Study on the incidence of testicular and epididymal appendages in patients with cryptorchidism

OBJECTIVE: To study the incidence of testicular and epididymal appendages in patients with cryptorchidism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied 65 patients with cryptorchidism, totalizing 83 testes and 40 patients who had prostate adenocarcinoma and hydrocele (control group), totalizing 55 testes. The following situations were analyzed: I) absence of testicular and epididymal appendages, II) presence of testicular appendage only, III) presence of epididymal appendage, IV) presence of testicular and epididymal appendage, V) presence of 2 epididymal appendages and 1 testicular appendage and VI) presence of paradidymis or vas aberrans of Haller. RESULTS: In patients with cryptorchidism we found testicular appendages in 23 cases (41.8%), epididymal appendages in 9 (16.3%), testicular and epididymal appendage in 8 (14.5%), 2 epididymal appendages and 1 testicular in 1 (1.8%) and absence of appendages in 14 (25.4%). In the control group, we found testicular appendages in 29 (34.9%), epididymal appendages in 19 (22.8%), testicular and epididymal appendage in 7 (8.4%), and absence of appendages in 28 (33.7%), we did not find 2 epididymal appendages in this group, and none of the patients in the 2 groups presented paradidymis or vas aberrans of Haller. CONCLUSION: The occurrence of testicular and epididymal appendages is quite variable. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence and distribution of the testicular and epididymal appendages between patients with cryptorchidism and those from the control group

Significant decrease of extracellular matrix in prostatic urethra of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia

Background: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) nodules increase urethral resistance, resulting in "pressure" of tissue expansion to the urethra and leads to an increase in outflow resistance, accompanied by characteristic lengthening of the prostatic urethra. The goal of this investigation was to analyze and quantify changes of the histological components in the prostatic urethra of patients with BPH and compare with a control group. Methods: Prostatic urethra tissue samples were obtained from ten patients (age range 63 to 79 years, mean 66) with clinical symptoms of bladder outlet obstruction who had undergone open prostatectomy. The ten control group samples (urethral tissue samples from the transitional zone) were collected from prostates obtained during autopsy of accidental death adults of less than 25 years. The Volumetric density (Vv) of the histological components was determined with stereological methods from 25 random fields per sample using the point-count method with a M-42 grid test system. The quantitative data were analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: The Vv (mean ± SD) in the control and BPH groups respectively were: 20.3±0.3 and 17.12±1.1 in the elastic fiber system (p<0.007); and 29.7±1.9 and 25.1±2.4 in the collagen compartment (p<0.03). Smooth muscle cell volume was increased in BPH cases, 49.9±0.4 and 52.3±2.3 (not statistically significant). Conclusion: BPH nodules caused a significant decrease of elastic system fibers and collagen in prostatic urethra