Comparative analysis of physicochemical characteristics of ABU and Zaria Dam

The physical and chemical parameters of ABU Dam and Zaria Dam were carried out between September and October 2009. The results obtained in the two water bodies were temperature 27.7 0C, pH (7.5 and 7.3), dissolved oxygen (5.8 mg/l and 5.0 mg/l), biochemical oxygen demand (1.74 mg/l and 2. 16 mg/l), alkalinity (58 mg CaC03/l and 49 mgCaCO3/l) P04-P (2.47 mg/l and 1.59 mg/l) NO3-N (3.67 mg/l and 3.47 mg/l), conductivity (54.70 ~ks-1 and 42.48 ~ks-1), total hydrocarbon (TH) (47.66 mg/l) and 48.00 mg/l) and total dissolved solids (32.68 mg/l and 25.35 mg/l) respectively. There was no significant difference in the mean values of the parameters (P>0.05) except conductivity and total dissolved solids. The water bodies were found to be neutral with high conductivity. All the properties in the water bodies were in conformity with international standards both for drinking and aquatic life

Initial assessment of safety and clinical feasibility of irreversible electroporation in the focal treatment of prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the safety and clinical feasibility of focal irreversible electroporation (IRE) of the prostate. METHODS: We assessed the toxicity profile and functional outcomes of consecutive patients undergoing focal IRE for localised prostate cancer in two centres. Eligibility was assessed by multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) and targeted and/or template biopsy. IRE was delivered under transrectal ultrasound guidance with two to six electrodes positioned transperineally within the cancer lesion. Complications were recorded and scored accordingly to the NCI Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events; the functional outcome was physician reported in all patients with at least 6 months follow-up. A contrast-enhanced MRI 1 week after the procedure was carried out to assess treatment effect with a further mpMRI at 6 months to rule out evidence of residual visible cancer. RESULTS: Overall, 34 patients with a mean age of 65 years (s.d.=±6) and a median PSA of 6.1 ng ml(-1) (interquartile range (IQR)= 4.3-7.7) were included. Nine (26%), 24 (71%) and 1 (3%) men had low, intermediate and high risk disease, respectively (D'Amico criteria). After a median follow-up of 6 months (range 1-24), 12 grade 1 and 10 grade 2 complications occurred. No patient had grade >/= 3 complication. From a functional point of view, 100% (24/24) patients were continent and potency was preserved in 95% (19/20) men potent before treatment. The volume of ablation was a median 12 ml (IQR=5.6-14.5 ml) with the median PSA after 6 months of 3.4 ng ml(-1) (IQR=1.9-4.8 ng ml(-1)). MpMRI showed suspicious residual disease in six patients, of whom four (17%) underwent another form of local treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Focal IRE has a low toxicity profile with encouraging genito-urinary functional outcomes. Further prospective development studies are needed to confirm the functional outcomes and to explore the oncological potential

A prospective development study investigating focal irreversible electroporation in men with localised prostate cancer: Nanoknife Electroporation Ablation Trial (NEAT).

INTRODUCTION: Focal therapy may reduce the toxicity of current radical treatments while maintaining the oncological benefit. Irreversible electroporation (IRE) has been proposed to be tissue selective and so might have favourable characteristics compared to the currently used prostate ablative technologies. The aim of this trial is to determine the adverse events, genito-urinary side effects and early histological outcomes of focal IRE in men with localised prostate cancer. METHODS: This is a single centre prospective development (stage 2a) study following the IDEAL recommendations for evaluating new surgical procedures. Twenty men who have MRI-visible disease localised in the anterior part of the prostate will be recruited. The sample size permits a precision estimate around key functional outcomes. Inclusion criteria include PSA ≤ 15 ng/ml, Gleason score ≤ 4 + 3, stage T2N0M0 and absence of clinically significant disease outside the treatment area. Treatment delivery will be changed in an adaptive iterative manner so as to allow optimisation of the IRE protocol. After focal IRE, men will be followed during 12 months using validated patient reported outcome measures (IPSS, IIEF-15, UCLA-EPIC, EQ-5D, FACT-P, MAX-PC). Early disease control will be evaluated by mpMRI and targeted transperineal biopsy of the treated area at 6 months. DISCUSSION: The NEAT trial will assess the early functional and disease control outcome of focal IRE using an adaptive design. Our protocol can provide guidance for designing an adaptive trial to assess new surgical technologies in the challenging landscape of health technology assessment in prostate cancer treatment

Technical Note: Error metrics for estimating the accuracy of needle/instrument placement during transperineal MR/US-guided prostate interventions

Purpose: Image-guided systems that fuse magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound (US) images for performing targeted prostate needle biopsy and minimally-invasive treatments for prostate cancer are of increasing clinical interest. To date, a wide range of different accuracy estimation procedures and error metrics have been reported, which makes comparing the performance of different systems difficult. Methods: A set of 9 measures are presented to assess the accuracy of MRI-US image registration, needle positioning, needle guidance, and overall system error, with the aim of providing a methodology for estimating the accuracy of instrument placement using a MR/US-guided transperineal approach. Results: Using the SmartTarget fusion system, an MRI-US image alignment error was determined to be 2.0±1.0 mm (mean ± SD), and an overall system instrument targeting error of 3.0±1.2 mm. Three needle deployments for each target phantom lesion was found to result in a 100% lesion hit rate and a median predicted cancer core length of 5.2 mm. Conclusions: The application of a comprehensive, unbiased validation assessment for MR/TRUS guided systems can provide useful information on system performance for quality assurance and system comparison. Furthermore, such an analysis can be helpful in identifying relationships between these errors, providing insight into the technical behaviour of these systems

