10 research outputs found
Efficacy of tolterodine in preventing urge incontinence immediately after prostatectomy
Purpose: Urgency and urge incontinence are frequently observed after
prostatectomy. Although symptoms ameliorate within a relatively short
time, they usually cause significant stress and anxiety to the patient
as far as their duration is concerned. Aim of our study was to determine
the efficacy of tolterodine in preventing urgency and urge incontinence
after catheter removal in patients that underwent prostatectomy for
benign prostate hyperplasia. Patients and methods: Twenty-seven patients
with moderate/severe lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign
prostatic enlargement, scheduled for prostatectomy, were randomised into
two groups, Group A (14 pts) received tolterodine 2 mg b.i.d starting
the day of surgery, while group B patients received no such treatment.
Tolterodine treatment was discontinued 15 days after catheter removal.
All patients completed the International Prostatic Symptom Score (IPSS)
and the International Continence Society (ICS-BPH) forms the day before
surgery, and three times more, one, fifteen and thirty days after
catheter removal. Results: Pre-operative total IPSS and frequency of
urgency/urge incontinence as determined by questions 3 and 4 of the
ICS-BPH questionnaire were equally distributed between groups,
Tolterodine was well tolerated and no adverse effects were reported.
Post-operative IPSS and QoL scores did not differ between groups.
However, the frequency of urge incontinence both the first day and
fifteen days after catheter removal was significantly lower in the
tolterodine group (16.6% vs. 69.2%, p=0.004 and 8.3% vs. 38.4%,
p=0.039, respectively). Conclusion: Tolterodine was well tolerated in
all patients and had a beneficial effect regarding the postoperative
urge incontinence. Trials of a larger scale could determine which
patients would benefit more, especially according to the presence of
storage lower urinary tract symptoms prior to surgery
Serum adiponectin concentrations and tissue expression of adiponectin receptors are reduced in patients with prostate cancer: A case control study
Purpose: Adiponectin, an adipocyte-secreted hormone with
insulin-sensitizing effects, has been inversely associated with several
hormonally dependent malignancies, including breast, endometrial, and
colorectal cancer. Few studies have examined serum adiponectin in
relation to prostate cancer, and expression of adiponectin receptors has
previously not been assessed in prostate tumors.
Experimental Design: We collected plasma samples and covariate data in
the context of a case-control study of 300 Greek men, including 75
prostate cancer cases, 75 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia
(BPH), and 150 healthy controls. Prostate tissue samples were taken from
72 cases and 27 noncases and examined for relative expression of
adiponectin receptors AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 using immunohistochemistry.
Results: Prostate cancer patients had significantly lower plasma
adiponectin concentrations as compared with men with BPH and healthy
controls (7.4 +/- 5.0 versus 11.5 +/- 6.4 and 12.8 +/- 8.0 ng/mL,
respectively). Men in the top two quartiles of adiponectin had a 71% to
73% reduced risk of prostate cancer as compared with men in the lowest
quartile after adjusting for age, body mass index, and additional
potential confounders. We found no similar relationship between
adiponectin and risk of BPH. Results from immunohistochemistry
experiments show weaker expression of adiponectin receptors AdipoR1 and
AdipoR2 in cancerous versus healthy prostate tissue.
Conclusions: Higher serum adiponectin is associated with a marked
reduction in risk of prostate cancer, but not BPH, independently of
other risk factors. Malignant prostate tissue samples have reduced
expression of adiponectin receptors as compared with benign prostate
tissue. These results support a role for adiponectin in the pathogenesis
of prostate cancer
Combination of LHRH analog with somatostatin analog and dexamethasone versus chemotherapy in hormone-refractory prostate cancer: a randomized phase II study
Objectives. To evaluate prospectively the combination of a luteinizing
hormone-releasing hormone analog with a somatostatin analog and
dexamethasone in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC)
in a randomized Phase II study. HRPC presents a challenging therapeutic
problem. Salvage chemotherapy is the usual approach at this stage of the
disease. The combination of a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone
analog with a somatostatin analog and dexamethasone has produced
objective clinical responses in HRPC.
