the liver. In general, the rise of these two indicators shows liver damage. The usual measurements of these enzymes are used in liver function tests, but the levels of AST and ALT do not always reflect liver function. Method and Cases: 17 cases of liver dysfunction transiently were evaluated clinically, biochemically, and imaging study of sonogram in pediatric in-patients for 3 years. Result: Most common causes of transient liver dysfunction were infection, especially viral gastroenteritis, and bacterial infection interfering oral food intake. More often occurred in the children who have infant hyperbilirubinemia, positive history of mitochondrial dysfunction or hypoglycemia. Fasting study in one case of hypoglycemia patient showed reversible liver dysfunction during fasting over 20 hours fasting. Discussion: A significant increase in AST and ALT with normal bilirubin can be observed in clinically healthy people during blunt trauma, viral infection, severe pain, metabolic syndrome, fasting or accidental health screening.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.253-262
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• 2021

Objective: To determine whether the values of hepatic apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) can differentiate biliary atresia (BA) from non-BA or be correlated with the grade of hepatic fibrosis in infants with cholestasis. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cohort study included infants who received liver MRI examinations to evaluate cholestasis from July 2009 to October 2017. Liver ADC, ADC ratio of liver/spleen, aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI), and spleen size were compared between the BA and non-BA groups. The diagnostic performances of all parameters for significant fibrosis (F3-4) were obtained by receiver-operating characteristics (ROCs) curve analysis. Results: Altogether, 227 infants (98 males and 129 females, mean age = 57.2 ± 36.3 days) including 125 BA patients were analyzed. The absolute ADC difference between two reviewers was 0.10 mm²/s for both liver and spleen. Liver ADC value was specific (80.4%) and ADC ratio was sensitive (88.0%) for the diagnosis of BA with comparable performance. There were 33 patients with F0, 15 with F1, 71 with F2, 35 with F3, and 11 with F4. All four parameters of APRI (τ = 0.296), spleen size (τ = 0.312), liver ADC (τ = -0.206), and ADC ratio (τ = -0.288) showed significant correlation with fibrosis grade (all, p < 0.001). The cutoff values for significant fibrosis (F3-4) were 0.783 for APRI (area under the ROC curve [AUC], 0.721), 5.9 cm for spleen size (AUC, 0.719), 1.044 x 10^-3 mm²/s for liver ADC (AUC, 0.673), and 1.22 for ADC ratio (AUC, 0.651). Conclusion: Liver ADC values and ADC ratio of liver/spleen showed limited additional diagnostic performance for differentiating BA from non-BA and predicting significant hepatic fibrosis in infants with cholestasis.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.459-472
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• 2024

Hyperpolarized (HP) carbon-13 (¹³C) MRI represents an innovative approach for noninvasive, real-time assessment of dynamic metabolic flux, with potential integration into routine clinical MRI. The use of [1-¹³C]pyruvate as a probe and its conversion to [1-¹³C]lactate constitute an extensively explored metabolic pathway. This review comprehensively outlines the establishment of HP ¹³C-MRI, covering multidisciplinary team collaboration, hardware prerequisites, probe preparation, hyperpolarization techniques, imaging acquisition, and data analysis. This article discusses the clinical applications of HP ¹³C-MRI across various anatomical domains, including the brain, heart, skeletal muscle, breast, liver, kidney, pancreas, and prostate. Each section highlights the specific applications and findings pertinent to these regions, emphasizing the potential versatility of HP ¹³C-MRI in diverse clinical contexts. This review serves as a comprehensive update, bridging technical aspects with clinical applications and offering insights into the ongoing advancements in HP ¹³C-MRI.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2017

Liposomes are defined as spherical, self-closed structures formed by lipid bilayers containing aqueous phase. Most liposomes are composed of various amphipathic lipids such as phospholipids and cholesterol. We used amphipathic lipids (DPPC, DPPG) as liposome components and prepared around 100 nm liposomes by standard extrusion method. Nuclear/MR dual imaging agents based on liposome platform were prepared by adding radioactive $^{131}I$-HIB (hexadecyl-4-tributylstannylbenzoate) and Gd-DTPA into liposome bilayer and inside liposome, respectively. Gamma camera and MR imaging both showed signal increases in liver.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.45 no.2 s.142
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• pp.77-85
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• 2007

