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Factors Affecting the Parental Stress of Children and Adolescents with Epilepsy (뇌전증 소아청소년 환아의 부모 스트레스에 영향을 주는 요인)

  • Jung, Byu Lee;Kim, Ga Eun;Lee, Hyang Woon;Kim, Eui-Jung
    • Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.63-71
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    • 2020
  • Objectives : The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of clinical and psychological factors on the parental stress of children and adolescents with epilepsy. Methods : Children and adolescents with epilepsy (n=90, age range=6-17 years) completed questionnaires on epilepsy-related variables, children's depressive symptoms (Children's Depression Inventory, CDI), children's anxiety (Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, RCMAS) and performed the scale for children's intelligence (IQ). Parents who have children and adolescents with epilepsy completed questionnaires on parental stress (Questionnaire on Resources and stress, QRS), parental anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI), children's attention problems (Abbreviated Conners Parent Rating Scale Revised, CPRS), and children's behavioral problems (Korean Child Behavior Checklist, K-CBCL). Stepwise regression analysis was performed to determine the significant predictive variables that affect parental stress. Results : In the correlational analysis, duration of seizure treatment (r=0.253, p=0.016), children's IQ (r=-0.544, p<0.001), children's attention problems (r=0.602, p<0.001), children's depressive symptoms (r=0.335, p=0.002), children's anxiety (r=0.306, p=0.004), children's behavioral problems (r=0.618, p<0.001), and parental anxiety (r=0.478, p<0.001), showed a significant correlation with parental stress. Children's behavioral problem (β=0.241, p=0.010), children's IQ (β=-0.472, p<0.001), and parental anxiety (β=0.426, p<0.001) were significantly related to the parental stress (Adjusted R2=0.619). Conclusions : Clinicians should pay attention to children's intelligence and behavioral problems and parental anxiety, which affect parental stress with children and adolescents with epilepsy.

A Study on the Effectiveness of Care of Patients with Alzheimer s Disease According to Residence Arrangement and Types of Services (치매노인의 거주형태 및 서비스유형에 따른 간호관리의 효과분석)

  • 홍여신;박현애;조남옥
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.26 no.4
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    • pp.768-781
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    • 1996
  • The problem of care of patients and families with Alzheimer's disease has become a conscious raising social policy issue in Korea. The government of the Republic of Korea has become cognizant of the situation and has begun searching for ways to remedy it. Thus, there is a need for a comprehensive under-standing of the situation in which patients and their families are struggling and the enormous problems of care. With a realization of the urgent need, this study was done to investigate the situation and the care needs of families with patients with Alzheimer's Disease, and to compare the effectiveness of services utilized by the families in terms of cost and effects on patient's conditions and on family live. The Subjects for the study were 29 families with hospitalized patients, 25 families utilizing hospital outpatient clinics, 14 families utilizing day care facilities, and 16 families with homebound patients. A total of 84 families were interviewed by four trained interviewers using structured and semistructured questionnaires. The data produced from these interviews included : the patient's stage of Alzheimer's disease, patient's bizarre behavior, hours spent on patient care per day, family burden and quality of life, direct and indirect costs encountered in the care of patients, and the families' evaluation of the effectiveness of the services received. The data were analyzed to determine the relationships between family charactersistics, patient's conditions and services utilization. The effectiveness of each of the service entities was assessed through families evaluation and hoped for service and comparisons were made between services in terms of the cost-effectiveness ratios. After initial comparison of cost-effectiveness ratios, further analysis was done to compare between groups for incremental effectiveness for each incremental unit of cost to determine the most cost-effective service entities. The findings of the study are as fellows : 1. The choice of living arrangement and the types of services are a function of the stage of Alzheimer's condition and the economic status of the family. 2. Comparision of the cost of care showed that most expenses were encountered in by families with hospitalization, families using outpatient services, and families using day care services in that order. The least expense was involved in the care of homebound patients. The economic burden felt by families was in the same order as expenses. 3. The average number of hours spent on daily patient care was 9.9 hours for the outpatient clinic users, 9.7 hours for homebound patients, and 5.4 hours for day care users. 4. There were significant differences in the patient's conditions (CDRL), bizarre behaviors and the families's burden by living arrangement and /or types of service. However, no significant difference was found between groups in the family's quality of life. 5. The families rated the services of day care center as most effective for the care of the patients and families, except for a few families who had experienced some improvement in the patient's conditions. The outpatient clinic users expressed psychological comforts mainly in that the patient was being taken care of. For those hospitalized patients, families expressed the comfort of being relieved of the burden of care and that the patient is being professionally cared for. Form the analysis of the costs, hours of patient care, patient's bizarre behaviors, family's quality of life and burdens, and family's evaluation of services, it is concluded that up to the mid stage of Alzheimer's condition, the utilization of day care center services is found to be the most cost-effective, and toward the end stage of the Alzheimer's disease, it is hoped that there will be a establishment of long term or short term in-patient facilities for the protection of patients and preservation of the integrity of families for less cost. Thus. it was concluded that the family centered system of care is the most effective for Korea with systematic support systems developed for the care of patients and their families according to the needs of families as the patient's condition deteriorates.