The SmartTarget BIOPSY trial: A prospective, within-person randomised, blinded trial comparing the accuracy of visual-registration and MRI/ultrasound image-fusion targeted biopsies for prostate cancer risk stratification

Background: Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI)-targeted prostate biopsies can improve detection of clinically significant prostate cancer and decrease the overdetection of insignificant cancers. Whether visual-registration targeting is sufficient or if augmentation with image-fusion software is needed is unknown. Objective: To assess concordance between the two methods. Design, Setting, and Participants: We conducted a blinded, within-person randomised, paired validating clinical trial. From 2014 to 2016, 141 men who had undergone a prior (positive or negative) transrectal ultrasound biopsy and had a discrete lesion on mpMRI (score 3 to 5) requiring targeted transperineal biopsy were enrolled at a UK academic hospital; 129 underwent both biopsy strategies and completed the study. Intervention: The order of performing biopsies using visual-registration and a computer-assisted MRI/ultrasound image-fusion system (SmartTarget) on each patient was randomised. The equipment was reset between biopsy strategies to mitigate incorporation bias. Outcome Measurements and Statistical Analysis: The proportion of clinically significant prostate cancer (primary outcome: Gleason pattern ≥3+4=7, maximum cancer core length ≥4 mm; secondary outcome: Gleason pattern ≥4+3=7, maximum cancer core length ≥6 mm) detected by each method was compared using McNemar's test of paired proportions. Results and Limitations: The two strategies combined detected 93 clinically significant prostate cancers (72% of the cohort). Each strategy individually detected 80/93 (86%) of these cancers; each strategy detected 13 cases missed by the other. Three patients experienced adverse events related to biopsy (urinary retention, urinary tract infection, nausea and vomiting). No difference in urinary symptoms, erectile function, or quality of life between baseline and follow-up (median 10.5 weeks) was observed. The key limitation was lack of parallel-group randomisation and limit on number of targeted cores. Conclusions: Visual-registration and image-fusion targeting strategies combined had the highest detection rate for clinically significant cancers. Targeted prostate biopsy should be performed using both strategies together. Patient Summary: We compared two prostate cancer biopsy strategies: visual-registration and image-fusion. The combination of the two strategies found the most clinically important cancers and should be used together whenever targeted biopsy is being performed

ESUR/ESUI consensus statements on multi-parametric MRI for the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer: quality requirements for image acquisition, interpretation and radiologists’ training

Objectives: This study aims to define consensus-based criteria for acquiring and reporting prostate MRI and establishing prerequisites for image quality. Methods: A total of 44 leading urologists and urogenital radiologists who are experts in prostate cancer imaging from the European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) and EAU Section of Urologic Imaging (ESUI) participated in a Delphi consensus process. Panellists completed two rounds of questionnaires with 55 items under three headings: image quality assessment, interpretation and reporting, and radiologists’ experience plus training centres. Of 55 questions, 31 were rated for agreement on a 9-point scale, and 24 were multiple-choice or open. For agreement items, there was consensus agreement with an agreement ≥ 70% (score 7–9) and disa

Mapping the Impacts of Anthropogenic Activities on Vegetation in the Area Councils of FCT using Remote Sensing

Globally, amongst all the factors threatening the existence of landcover in the biosphere, agriculture and urbanization plays the most potent role aside from the natural factor of climate. The study examines the effect of human factors on vegetal cover and identifies the drivers of the changes within the area councils of the FCT over a period of three decades. The need to conserve limited natural resources is threaten by the effect of increased population and their continuous anthropogenic activities on this limited resource, thus the vegetation cover which represents an important natural resource for both humans and other species is lost due to reckless and unsustainable usage. Using geospatial techniques, the magnitude of human activities of development is assessed as it affects vegetation cover. The results of the analysis show a tremendous impact of anthropogenic activities as the landcover continue to deplete from 1987 – 2016. Human impacts were identified as the major driver of vegetal cover change in all area councils as it increases from 11510.89km2 to 85563.01km2 in AMAC, 765.55km2 to 82820.74km2 in Gwagwalada, 1621.73km2 to 54267km2 in Kwali, 1259.49km2 to 4985.56km2 in Abaji, 6621.80km2 to 34295.20km2 in Kuje and 15678.82km2 to 24925.94km2 in Bwari.The study recommends that continuous inventory of human impacts should be carried out to check mate the unsustainable management practices of human induced activities in the study area. It concludes that anthropogenic activities are on the rise thus measures should be taken to mitigate its effects to ensure better environmental sustainability

Predicting the Need for Biopsy to Detect Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer in Patients with a Magnetic Resonance Imaging–detected Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System/Likert ≥3 Lesion: Development and Multinational External Validation of the Imperial Rapid Access to Prostate Imaging and Diagnosis Risk Score

Background: Although multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has highsensitivity, its lower specificity leads to a high prevalence of false-positive lesions requir-ing biopsy.Objective: To develop and externally validate a scoring system for MRI-detected ProstateImaging Reporting and Data System (PIRADS)/Likert 3 lesions containing clinically sig-nificant prostate cancer (csPCa).Design, setting, and participants: The multicentre Rapid Access to Prostate Imaging andDiagnosis (RAPID) pathway included 1189 patients referred to urology due to elevatedage-specific prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and/or abnormal digital rectal examination (DRE); April 27, 2017 to October 25, 2019.</p