• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제45권3호
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• pp.169-174
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was performed to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of panoramic radiography and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in detecting sinus pathology. Materials and Methods: This study was based on a retrospective evaluation of patients who had undergone both a panoramic radiograph and a CBCT exam. A total of 100 maxillary sinuses were evaluated. Four examiners with various levels of expertise evaluated the images using a five-point scoring system. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the two modalities. The image analysis was repeated twice, with at least two weeks between the evaluation sessions. Interobserver reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, and intraobserver reliability was assessed using Cohen's kappa. Results: Maxillary sinus pathology was detected in 72% of the patients. High interobserver and intraobserver reliability were observed for both imaging modalities and among the four examiners. Statistical analyses using ROC curves demonstrated that the CBCT images had a larger area under the curve (0.940) than the panoramic radiographs (0.579). Conclusion: Three-dimensional evaluation of the sinus with CBCT was significantly more reliable in detecting pathology than panoramic imaging.

• 기본간호학회지
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.14-20
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify how accurately body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) detect obesity in young adult women. Method: Measurements of height, weight, WC, and percent body fat (% BF) were obtained and bioelectrical impedance analysis was used to estimate body fat in 329 female college students. The sensitivity and specificity to screen obesity by BMI and WC were determined using SPSS. Received operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to assess the appropriate BMI and WC predicting % BF. Results: % BF-defined obesity $(\geq30%)$ had higher prevalence than BMI-defined obesity $(\geq25kg/m^2)$ and WC-defined obesity $(\geq80cm)$. BMI $\geq25kg/m^2$ and WC $\geq80cm$ had high specificity (both, 100%), but low sensitivity (respectively, 13.5% and 22.9%) in detecting % BF-defined obesity. The BMI and WC cutoff values corresponding to % BF-defined obesity were 21.2kg/$m^2$ and 73cm, which were lower than recommended reference values for Korean women. These values decreased specificity but increased sensitivity to detect obesity. The areas under the ROC curve were good (0.84, 0.86) for BMI and WC. Conclusion: BMI and WC have good specificity but miss more than $77\sim86%$ of people with excess fat. Therefore, BMI and WC cutoff values need to be revised and body fat should be considered when screening for obesity in young adult women.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• 제47권1호
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• pp.61-67
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• 2020

Objective: In this study, specimens from testicular biopsies of men with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) were used to investigate whether RNF8 gene could serve as a biomarker to predict the presence of sperm in these patients. Methods: Testicular biopsy specimens from 47 patients were classified according to the presence of sperm (positive vs. negative groups) and investigated for the expression of RNF8. The level of RNF8 gene expression in the testes was compared between these groups using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results: The expression level of RNF8 was significantly higher in testicular samples from the positive group than in those from the negative group. Moreover, the area under the curve of RNF8 expression for the entire study population was 0.84, showing the discriminatory power of RNF8 expression in differentiating between the positive and negative groups of men with NOA. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that RNF8 expression had a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 84%, with a cutoff level of 1.76. Conclusion: This study points out a significant association between the expression of RNF8 and the presence of sperm in NOA patients, which suggests that quantified RNF8 expression in testicular biopsy samples may be a valuable biomarker for predicting the presence of spermatozoa in biopsy samples.

• 대한지역사회영양학회지
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• 제11권6호
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• pp.779-784
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• 2006

Several studies about hospital malnutrition have been reported that about more than 40% of hospitalized patients are having nutritional risk factors and hospital malnutrition presents a high prevalence. People in a more severe nutritional status ended up with a longer length of hospital stay and higher hospital cost. Nutrition screening tools identify individuals who are malnourished or at risk of becoming malnourished and who may benefit from nutritional support. For the early detection and treatment of malnourished hospital patients , few valid screening instruments fur Koreans exist. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a simple, reliable and valid malnutrition screening tool that could be used at hospital admission to identify adult patients at risk of malnutrition using medical electrical record data. Two hundred and one patients of the university affiliated medical center were assessed on nutritional status and classified as well nourished, moderately or severely malnourished by a Patient-Generated subjective global assessment (PG-SGA) being chosen as the 'gold standard' for defining malnutrition. The combination of nutrition screening questions with the highest sensitivity and specificity at prediction PG-SGA was termed the nutrition screening index (NSI). Odd ratio, and binary logistic regression were used to predict the best nutritional status predictors. Based on regression coefficient score, albumin less than 3.5 g/dl, body mass index (BMI) less than $18.5kg/m^2$, total lymphocyte count less than 900 and age over 65 were determined as the best set of NSI. By using best nutritional predictors receiver operating characteristic curve with the area under the curve, sensitivity and 1-specificity were analyzed to determine the best optimal cut-off point to decide normal or abnormal in nutritional status. Therefore simple and beneficial NSI was developed for identifying patients with severe malnutrition. Using NSI, nutritional information of the severe malnutrition patient should be shared with physicians and they should be cared for by clinical dietitians to improve their nutritional status.