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A Study For Optimizing Input Waveforms In Radiofrequency Liver Tumor Ablation Using Finite Element Analysis (유한 요소 해석을 이용한 고주파 간 종양 절제술의 입력 파형 최적화를 위한 연구)

  • Lim, Do-Hyung;NamGung, Bum-Seok;Lee, Tae-Woo;Choi, Jin-Seung;Tack, Gye-Rae;Kim, Han-Sung
    • Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.235-243
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    • 2007
  • Hepatocellular carcinoma is significant worldwide public health problem with an estimated annually mortality of 1,000,000 people. Radiofrequency (RF) ablation is an interventional technique that in recent years has come to be used for treatment of the hepatocellualr carcinoma, by destructing tumor tissues in high temperatures. Numerous studies have been attempted to prove excellence of RF ablation and to improve its efficiency by various methods. However, the attempts are sometimes paradox to advantages of a minimum invasive characteristic and an operative simplicity in RF ablation. The aim of the current study is, therefore, to suggest an improved RF ablation technique by identifying an optimum RF pattern, which is one of important factors capable of controlling the extent of high temperature region in lossless of the advantages of RF ablation. Three-dimensional finite element (FE) model was developed and validated comparing with the results reported by literature. Four representative Rf patterns (sine, square, exponential, and simulated RF waves), which were corresponding to currents fed during simulated RF ablation, were investigated. Following parameters for each RF pattern were analyzed to identify which is the most optimum in eliminating effectively tumor tissues. 1) maximum temperature, 2) a degree of alteration of maximum temperature in a constant time range (30-40 second), 3) a domain of temperature over $47^{\circ}C$ isothermal temperature (IT), and 4) a domain inducing over 63% cell damage. Here, heat transfer characteristics within the tissues were determined by Bioheat Governing Equation. Developed FE model showed 90-95% accuracy approximately in prediction of maximum temperature and domain of interests achieved during RF ablation. Maximum temperatures for sine, square, exponential, and simulated RF waves were $69.0^{\circ}C,\;66.9^{\circ}C,\;65.4^{\circ}C,\;and\;51.8^{\circ}C$, respectively. While the maximum temperatures were decreased in the constant time range, average time intervals for sine, square, exponential, and simulated RE waves were $0.49{\pm}0.14,\;1.00{\pm}0.00,\;1.65{\pm}0.02,\;and\;1.66{\pm}0.02$ seconds, respectively. Average magnitudes of the decreased maximum temperatures in the time range were $0.45{\pm}0.15^{\circ}C$ for sine wave, $1.93{\pm}0.02^{\circ}C$ for square wave, $2.94{\pm}0.05^{\circ}C$ for exponential wave, and $1.53{\pm}0.06^{\circ}C$ for simulated RF wave. Volumes of temperature domain over $47^{\circ}C$ IT for sine, square, exponential, and simulated RF waves were 1480mm3, 1440mm3, 1380mm3, and 395mm3, respectively. Volumes inducing over 63% cell damage for sine, square, exponential, and simulated RF waves were 114mm3, 62mm3, 17mm3, and 0mm3, respectively. These results support that applying sine wave during RF ablation may be generally the most optimum in destructing effectively tumor tissues, compared with other RF patterns.

