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Background: To evaluate the risk factor of pneumothorax (PNX) which is the most common complication of CT-guided needle aspiration of the lung, we have examined the frequency of PNX according to the presence of obstructive ventilatory impairment determined by pulmonary function tests. Methods: A comparative study of analysis of forecd expiratory volume and folw-volume curves, and determinations of diffusing capacity taken before procedure were made between each 16 cases with PNX and controls with no PNX. Each of the control group was matched for sex, age, height, and size and depth of lesion with the former. Results: 1) In comparison of vital capacity and parameters derived from forced expiratory volume curve between two groups, VC and FVC were not significantly different, whereas , /FVC%, and FEF25-75% showed a significant decrease in the PNX gorup. Also, in the PNX group, all the observed values of parameters analyzed from flow-volune curve were siginificantly reduced in the PNX group compared with those in the control group. 2) The diffusing capacity tended to decrease along with varying individual differences in the PNX group. 3) Patients who had obstructive ventilatory impairment according to the results of pulmonary function tests experienced a twofold increase in the frequency of PNX and a sixfold increase in the frequency of chest tube drainage for treatment of PNX compared with those whose results were normal. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the exact evaluation of obstructive lung disease determined by pulmonary function test be considered assessing a pastient's risk for PNX in the patients who will take the CT-guided needle aspiration of the lung.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyze the instruction evaluation questionnaires that have been used by the Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 2001, and to determine a means to improve them. Methods: This study used (1) a factor analytic technique to identify the instructional factors that determine the correlation between all pairs of the evaluation items. (2) A procedure known as Cronbach’s alpha, which allows the internal consistency of the instruction evaluation items to be estimated. (3) A correlation method to compare the instruction evaluation score results among the students, residents, peer faculties and the faculty itself. Results: The results were summarized as follows: First, the Instruction Evaluation Questionnaire included 12 items, 6 comprising a ‘teaching method connected with the lecturer’ factor and the other 6 a ‘teaching method connected with the teaching resource’ factor. Second, the Cronbach’s α index was found to be 0.91s. This indicates the high reliability of the items of the questionnaire for the instruction evaluation. Third, it was found that the correlation between the evaluators was very low (r=.345). In particular, the average score of the peer faculties was 3.33, which was lower when compared with the average score of other evaluators. Conclusion: There is no concordant opinion regarding the evaluation items that should be used in an instruction evaluation in a Medical College. However, the instruction evaluation items should consider various factors connected with the teaching and learning activity. There is a need to elaborate on the contents of the evaluation items in order that the instruction evaluation items be more reliable and have a greater validity.

The effect of gamma-irradiation on aqueous solutions of triglycine was studied by means of spectrophotometry of biuret complex, ultraviolet absorption technique, paper chromatography, low voltage electrophoresis of copper complex, and carbonyl compound determination. Initial G values for peptide bond rupture at various concentrations and carbonyl compound formation were determined.