• 한방비만학회지
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.127-132
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• 2017

Objectives: Recently, many studies have demonstrated that the waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) is more correlated with metabolic syndrome than the waist-hip ratio (WHR), body mass index (BMI). The aim of this study was to investigate and compare WHtR as a predictor of metabolic syndrome with other anthropometric indices. Methods: Approximately 3,800 data of subjects were used for the analysis, and data from Korean Medicine Data Centar). Receiver operating characteristic curve was performed and area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to find the usefulness of WHtR, WHR, and BMI. Results: WHtR was the most predictive factor with the highest diagnostic value for metabolic syndrome than WHR, BMI. AUC of WHtR was significantly higher in total subjects, men and women. Conclusions: WHtR may be the simple and effective anthropometric index for metabolic syndrome.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• 제38권4호
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• pp.318-325
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• 2021

Background: The diagnosis and prediction of prognosis are important in patients with sepsis, and presepsin is helpful. In this study, we aimed to examine the usefulness of presepsin in predicting the prognosis of sepsis in Korea. Methods: Patients diagnosed with sepsis according to the sepsis-3 criteria were recruited into the study and classified into surviving and non-surviving groups based on in-hospital mortality. A total of 153 patients (32 and 121 patients with sepsis and septic shock, respectively) were included from July 2019 to August 2020. Results: Among the 153 patients with sepsis, 91 and 62 were in the survivor and non-survivor groups, respectively. Presepsin (p=0.004) and lactate (p=0.003) levels and the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score (p<0.001) were higher in the non-survivor group. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed poor performances of presepsin and lactate in predicting the prognosis of sepsis (presepsin: area under the curve [AUC]=0.656, p=0.001; lactate: AUC=0.646, p=0.003). The SOFA score showed the best performance, with the highest AUC value (AUC=0.751, p<0.001). The prognostic cutoff point for presepsin was 1,176 pg/mL. Presepsin levels higher than 1,176 pg/mL (odds ratio [OR], 3.352; p<0.001), higher lactate levels (OR, 1.203; p=0.003), and higher SOFA score (OR, 1.249; p<0.001) were risk factors for in-hospital mortality. Conclusion: Presepsin levels were higher in non-survivors than in survivors. Thus, presepsin may be a valuable biomarker in predicting the prognosis of sepsis.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.1-16
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• 2021

Machine learning models have been widely used for landslide susceptibility assessment (LSA) in recent years. The large number of inputs or conditioning factors for these models, however, can reduce the computation efficiency and increase the difficulty in collecting data. Feature selection is a good tool to address this problem by selecting the most important features among all factors to reduce the size of the input variables. However, two important questions need to be solved: (1) how do feature selection methods affect the performance of machine learning models? and (2) which feature selection method is the most suitable for a given machine learning model? This paper aims to address these two questions by comparing the predictive performance of 13 feature selection-based machine learning (FS-ML) models and 5 ordinary machine learning models on LSA. First, five commonly used machine learning models (i.e., logistic regression, support vector machine, artificial neural network, Gaussian process and random forest) and six typical feature selection methods in the literature are adopted to constitute the proposed models. Then, fifteen conditioning factors are chosen as input variables and 1,017 landslides are used as recorded data. Next, feature selection methods are used to obtain the importance of the conditioning factors to create feature subsets, based on which 13 FS-ML models are constructed. For each of the machine learning models, a best optimized FS-ML model is selected according to the area under curve value. Finally, five optimal FS-ML models are obtained and applied to the LSA of the studied area. The predictive abilities of the FS-ML models on LSA are verified and compared through the receive operating characteristic curve and statistical indicators such as sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. The results showed that different feature selection methods have different effects on the performance of LSA machine learning models. FS-ML models generally outperform the ordinary machine learning models. The best FS-ML model is the recursive feature elimination (RFE) optimized RF, and RFE is an optimal method for feature selection.