Updating DEM for Improving Geomorphic Details (미기복 지형 표현을 위한 DEM 개선)

  • Kim, Nam-Shin
    • Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.64-72
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    • 2009
  • The method to generate a digital elevation model(DEM) from contour lines causes a problem in which the low relief landform cannot be clearly presented due to the fact that it is significantly influenced by the expression of micro landform elements according to the interval of contours. Thus, this study attempts to develop a landcover burning method that recovers the micro relief landform of the DEM, which applies buffering and map algebra methods by inputting the elevation information to the landcover. In the recovering process of the micro landform, the DEM was recovered using the buffering method and elevation information through the map algebra for the landcover element for the micro landform among the primary DEM generation, making landcover map, and landcover elements. The recovering of the micro landform was applied based on stream landforms. The recovering of landforms using the buffering method was performed for the bar, which is a polygonal element, and wetland according to the properties of concave/convex through generating contours with a uniform interval in which the elevation information applied to the recovered landform. In the case of the linear elements, such as bank, road, waterway, and tributary, the landform can be recovered by using the elevation information through applying a map algebra function. Because the polygonal elements, such as stream channel, river terrace, and artificial objects (farmlands) are determined as a flat property, these are recovered by inputting constant elevation values. The results of this study were compared and analyzed for the degree of landform expression between the original DEM and the recovered DEM. In the results of the analysis, the DEM produced by using the conventional method showed few expressions in micro landform elements. The method developed in this study well described wetland, bar, landform around rivers, farmland, bank, river terrace, and artificial objects. It can be expected that the results of this study contribute to the classification and analysis of micro landforms, plain and the ecology and environment study that requires the recovering of micro landforms around streams and rivers.

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Research on the Application Methods of Big Data within SME Financing: Big data from Trading-area (소상공인의 자금공급 확대를 위한 빅데이터 활용 방안연구)

  • Lee, Ju Hee;Dong, Hak Lim
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.13 no.3
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    • pp.125-140
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    • 2018
  • According to statistics, it is shown that domestic SMEs rely on bank loans for the majority of fund procurement. From financial information shortage (Thin file) that does not provide information necessary for credit evaluation from banks such as financial statements. In order to overcome these problems, recently, in alternative finance such as P2P, using differentiated information such as demographics, trading information and the like utilizing Fintech instead of existing financial information, small funds A new credit evaluation method has been expanding to provide SMEs with small amounts of money. In this paradigm of environmental change, in this research, credit evaluation which can expand fund supply to SMEs by utilizing big data based on trade area information such as sales fluctuation, location conditions etc. In this research, we try to find such a solution. By analyzing empirically the big data generated in the trade area, we verify the effectiveness as a credit evaluation factor and try to derive the main parameters necessary for the business performance evaluation of the founder of SMEs. In this research, for 17,116 material businesses in Seoul City that operate the service industry from 2009 to February 2018, we collect trade area information generated for each business location from Big Data specialized company NICE Zini Data Co., Ltd.. We collected and analyzed the data on the locations and commercial areas of the facilities that were difficult to obtain from SMEs and analyzed the data that affected the Corporate financial Distress. It is possible to refer to the variable of the existing unused big data and to confirm the possibility of utilizing it for efficient financial support for SMEs, This is to ensure that commercial lenders, even in general commercial banks, are made to be more prominent in one sector of the financing of SMEs. In this research, it is not the traditional financial information about raising fund of SMEs who have basically the problem of information asymmetry, but a trade area analysis variable is derived, and this variable is evaluated by credit evaluation There is differentiation of research in that it verified through analysis of big data from Trading-area whether or not there is an effect on.

Comparisons of Popularity- and Expert-Based News Recommendations: Similarities and Importance (인기도 기반의 온라인 추천 뉴스 기사와 전문 편집인 기반의 지면 뉴스 기사의 유사성과 중요도 비교)

