The standard of YY/T 0481-2004 Medical diagnostic X-ray equipment-Radiation conditions for use in the determination and characteristics has been revised and replaced in 2012. This paper first introduces the key technical problems to be solved in establishing standard radiation quality and radiation conditions by comparing the main changes of the two versions standards, including the expression of radiation quality and radiation conditions, the measurement of X-ray tube voltage, and the measuring of the practical peak voltage. Then it introduces a procedure for establishing standard radiation quality and radiation conditions.
Radiation Dosage ; Radiography ; Reference Standards

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has updated the Clinical Practice Guidelines on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to provide doctors and patients in Singapore with evidence-based treatment for COPD. This article reproduces the introduction and executive summary (with recommendations from the guidelines) from the MOH Clinical Practice Guidelines on COPD, for the information of SMJ readers. Chapters and page numbers mentioned in the reproduced extract refer to the full text of the guidelines, which are available from the Ministry of Health website: https://www.moh.gov.sg/content/moh_web/healthprofessionalsportal/doctors/guidelines/cpg_medical.html. The recommendations should be used with reference to the full text of the guidelines. Following this article are multiple choice questions based on the full text of the guidelines.
Adult ; Aged ; Evidence-Based Medicine ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Palliative Care ; Prevalence ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Pulmonary Medicine ; standards ; Quality Improvement ; Radiography, Thoracic ; Risk Factors ; Singapore ; Steroids ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVES: To explore the characteristics of nasal bone fracture caused by blunt instrument, including the fracture types, the fracture repair, and the difference of manifestations between X-ray and CT. To provide reference for the identification. METHODS: The information of basic situation, fracture site, injury manner, diagnosis method, expert opinion of 95 adult nasal fracture cases caused by blunt object, which occurred in Gutian county of Fujian province from January 1999 to December 2013, were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The identification conclusions of different injuries were compared according to new and old standards as well. RESULTS: There were total 95 adults including 87 male and 8 female. The fracture site and quantity have significant correlation with the nasal bone anatomical relations and the direction and size of the force. Compound fracture was most common. The fracture that could not be determined by X-ray could be clearly diagnosed by CT examination. According to new and old standards, different fracture types have different identification conclusions. CONCLUSIONS There are gender differences in nasal bone fracture cases. Larger external force is easy to cause compound fracture. CT examination is significantly better than X-ray examination.
Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Nasal Bone/injuries* ; Radiography ; Reference Standards ; Sex Factors ; Skull Fractures/diagnostic imaging* ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

The development of cardiac CT has provided a non-invasive alternative to echocardiography, exercise electrocardiogram, and invasive angiography and cardiac CT continues to develop at an exponential speed even now. The appropriate use of cardiac CT may lead to improvements in the medical performances of physicians and can reduce medical costs which eventually contribute to better public health. However, until now, there has been no guideline regarding the appropriate use of cardiac CT in Korea. We intend to provide guidelines for the appropriate use of cardiac CT in heart diseases based on scientific data. The purpose of this guideline is to assist clinicians and other health professionals in the use of cardiac CT for diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases, especially in patients at high risk or suspected of heart disease.
Chest Pain/*diagnosis/radiography ; Exercise ; Heart/radiography ; Heart Diseases/diagnosis/*radiography ; Humans ; Republic of Korea ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/instrumentation/*methods/*standards

Peripheral arterial occlusive disease caused by atherosclerosis can present with intermittent claudication or critical limb ischemia. Proper diagnosis and management is warranted to improve symptoms and salvage limbs. With the introduction of new techniques and dedicated materials, endovascular recanalization is widely performed for the treatment of peripheral arterial occlusive disease because it is less invasive than surgery. However, there are various opinions regarding the appropriate indications and procedure methods for interventional recanalization according to operator and institution in Korea. Therefore, we intend to provide evidence based guidelines for interventional recanalization by multidisciplinary consensus. These guidelines are the result of a close collaboration between physicians from many different areas of expertise including interventional radiology, interventional cardiology, and vascular surgery. The goal of these guidelines is to ensure better treatment, to serve as a guide to the clinician, and consequently, to contribute to public health care.
Arterial Occlusive Diseases/radiography/*therapy ; Arteries/pathology ; Endovascular Procedures/*standards ; Humans ; Intermittent Claudication/radiography/therapy ; Limb Salvage/methods ; Lower Extremity/*blood supply ; Peripheral Arterial Disease/radiography/*therapy ; *Practice Guidelines as Topic ; Republic of Korea

Whole body integrated magnetic resonance imaging (MR)/positron emission tomography (PET) imaging systems have recently become available for clinical use and are currently being used to explore whether the combined anatomic and functional capabilities of MR imaging and the metabolic information of PET provide new insight into disease phenotypes and biology, and provide a better assessment of oncologic diseases at a lower radiation dose than a CT. This review provides an overview of the technical background of combined MR/PET systems, a discussion of the potential advantages and technical challenges of hybrid MR/PET instrumentation, as well as collection of possible solutions. Various early clinical applications of integrated MR/PET are also addressed. Finally, the workflow issues of integrated MR/PET, including maximizing diagnostic information while minimizing acquisition time are discussed.
Coordination Complexes/chemistry/diagnostic use ; Heart/radiography ; Humans ; *Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Staging ; Neoplasms/pathology/radiography ; *Positron-Emission Tomography ; Radiopharmaceuticals/diagnostic use ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Whole Body Imaging/*standards/*trends

