• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.179-184
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• 2010

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a food-borne pathogen that causes bloody diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis, and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). We compared three selective media and evaluated the performance of immunomagnetic separation (IMS) for the detection of low levels of E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef and radish sprouts with different levels of background flora. Bulk food samples (500 g for each trial) were artificially inoculated with nalidixic acid-resistant E. coli O157:H7 at the lowest dose that would generate 20 partial-positive samples of 25 g each. All samples were homogenized in mTSB (225 mL) and incubated overnight at $37^{\circ}C$. IMS was performed using the enriched mTSB samples (1 mL) along with conventional spreads plated onto three different selective media: Sorbitol MacConkey agar (SMAC), Sorbitol MacConkey agar with cefixime and tellulite (CT-SMAC), and Sorbitol MacConkey agar with nalidixic acid (NAL-SMAC) as the gold standard. Two suspicious colonies from each medium were selected and confirmed usinga serological test after transfer to tryptic soy broth with yeast extract (TSAYE). CT-SMAC was better than SMAC for detecting E. coli O157:H7 in all food types. Although there was no statistical difference in the number of positive samples when using IMS vs. non-IMS techniques, more positive samples were detected when IMS was used in both ground beef and radish sprouts. It appears that the improvement was more significant in radish sprouts, which had a higher level of background flora than ground beef. The results also suggest that the combination of CT-SMAC and IMS is sufficient to recover low levels of E. coli O157:H7 in high background flora food samples.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2013

As image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) has been commonly used for more accurate patient setup and monitoring tumor movement during radiation therapy, the necessity for management of imaging dose is increased. However, it has not been an interest issue to radiation therapy communities because the imaging dose is much lower than the therapeutic dose. However, since the cumulative dose from 4DCT and repeated imaging for daily setup verificationin would not be ignorable, appropriate dose management based on ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principle is required. In this study, we aimed that (1) survey on imaging equipments and modalities used for IGRT, (2) estimation of IGRT imaging dose depending on treatment types and equipments, (3) collecting data of effective dose on treatment sites from each equipment and imaging protocol, and thus finally provide guideline for imaging dose reduction and optimization.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 2005

Purpose : Many authors have been introduced field in field technique and 3-D conformal radiotherapy that increased the tumor dose as well as decreased the dose of abutting critical organ. These technique have multiple beam direction and small beam segments even below 10 MU(monitor unit)for each field. we have confirmed the influence of low MU on dose output and beam stability. Materials and Methods : To study the dose output, the dose for each field was always 90MU, but it divided into different segment size: 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15 segments, 90, 45, 30, 18, 9, 6 MU the measurements were carried out for X-ray energy 4 MV, 6 MV, 10 MV of three LINAC(Varian 600C, 2100C, 2100C, 2100C/D), in addition each measurement was randomly repeated three times for each energy. To study the field symmetry and flatness, X-omat V films were irradiated. After being developed, films were scanned and analyzed using densitometer. Results : Influence of low MU on dose is slightly more increase output about $1.2{\sim}2.9%$ in cGy/mu than 90MU, but may not changed beam quality(flatness or symmetry), Output stability depends on dose rate(PRF)rather than beam energy, field size. Conclusion : Presented result are under the limits(out put<3%, flatness<${\pm}3%$, symmetry<2%). The 3 accelerators are safe to use and to perform conformal radiotherapy treatments in small segments, small MU around 10MU. but Even if the result presented here under the limits, continuous adjustments and periodic QA should be done for use of small MU

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.597-603
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• 2017

High-dose $^{131}I$ therapy has been generally carried out to remove remaining thyroid tissue or to cure metastasize lesion of patients who received full thyroidectomy due to differentiated thyroid cancers. In case high-dose $^{131}I$ therapy is carried out for a patient, the patient should be hospitalized being isolated for a certain period in order to restrict the amount of exposure to radiation of people at large from the patient within the limit of a level of radiation. Effective half-life is an important value to calculate how family members are exposed to radiation from a patient or to decide the period of isolation of the patient from the family members. Therefore, in this study we calculated the effective decay constant, effective half-life and period of isolation of high-dose $^{131}I$ therapy patient using NM670 SPECT/CT. As a result of carrying out this study, the effective half-life of high-dose $^{131}I$ therapy patients was derived and the time to reach the discharge level of 1.2 GBq was confirmed. When they were compared with each other in each of curative doses, the effective half-life did not have significant difference, but the time when the level of radiation remaining in the interior of the body to reach the criteria of isolation and discharge showed significant difference and it could be confirmed that the higher the curative dose the longer the period of isolation becomes. When the effective half-lives in each type of preparation were compared with each other, they did not show significant difference. However, When the times to reach the level of radiation that is the criteria of isolation and discharge in each type of preparations, they showed significant difference. The cause of the shortening of the isolation period for rhTSH patients group is decided to be low curative dose. Accordingly, if the current national health insurance (the insurance is applied to using of rhTSH in 3.7 GBq or lower) is maintained, while discerning them in each of types of preparation, we would be able to discharge patients at the time earlier than the current period of isolation (2 nights and 3 days).