  • Suh, Kil-Soo;Lee, Seongwon;Suh, Eung-Kyo;Kang, Hyebin;Lee, Seungwon;Lee, Un-Kon
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.191-210
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    • 2014
  • As mobile devices that can be connected to the Internet have spread and networking has become possible whenever/wherever, the Internet has become central in the dissemination and consumption of news. Accordingly, the ways news is gathered, disseminated, and consumed have changed greatly. In the traditional news media such as magazines and newspapers, expert editors determined what events were worthy of deploying their staffs or freelancers to cover and what stories from newswires or other sources would be printed. Furthermore, they determined how these stories would be displayed in their publications in terms of page placement, space allocation, type sizes, photographs, and other graphic elements. In turn, readers-news consumers-judged the importance of news not only by its subject and content, but also through subsidiary information such as its location and how it was displayed. Their judgments reflected their acceptance of an assumption that these expert editors had the knowledge and ability not only to serve as gatekeepers in determining what news was valuable and important but also how to rank its value and importance. As such, news assembled, dispensed, and consumed in this manner can be said to be expert-based recommended news. However, in the era of Internet news, the role of expert editors as gatekeepers has been greatly diminished. Many Internet news sites offer a huge volume of news on diverse topics from many media companies, thereby eliminating in many cases the gatekeeper role of expert editors. One result has been to turn news users from passive receptacles into activists who search for news that reflects their interests or tastes. To solve the problem of an overload of information and enhance the efficiency of news users' searches, Internet news sites have introduced numerous recommendation techniques. Recommendations based on popularity constitute one of the most frequently used of these techniques. This popularity-based approach shows a list of those news items that have been read and shared by many people, based on users' behavior such as clicks, evaluations, and sharing. "most-viewed list," "most-replied list," and "real-time issue" found on news sites belong to this system. Given that collective intelligence serves as the premise of these popularity-based recommendations, popularity-based news recommendations would be considered highly important because stories that have been read and shared by many people are presumably more likely to be better than those preferred by only a few people. However, these recommendations may reflect a popularity bias because stories judged likely to be more popular have been placed where they will be most noticeable. As a result, such stories are more likely to be continuously exposed and included in popularity-based recommended news lists. Popular news stories cannot be said to be necessarily those that are most important to readers. Given that many people use popularity-based recommended news and that the popularity-based recommendation approach greatly affects patterns of news use, a review of whether popularity-based news recommendations actually reflect important news can be said to be an indispensable procedure. Therefore, in this study, popularity-based news recommendations of an Internet news portal was compared with top placements of news in printed newspapers, and news users' judgments of which stories were personally and socially important were analyzed. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, content analyses were used to compare the content of the popularity-based news recommendations of an Internet news site with those of the expert-based news recommendations of printed newspapers. Five days of news stories were collected. "most-viewed list" of the Naver portal site were used as the popularity-based recommendations; the expert-based recommendations were represented by the top pieces of news from five major daily newspapers-the Chosun Ilbo, the JoongAng Ilbo, the Dong-A Daily News, the Hankyoreh Shinmun, and the Kyunghyang Shinmun. In the second stage, along with the news stories collected in the first stage, some Internet news stories and some news stories from printed newspapers that the Internet and the newspapers did not have in common were randomly extracted and used in online questionnaire surveys that asked the importance of these selected news stories. According to our analysis, only 10.81% of the popularity-based news recommendations were similar in content with the expert-based news judgments. Therefore, the content of popularity-based news recommendations appears to be quite different from the content of expert-based recommendations. The differences in importance between these two groups of news stories were analyzed, and the results indicated that whereas the two groups did not differ significantly in their recommendations of stories of personal importance, the expert-based recommendations ranked higher in social importance. This study has importance for theory in its examination of popularity-based news recommendations from the two theoretical viewpoints of collective intelligence and popularity bias and by its use of both qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative methods (questionnaires). It also sheds light on the differences in the role of media channels that fulfill an agenda-setting function and Internet news sites that treat news from the viewpoint of markets.

Relationship between Divergent Thinking in Mathematical and Non-Mathematical Situations -Based on the TTCT; Figural A and the MCPSAT- (수학적 상황과 비수학적 상황에서의 확산적 사고의 관계 연구 - TTCT의 도형검사와 MCPSAT를 중심으로 -)