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the interobserver and intermodality agreement in the interpretation of time-of-flight (TOF) MR angiography (MRA) for the follow-up of coiled intracranial aneurysms with the Enterprise stent. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two experienced neurointerventionists independently reviewed the follow-up MRA studies of 40 consecutive patients with 44 coiled aneurysms. All aneurysms were treated with assistance from the Enterprise stent and the radiologic follow-up intervals were greater than 6 months after the endovascular therapy. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) served as the reference standard. The degree of aneurysm occlusion was determined by an evaluation of the maximal intensity projection (MIP) and source images (SI) of the TOF MRA. The capability of the TOF MRA to depict the residual flow within the coiled aneurysms and the stented parent arteries was compared with that of the DSA. RESULTS: DSA showed stable occlusions in 25 aneurysms, minor recanalization in 8, and major recanalization in 11. Comparisons between the TOF MRA and conventional angiography showed that the MIP plus SI had almost perfect agreement (kappa = 0.892, range 0.767 to 1.000) and had better agreement than with the MIP images only (kappa = 0.598, range 0.370 to 0.826). In-stent stenosis of more than 33% was observed in 5 cases. Both MIP and SI of the MRA showed poor depiction of in-stent stenosis compared with the DSA. CONCLUSION: TOF MRA seemed to be reliable in screening for aneurysm recurrence after coil embolization with Enterprise stent assistance, especially in the evaluation of the SI, in addition to MIP images in the TOF MRA.
Angiography, Digital Subtraction/methods ; Cerebral Angiography/methods ; Embolization, Therapeutic/instrumentation/*methods ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Intracranial Aneurysm/diagnosis/radiography/*therapy ; Magnetic Resonance Angiography/*methods ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Observer Variation ; Recurrence ; Reference Standards ; *Stents

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the retrieval rate and accuracy of ultrasound (US)-guided 14-G semi-automated core needle biopsy (CNB) for microcalcifications in the breast. MATERIALS AND METHODS: US-guided 14-G semi-automated CNB procedures and specimen radiography were performed for 33 cases of suspicious microcalcifications apparent on sonography. The accuracy of 14-G semi-automated CNB and radiology-pathology concordance were analyzed and the microcalcification characteristics between groups with successful and failed retrieval were compared. RESULTS: Thirty lesions were successfully retrieved and the microcalcification retrieval rate was 90.9% (30/33). Thirty lesions were successfully retrieved. Twenty five were finally diagnosed as malignant (10 invasive ductal carcinoma, 15 ductal carcinoma in situ [DCIS]) and five as benign. After surgery and mammographic follow-up, the 25 malignant lesions comprised 12 invasive ductal carcinoma and 13 DCIS. Three lesions in the failed retrieval group (one DCIS and two benign) were finally diagnosed as two DCIS and one benign after surgery. The accuracy of 14-G semi-automated CNB was 90.9% (30/33) because of two DCIS underestimates and one false-negative diagnosis. The discordance rate was significantly higher in the failed retrieval group than in the successful retrieval group (66.7% vs. 6.7%; p < 0.05). Punctate calcifications were significantly more common in the failed retrieval group than in the successful retrieval group (66.7% vs. 3.7%; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: US-guided 14-G semi-automated CNB could be a useful procedure for suspicious microcalcifications in the breast those are apparent on sonography.
Adult ; Aged ; Biopsy, Large-Core Needle/*methods/standards ; Breast/*pathology ; Breast Diseases/pathology/radiography ; Breast Neoplasms/*pathology/surgery/ultrasonography ; Calcinosis/*pathology/ultrasonography ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/*pathology/ultrasonography ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating/*pathology/radiography ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; *Ultrasonography, Interventional/standards ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of a mammography boot camp (MBC) to improve radiologists' performance in interpreting mammograms in the National Cancer Screening Program (NCSP) in Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January and July of 2013, 141 radiologists were invited to a 3-day educational program composed of lectures and group practice readings using 250 digital mammography cases. The radiologists' performance in interpreting mammograms were evaluated using a pre- and post-camp test set of 25 cases validated prior to the camp by experienced breast radiologists. Factors affecting the radiologists' performance, including age, type of attending institution, and type of test set cases, were analyzed. RESULTS: The average scores of the pre- and post-camp tests were 56.0 +/- 12.2 and 78.3 +/- 9.2, respectively (p < 0.001). The post-camp test scores were higher than the pre-camp test scores for all age groups and all types of attending institutions (p < 0.001). The rate of incorrect answers in the post-camp test decreased compared to the pre-camp test for all suspicious cases, but not for negative cases (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The MBC improves radiologists' performance in interpreting mammograms irrespective of age and type of attending institution. Improved interpretation is observed for suspicious cases, but not for negative cases.
Adult ; Aged ; Breast Neoplasms/*radiography ; Education, Medical, Continuing/*standards ; Education, Professional, Retraining ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; *Mammography ; Middle Aged

Perfusion is a fundamental biological function that refers to the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to tissue by means of blood flow. Perfusion MRI is sensitive to microvasculature and has been applied in a wide variety of clinical applications, including the classification of tumors, identification of stroke regions, and characterization of other diseases. Perfusion MRI techniques are classified with or without using an exogenous contrast agent. Bolus methods, with injections of a contrast agent, provide better sensitivity with higher spatial resolution, and are therefore more widely used in clinical applications. However, arterial spin-labeling methods provide a unique opportunity to measure cerebral blood flow without requiring an exogenous contrast agent and have better accuracy for quantification. Importantly, MRI-based perfusion measurements are minimally invasive overall, and do not use any radiation and radioisotopes. In this review, we describe the principles and techniques of perfusion MRI. This review summarizes comprehensive updated knowledge on the physical principles and techniques of perfusion MRI.
Arteries/chemistry ; Brain Neoplasms/radiography ; Contrast Media/diagnostic use ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/standards/*trends ; Spin Labels ; Stroke/radiography