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10057-10059
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• 2015

Positron emission tomography (PET) as the functional component of current hybrid imaging (like PET/CT or PET/MRI) seems to dominate the horizon of medical imaging in coming decades. $^{18}$Flourodeoxyglucose ($^{18}FDG$) is the most commonly used probe in oncology and also in cardiology and neurology around the globe. However, the major capital cost and exorbitant running expenditure of low to medium energy cyclotrons (about 20 MeV) and radiochemistry units are the seminal reasons of low number of cyclotrons but mushroom growth pattern of PET scanners. This fact and longer half-life of $^{18}F$ (110 minutes) have paved the path of a centralized model in which $^{18}FDG$ is produced by commercial PET radiopharmacies and the finished product (multi-dose vial with tungsten shielding) is dispensed to customers having only PET scanners. This indeed reduced the cost but has limitations of dependence upon timely arrival of daily shipments as delay caused by any reason results in cancellation or rescheduling of the PET procedures. In recent years, industry and academia have taken a step forward by producing low energy, table top cyclotrons with compact and automated radiochemistry units (Lab-on-Chip). This decentralized strategy enables the users to produce on-demand doses of PET probe themselves at reasonably low cost using an automated and user-friendly technology. This technological development would indeed provide a real impetus to the availability of complete set up of PET based molecular imaging at an affordable cost to the developing countries.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.102-110
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• 2015

The main source of noise in computed tomography (CT) images is a quantum noise, which results from statistical fluctuations of X-ray quanta reaching the detector. This paper proposes a neural network (NN) based hybrid filter for removing quantum noise. The proposed filter consists of bilateral filters (BFs), a single or multiple neural edge enhancer(s) (NEE), and a neural filter (NF) to combine them. The BFs take into account the difference in value from the neighbors, to preserve edges while smoothing. The NEE is used to clearly enhance the desired edges from noisy images. The NF acts like a fusion operator, and attempts to construct an enhanced output image. Several measurements are used to evaluate the image quality, like the root mean square error (RMSE), the improvement in signal to noise ratio (ISNR), the standard deviation ratio (MSR), and the contrast to noise ratio (CNR). Also, the modulation transfer function (MTF) is used as a means of determining how well the edge structure is preserved. In terms of all those measurements and means, the proposed filter shows better performance than the guided filter, and the nonlocal means (NLM) filter. In addition, there is no severe restriction to select the number of inputs for the fusion operator differently from the neuro-fuzzy system. Therefore, without concerning too much about the filter selection for fusion, one could apply the proposed hybrid filter to various images with different modalities, once the corresponding noise characteristics are explored.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.132-137
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• 2015

Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-producing pheochromocytoma has been rarely reported, whereas only a few cases of Cushing syndrome accompanied by opportunistic infections have been reported. We experienced a patient with pheochromocytoma with ectopic Cushing syndrome complicated by invasive aspergillosis. A 35-year-old woman presented with typical Cushingoid features. Her basal plasma cortisol, ACTH, and 24-hour urine free cortisol levels were significantly high, and 24-hour urine metanephrine and catecholamine levels were slightly elevated. The endogeneous cortisol secretion was not suppressed by either low- or high-dose dexamethasone. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed a heterogeneous enhancing mass measuring approximately 2.5 cm in size in the left adrenal gland. No definitive mass lesion was observed on sellar magnetic resonance imaging. On fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/CT, a hypermetabolic nodule was observed in the left upper lung. Thus, we performed a percutaneous needle biopsy, which revealed inflammation, not malignancy. Thereafter, we performed a laparoscopic left adrenalectomy, and its pathologic finding was a pheochromocytoma with positive immunohistostaining for ACTH. After surgery, the biochemistry was normalized, but the clinical course was fatal despite intensive care because of the invasive aspergillosis that included the lungs, retina, and central nervous system.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.179-187
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictable value of pretreatment $^{18}F$-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography ($^{18}F$-FDG PET-CT) in radiotherapy (RT) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT). Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 36 stage I-IV HCC patients treated with RT. $^{18}F$-FDG PET-CT was performed before RT. Treatment target was determined HCC or PVTT lesions by treatment aim. They were irradiated at a median prescription dose of 50 Gy. The response was evaluated within 3 months after completion of RT using the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). Response rate, overall survival (OS), and the pattern of failure (POF) were analyzed. Results: The response rate was 61.1%. The statistically significant prognostic factor affecting response in RT field was maximal standardized uptake value (maxSUV) only. The high SUV group (maxSUV ${\geq}5.1$) showed the better radiologic response than the low SUV group (maxSUV < 5.1). The median OS were 996.0 days in definitive group and 144.0 days in palliative group. Factors affecting OS were the %reduction of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level in the definitive group and Child-Pugh class in the palliative group. To predict the POF, maxSUV based on the cutoff value of 5.1 was the only significant factor in distant metastasis group. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the maxSUV of $^{18}F$-FDG PET-CT may be a prognostic factor for treatment outcome and the POF after RT. A %reduction of AFP level and Child-Pugh class could be used to predict OS in HCC.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2022

Brain computed tomography (CT) is useful for brain lesion diagnosis, such as brain hemorrhage, due to non-invasive methodology, 3-dimensional image provision, low radiation dose. However, there has been numerous misdiagnosis owing to a lack of radiologist and heavy workload. Recently, object detection technologies based on artificial intelligence have been developed in order to overcome the limitations of traditional diagnosis. In this study, the applicability of a deep learning-based YOLOv5s model was evaluated for brain hemorrhage detection using brain CT images. Also, the effect of hyperparameters in the trained YOLOv5s model was analyzed. The YOLOv5s model consisted of backbone, neck and output modules. The trained model was able to detect a region of brain hemorrhage and provide the information of the region. The YOLOv5s model was trained with various activation functions, optimizer functions, loss functions and epochs, and the performance of the trained model was evaluated in terms of brain hemorrhage detection accuracy and training time. The results showed that the trained YOLOv5s model is able to provide a bounding box for a region of brain hemorrhage and the accuracy of the corresponding box. The performance of the YOLOv5s model was improved by using the mish activation function, the stochastic gradient descent (SGD) optimizer function and the completed intersection over union (CIoU) loss function. Also, the accuracy and training time of the YOLOv5s model increased with the number of epochs. Therefore, the YOLOv5s model is suitable for brain hemorrhage detection using brain CT images, and the performance of the model can be maximized by using appropriate hyperparameters.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.1165-1177
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• 2020

Objective: To assess the feasibility of applying a deep learning-based denoising technique to coronary CT angiography (CCTA) along with iterative reconstruction for additional noise reduction. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 82 consecutive patients (male:female = 60:22; mean age, 67.0 ± 10.8 years) who had undergone both CCTA and invasive coronary artery angiography from March 2017 to June 2018. All included patients underwent CCTA with iterative reconstruction (ADMIRE level 3, Siemens Healthineers). We developed a deep learning based denoising technique (ClariCT.AI, ClariPI), which was based on a modified U-net type convolutional neural net model designed to predict the possible occurrence of low-dose noise in the originals. Denoised images were obtained by subtracting the predicted noise from the originals. Image noise, CT attenuation, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were objectively calculated. The edge rise distance (ERD) was measured as an indicator of image sharpness. Two blinded readers subjectively graded the image quality using a 5-point scale. Diagnostic performance of the CCTA was evaluated based on the presence or absence of significant stenosis (≥ 50% lumen reduction). Results: Objective image qualities (original vs. denoised: image noise, 67.22 ± 25.74 vs. 52.64 ± 27.40; SNR [left main], 21.91 ± 6.38 vs. 30.35 ± 10.46; CNR [left main], 23.24 ± 6.52 vs. 31.93 ± 10.72; all p < 0.001) and subjective image quality (2.45 ± 0.62 vs. 3.65 ± 0.60, p < 0.001) improved significantly in the denoised images. The average ERDs of the denoised images were significantly smaller than those of originals (0.98 ± 0.08 vs. 0.09 ± 0.08, p < 0.001). With regard to diagnostic accuracy, no significant differences were observed among paired comparisons. Conclusion: Application of the deep learning technique along with iterative reconstruction can enhance the noise reduction performance with a significant improvement in objective and subjective image qualities of CCTA images.