  • Hwang, Dong-Jou;Lee, Kang-Sup;Seo, Jong-Jin
    • Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.59-76
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    • 2005
  • We examined the relations between the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical (Mathematical Creative Problem Solving Ability Test; MCPSAT: Lee etc. 2003) and non-mathematical situations (Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Figural A; TTCT: adapted for Korea by Kim, 1999). Subjects in this study were 213 eighth grade students(129 males and 84 females). In the analysis of data, frequencies, percentiles, t-test and correlation analysis were used. The results of the study are summarized as follows; First, mathematically gifted students showed statistically significantly higher scores on the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations than regular students. Second, female showed statistically significantly higher scores on the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations than males. Third, there was statistically significant relationship between the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations for middle students was r=.41 (p<.05) and regular students was r=.27 (p<.05). A test of statistical significance was conducted to test hypothesis. Fourth, the correlation between the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations for mathematically gifted students was r=.11. There was no statistically significant relationship between the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations for mathematically gifted students. These results reveal little correlation between the scores of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations in both mathematically gifted students. Also but for the group of students of relatively mathematically gifted students it was found that the correlations between divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations was near zero. This suggests that divergent thinking ability in mathematical situations may be a specific ability and not just a combination of divergent thinking ability in non-mathematical situations. But the limitations of this study as following: The sample size in this study was too few to generalize that there was a relation between the divergent thinking of mathematically gifted students in mathematical situation and non-mathematical situation.

Development of Traffic Volume Estimation System in Main and Branch Roads to Estimate Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Road Transportation Category (도로수송부문 온실가스 배출량 산정을 위한 간선 및 지선도로상의 교통량 추정시스템 개발)

  • Kim, Ki-Dong;Lee, Tae-Jung;Jung, Won-Seok;Kim, Dong-Sool
    • Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.233-248
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    • 2012
  • The national emission from energy sector accounted for 84.7% of all domestic emissions in 2007. Of the energy-use emissions, the emission from mobile source as one of key categories accounted for 19.4% and further the road transport emission occupied the most dominant portion in the category. The road transport emissions can be estimated on the basis of either the fuel consumed (Tier 1) or the distance travelled by the vehicle types and road types (higher Tiers). The latter approach must be suitable for simultaneously estimating $CO_2$, $CH_4$, and $N_2O$ emissions in local administrative districts. The objective of this study was to estimate 31 municipal GHG emissions from road transportation in Gyeonggi Province, Korea. In 2008, the municipalities were consisted of 2,014 towns expressed as Dong and Ri, the smallest administrative district unit. Since mobile sources are moving across other city and province borders, the emission estimated by fuel sold is in fact impossible to ensure consistency between neighbouring cities and provinces. On the other hand, the emission estimated by distance travelled is also impossible to acquire key activity data such as traffic volume, vehicle type and model, and road type in small towns. To solve the problem, we applied a hierarchical cluster analysis to separate town-by-town road patterns (clusters) based on a priori activity information including traffic volume, population, area, and branch road length obtained from small 151 towns. After identifying 10 road patterns, a rule building expert system was developed by visual basic application (VBA) to assort various unknown road patterns into one of 10 known patterns. The expert system was self-verified with original reference information and then objects in each homogeneous pattern were used to regress traffic volume based on the variables of population, area, and branch road length. The program was then applied to assign all the unknown towns into a known pattern and to automatically estimate traffic volumes by regression equations for each town. Further VKT (vehicle kilometer travelled) for each vehicle type in each town was calculated to be mapped by GIS (geological information system) and road transport emission on the corresponding road section was estimated by multiplying emission factors for each vehicle type. Finally all emissions from local branch roads in Gyeonggi Province could be estimated by summing up emissions from 1,902 towns where road information was registered. As a result of the study, the GHG average emission rate by the branch road transport was 6,101 kilotons of $CO_2$ equivalent per year (kt-$CO_2$ Eq/yr) and the total emissions from both main and branch roads was 24,152 kt-$CO_2$ Eq/yr in Gyeonggi Province. The ratio of branch roads emission to the total was 0.28 in 2008.

Analysis of the Relationships Between ESD and DAP, and Image SNR·CNR According to the Frame Change of Cine Imaging in CAG : With Focus on 10 f/s and 15 f/s (심장혈관 조영술에서 씨네(cine)촬영의 프레임변화에 따른 ESD와 DAP 및 영상의 SNR·CNR 관계 분석: 10f/s과 15f/s을 중심으로)

