OBJECTIVE: Breast cancer represents themost frequently diagnosed cancer in women. In order to reduce mortality, early detection of breast cancer is important, because diagnosis is more likely to be successful in the early stages of the disease. On the average, the reader's sensitivity can be increased by 10%with the assistance of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system. This paper presents a CAD system for the automatic detection of clustered micro-calcifications in digitized mammograms. METHODS: The proposed system consists of three main steps. First, breast region is segmented from original mammogram using contrast property of grey level co-occurrence matrix(GLCM). Second, potential micro-calcification pixels in the mammograms are detected by foveal method. Third, in order to reduce false-positive rate, individual micro-calcifications are detected by a set of 8 features extracted from the potential individual micro-calcification objects. RESULTS: In the result, Specificity and sensitivity are used to evaluate the detection performance of micro-calcifications.(sensitivity : 93.1%, specificity : 87.5%). CONCLUSION: This study could be a useful method for diagnosis of breast cancer as a CAD system.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Mortality ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Objective: To determine the relationship between line bisection test (LBT) performance time and prognosis of hemispatial neglect (HSN) in stroke patients. Methods: Data on stroke patients with HSN were prospectively collected. After patient recruitment and eligibility screening, the LBT, Motor-Free Visual Perception Test 3rd edition, and Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination were performed at the time of admission and 4 weeks thereafter. The LBT performance time was also measured. All patients received conventional rehabilitation for 4 weeks. Based on the improvements in their LBT grades, the patients were divided into improved and non-improved groups. The evaluation results of the two groups were compared using Mann–Whitney U-tests and logistic regression was performed to predict the independence of each outcome. Results: In total, 26 stroke patients with HSN were included, with 13 patients in each group. Significant differences were observed in the baseline LBT performance times between the improved and non-improved groups (p<0.05). Logistic regression analysis revealed associations between HSN prognosis, and baseline LBT performance time (odds ratio=0.95; 95% confidence interval, 0.90–1.00; p<0.05) and baseline Motor-Free Visual Perception Test 3rd edition (odds ratio=1.20; 95% confidence interval, 1.01–1.43; p<0.05). Conclusion A significant relationship was observed between the baseline LBT performance time and HSN prognosis.

BACKGROUND: Hepcidin, a key regulator of iron homeostasis, is associated with iron metabolism imbalance in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, serum hepcidin level in anemic patients with CKD presents a contradictory picture. We investigated the relationship between serum hepcidin-25 level and iron parameters in patients with CKD. METHODS: We defined and categorized patients with CKD according to the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) guidelines. We analyzed the relationship between serum hepcidin-25 level and iron parameters [serum iron, total iron-binding capacity (TIBC), unbound iron-binding capacity (UIBC), transferrin saturation, and ferritin levels] according to the CKD stage and clinical and laboratory characteristics. RESULTS: Hb level, TIBC, and UIBC decreased and ferritin level increased (Ptrend<0.001) (stage 1-2, 28; stage 3, 40; stage 4, 36; stage 5, 42) as the CKD stage progressed. Serum hepcidin-25 level showed no significant trend with the progressing CKD stage [stage 1-2, 13.7 (3.7-25.0) ng/mL; stage 3, 14.0 (0.8-26.5) ng/mL; stage 4, 13.9 (2.0-32.1) ng/mL; stage 5, 13.8 (0.5-42.4) ng/mL; Ptrend=0.618]. No significant relationship was noted between serum hepcidin-25 level and kidney function parameters, Hb levels, or iron parameters (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Serum hepcidin-25 level was not found to be associated with iron parameters or clinical status of CKD patients in our study. Determination of hepcidin-25 levels may not provide more information than conventional iron parameters in monitoring iron metabolism in CKD patients. However, further studies are needed to establish the clinical utility of hepcidin measurement in CKD patients.
Anemia ; Ferritins ; Hepcidins* ; Homeostasis ; Humans ; Iron* ; Kidney ; Kidney Diseases ; Metabolism ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic* ; Transferrin