• 대한종양외과학회지
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.135-141
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• 2018

Purpose: Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) and sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) are important for staging of patients with node-positive breast cancer. However, these can be avoided in select micrometastatic diseases, preventing postoperative complications. The present study evaluated the ability of axillary lymph node maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) on positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) to predict axillary metastasis of breast cancer. Methods: The records of invasive breast cancer patients who underwent pretreatment (surgery and/or chemotherapy) PET-CT between January 2006 and December 2014 were reviewed. ALNs were preoperatively evaluated by PET-CT. Lymph nodes were dissected by SLNB or ALND. SUVmax was measured in both the axillary lymph node and primary tumor. Student t-test and chi-square test were used to analyze sensitivity and specificity. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and area under the ROC curve (AUC) analyses were performed. Results: SUV-tumor (SUV-T) and SUV-lymph node (SUV-LN) were significantly higher in the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) group than in other groups (SUV-T: 5.99, P<0.01; SUV-LN: 1.29, P=0.014). The sensitivity (0.881) and accuracy (0.804) for initial ALN staging were higher in fine needle aspiration+PET-CT than in other methods. For PET-CT alone, the subtype with the highest sensitivity (0.870) and negative predictive value (0.917) was TNBC. The AUC for SUV-LN was greatest in TNBC (0.797). Conclusion: The characteristics of SUV-T and SUV-LN differed according to immunohistochemistry subtype. Compared to other subtypes, the true positivity of axillary metastasis on PET-CT was highest in TNBC. These findings could help tailor management for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제62권9호
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• pp.353-359
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• 2019

Background: Researchers have shown that eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) is a relatively accurate marker of eosinophilia and eosinophil activity. However, its use as a marker of eosinophilic inflammation in nasal secretions is limited because the diagnostic cutoff values of EPO for use as a one-time test for allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis have not been established. Purpose: To identify the correlation between nasal eosinophil count and EPO in children and adolescents with rhinitis. Methods: We recruited patients <18 years of age with rhinitis for more than 2 weeks or more than 2 episodes a year whose nasal eosinophil and EPO were measured at a single allergy clinic. The eosinophil percentage was calculated by dividing the eosinophil count by the number of total cells under light microscopy at ${\times}1,000$ magnification. EPO and protein were measured from nasal secretions. We retrospectively analyzed the correlation between nasal eosinophils and protein-corrected EPO (EPO/protein) value. Results: Of the 67 patients enrolled, 41 were male (61.2%); the mean age was $8.2{\pm}4.0years$. The median nasal eosinophil count was 1 and percentage was 1%. The median protein-corrected EPO value was $12.5ng/{\mu}g$ (range, $0-31ng/{\mu}g$). There was a statistically significant correlation between eosinophil count and percentage (P<0.001). However, the eosinophil percentage and EPO did not correlate. The eosinophil count and EPO had a statistically significant correlation (P=0.01). The EPO cutoff value examined for nasal eosinophil counts of 2, 5, 10, and 20 was $17.57ng/{\mu}g$ regardless of the reference count. The largest area under the curve value was obtained when the receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn using the eosinophil count of 2. Conclusion: Nasal eosinophil count was significantly associated with protein-corrected EPO.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제62권8호
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• pp.307-311
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• 2019

Purpose: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is one of the most serious complications of prematurity. Many risk factors can contribute to the development of NEC. The epidermal growth factor (EGF) plays a major role in intestinal barrier function, increases intestinal enzyme activity, and improves nutrient transport. The aim of this study was to assess the role of epidermal growth factor in the development of NEC in preterm neonates. Methods: In this study, 130 preterm neonates were included and divided into 3 groups, as follows: group 1, 40 preterm neonates with NEC; group 2, 50 preterm neonates with sepsis; and group 3, 40 healthy preterm neonates as controls. The NEC group was then subdivided into medical and surgical NEC subgroups. The serum EGF level was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Serum EGF levels (pg/dL) were significantly lower in the NEC group (median [interquartile range, IQR], 9.6 [2-14]) than in the sepsis (10.1 [8-14]) and control groups (11.2 [8-14], P<0.001), with no significant difference between the sepsis and control groups, and were positively correlated with gestational age (r=0.7, P<0.001). A binary logistic regression test revealed that low EGF levels and gestational ages could significantly predict the development of NEC. The receiver-operating characteristic curve for EGF showed an optimal cutoff value of 8 pg/mL, with 73.3% sensitivity, 98% specificity, and an area under the curve of 0.92. Conclusion: The patients with NEC in this study had significantly lower serum EGF levels (P<0.001), which indicated that EGF could be a reliable marker of NEC in preterm neonates.