Among several diagnostic tools for clonorchiasis (Clonorchis sinensis infection), radiologic examinations are commonly used in clinical practices. During the 2 past decades, many reports regarding imaging findings of clonorchiasis were introduced. The basic imaging finding of clonorchiasis is diffuse dilatation of the peripheral intra-hepatic bile ducts, without dilation of the large intrahepatic or extrahepatic bile ducts. By this finding, however, active clonorchiasis cannot be differentiated from cured infection. Some recent radiologic studies suggested specific findings of active clonorchiasis. Besides direct demonstration of worms, increased periductal echogenicity on sonography and periductal enhancement on dynamic contrast-enhanced CT or MR imaging possibly represent active clonorchiasis. Those images of the liver clonorchiasis are known to be correlated with worm burdens (EPG counts) in their frequency and also severity. The images of cholangiocarcinoma associated with clonorchiasis show both the tumor with obstruction images and diffuse dilatation of the peripheral intrahepatic bile ducts. Radiological images can be a good practical alternative diagnostic method of clonorchiasis.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2002

Clinical application of positron emission tomography (PET) is rapidly increasing for the defection and staging of cancer at whole-body studios performed with the glucose analogue tracer 2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG). Although FDG PET cannot match the anatomic resolution of conventional imaging techniques in the liver and the other abdominal organs, it is particularly useful for identification and characterization of the entire body simultaneously. FDG PET can show foci of metastatic disease that may not be apparent at conventional anatomic imaging and can aid in the characterizing of indeterminate soft-tissue masses. Most abdominal cancer requires surgical management. FDG PET can improve the selection of patients for surgical treatment and thereby reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with inappropriate surgery. FDG PET is also useful for the early detection of recurrence and the monitoring of therapeutic effect. The abdominal cancers, such as gastroesophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer and pancreatic cancer, are common malignancies in Korea, and PET is one of the most promising and useful methodologies for the management of abdominal cancers.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.227-232
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• 1990

As a part of the study on ultrasonic tissue characterization, conventional ultrasonic imaging system is interfaced to the personal computer to acquire raw ultrasonic signal. One approach for tissue charaterization is performed using the attenuation map to the conventional images and the resulting attenuation map images are compared and inspected inside the region of interest from the viewpoint of pattern analysis. Currently, these methods are applied and modified to effectively find out the differences between the normal control and the patients with liver cirrhosis.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.123-130
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• 2018

An ampulla of Vater neuroendocrine tumor (AOV-NET) is a rare subset of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs). Very few studies have been undertaken regarding MRI findings of an AOV-NET. We report on a case of a 59-year-old woman diagnosed with an AOV-NET with liver and lymph node metastasis, with an emphasis on the MRI findings. This case shows rare and precious typical MRI findings of an AOV-NET. The MRI visualized the AOV-NET very well and is helpful for the differentiation of an AOV-NET from other tumors in the ampullary area as well as with treatment planning.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.370-373
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• 2015

A 10-year-old, intact female, Maltese dog was presented with a two weeks history of vomiting, anorexia and weight loss. Hematologic analysis revealed mild leukocytosis and increased liver enzyme. Gaseous dilation of small intestine and hyperechoic nodules of hepatic lobes were revealed on the imaging studies. Liver biopsy was performed through laparotomy and histopathologic results revealed liver cirrhosis with precancerous lesions. Two days later, endoscopy was performed and histopathologic results of the specimens taken by endoscopic biopsy showed gastric adenoma. The gastric surgery was not performed by the owner's request. The patient died after 60 days of diagnosis of gastric adenoma. This case describes clinical features, imaging studies, endoscopic features and histopathologic characteristics of gastric adenoma in a Maltese dog.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2020.11a
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• pp.1036-1038
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• 2020

This paper proposes a novel automated liver segmentation using Multi-Dilated U-Nets. The proposed multidilation segmentation model has the advantage of considering both local and global shapes of the liver image. We use the CT images subject-wise, every 2D image is concatenated to 3D to calculate the IOU score and DICE score. The experimental results on Jeonbuk National University hospital dataset achieves better performance than the conventional U-Net.