  • Jung, Myo-Young;Seo, Young-Hyun;Song, Jong-Nam;Han, Jae-Bok
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.12 no.5
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    • pp.669-675
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    • 2018
  • This study aimed to investigate the difference of X-ray exposure by comparing and analyzing entrance surface dose and absorbed dose according to the frame change in coronary angiography using an X-ray machine. Moreover, appropriate frame selection measures for examination, including the effect of frame change on the image quality, were sought by measuring and analyzing the SNR and CNR of the image through image J. The study was conducted on 30 patients (19 males and 11 females) who underwent CAG at this hospital from June 2017 to October 2017. In regard to the patients, their age range was 49-82 years (mean of $65{\pm}9$ years), body weight was 45-91 kg (mean of $67{\pm}8.9kg$), height was 150-179cm (mean of $165.1{\pm}8.9kg$), and BMI was 19.5-30.5(mean of $24.5{\pm}2.9$). For the entrance surface dose and absorbed dose, air kerma value and DAP were obtained and analyzed retrospectively. The SNR and CNR were measured and analyzed through imageJ, and the result values were derived by applying the values to the formula. As for the statistical analyses, the correlations between the entrance surface dose and absorbed dose, and between the SNR and CNR were analyzed by using the SPSS statistical program. The relationship between the entrance surface dose and absorbed dose was not statistically significant for both 10 f/s and 15 f/s (p>0.05). In terms of the relationship between the SNR and CNR, the SNR ($3.374{\pm}2.1297$) and CNR ($0.234{\pm}0.2249$) in 10 f/s were $1.43{\pm}0.4861$ and $0.132{\pm}0.0555$ lower, respectively, than the SNR ($4.929{\pm}2.8532$) and CNR ($0.391{\pm}0.3025$) in 15 f/s, which were not statistically significant (p>0.05). In the correlation analysis, statistically significant results were obtained among the BMI, air kerma, and DAP; between air kerma and DAP; and between SNR and CNR (p<0.001, p<0.001). In conclusion, there was no significant difference between the entrance surface dose and absorbed dose even when the images were taken by changing the frame from 10 f/s to 15 f/s at the time of the coronary angiography. SNR and CNR increased at 15 f/s than at 10 f/s, but they were not statistically significant. Therefore, this study suggests that the concern of the patient and practitioner regarding image quality degradation, as well as the problem of X-ray exposure caused by imaging at 10 f/s and 15 f/s, may be reduced.

Usefulness of Breast Lymphoscintigraphy after Whole Body Bone Scan (유방암 환자에서 전신 뼈 검사 후 감시림프절 위치 파악 검사의 유용성)

  • Jang, Dong-Gun;Bahn, Young-Kag;Chung, Seok;Park, Hoon-Hee;Kang, Chun-Goo;Lim, Han-Sang;Kim, Jae-Sam;Lee, Chang-Ho
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.133-137
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    • 2010
  • Purpose: Breast cancer is known to be more vulnerable to bone metastasis and lymph node metastasis than other types of cancer, and nuclear examinations whole body bone scan and lymphoscintigraphy are performed commonly before and after breast cancer operation. In case whole body bone scan is performed on the day before lymphoscintigraphy, the radiopharmaceutical taken into and remaining in the bones provides anatomical information for tracking and locating sentinel lymph nodes. Thus, this study purposed to examine how much bone density affects in locating sentinel lymph nodes. Materials and Methods: The subjects of this study were 22 patients (average age $52{\pm}7.2$) who had whole body bone scan and lymphoscintigraphy over two days in our hospital during the period from January to December, 2009. In the blind test, 22 patients (average age $57{\pm}6.5$) who had lymphoscintigraphy using $^{57}Co$ flood phantom were used as a control group. In quantitative analysis, the relative ratio of the background to sentinel lymph nodes was measured by drawing ROIs on sentinel lymph nodes and the background, and in gross examination, each of a nuclear physician and a radiological technologist with five years' or longer field experience examined images through blind test in a five-point scale. Results: In the results of quantitative analysis, the relative ratio of the background to sentinel lymph nodes was 14.2:1 maximum and 8.5:1 ($SD{\pm}3.48$) on the average on the front, and 14.7:1 maximum and 8.5:1 ($SD{\pm}3.42$) on the average on the side. In the results of gross examination, when $^{57}Co$ flood phantom images were compared with images containing bones, the score was relative high as 3.86 ($SD{\pm}0.35$) point for $^{57}Co$ flood phantom images and 4.09 ($SD{\pm}0.42$) for bone images. Conclusion: When whole body bone scan was performed on the day before lymphoscintigraphy, the ratio of the background to sentinel lymph nodes was over 10:1, so there was no problem in locating lymph nodes. In addition, we expect to reduce examination procedures and improve the quality of images by indicating the location of sentinel lymph nodes using bone images as body contour without the use of a source.

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