Methods. Forty patients with HRPC were randomized to receive one of two
treatments. Group 1 underwent chemotherapy (estramustine 140 mg three
times daily and etoposide 100 mg orally for 21 days) and group 2 the
combination of a somatostatin analog (lanreotide 30 mg intramuscularly
every 14 days) and dexamethasone (4 mg tapered to 1 mg), in addition to
androgen ablation by orchiectomy or a luteinizing hormone-releasing
hormone analog (triptorelin 3.75 mg intramuscularly every 28 days). The
clinical and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response, overall survival,
time to progression, and toxicity were compared between the two groups.
Results. The data of 20 patients in group 1 and 18 in group 2 were
analyzed. The demographic and clinical data were similar in the two
groups at study entry. A PSA response (decrease of greater than 50%)
was observed in 45% of group 1 and 44% of group 2. The difference was
not statistically significant. A partial clinical response was observed
in 29% and 30% of groups 1 and 2, respectively. Again, the difference
was not statistically significant. Changes in performance status and
pain score during treatment were not significantly different in the two
groups. Hematologic toxicity was more frequent in group 1 (80% of
patients), and mild diabetes was more frequent in group 2 (22% of
patients). The overall survival was 18.8 months in group 1 and 18 months
in group 2 (not statistically significant). The time to progression was
6 versus 4 months and, in the PSA responder subgroup, it was 8 versus
7.7 months in groups 1 and 2, respectively (neither difference was
statistically significant).
Conclusions. The results of our randomized Phase II study indicated that
the new combination treatment (luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone
analog, somatostatin analog, and dexamethasone) may be equally effective
as salvage chemotherapy in patients with HRPC in terms of the clinical
and PSA response, overall survival, and time to progression. A larger
prospective Phase III trial is required to confirm our observations. (C)
2004 Elsevier Inc
Characterization of the human urine proteome by preparative electrophoresis in combination with 2-DE
The protein components of urine are useful indicators of renal function
and human health in general. Urine samples are easily attainable making
them ideal substrates for biomarker research. Analysis of the urine
proteome however, has been hindered by the great variability of the
urine specimens, and the presence of various proteins in low abundance
or modified forms. To alleviate some of these problems urine samples
from five different individuals were pooled, concentrated and the
proteome. characterized by a combination of preparative electrophoresis
and 2-DE, followed by PMF. A total of 778 protein spots corresponding to
141 different gene products were identified. In comparison, 171 spots
corresponding to 44 unique proteins were identified in the
unfractionated starting material. Among the proteins identified from the
preparative electrophoresis were many of low abundance such as proteins
involved in signal transduction. Furthermore, the median molecular mass
of the identified proteins from the preparative electrophoresis was
significantly lower in comparison to the proteins identified from the
unfractionated starting material (39886 Da versus 71317 Da,
respectively). Concluding, application of this methodology provides a
coherent analysis of the urine proteome and contributes to the
generation of the urine protein map in health and disease
Factors Affecting the Nuclei in Newborn and Children
It is known that children are more sensitive to the effects of medical treatments and environment than adults. Today there is limited information regarding the differences in genotoxic effects in children. The micronucleus assay is a method that is used to monitor genotoxicity, and it was validated several years before. Today there is international interest for exfoliated buccal cells. Most of the micronuclei studies in children have been performed with the analyses of lymphocytes. However, there is vast interest in using exfoliated cells from the oral cavity. The reason is that other type of cells are acquired non-invasively, this is an important issue in paediatric cohorts. Unfortunately a limitation of measuring micronuclei frequency is that it has been observed to be low in newborns and on the other hand there are a large number of patients and cell sample counts. It has been observed that radiation exposure and environmental pollutants increase the micronuclei frequency in newborn and children. Regarding the medical treatments, there is little data and several studies are needed to optimise the doses. There is the need to observe if there is a relationship between micronuclei in lymphocytes and exfoliated cells and to identify the baseline of the micronuclei levels. Moreover, we evaluate the changes in response to the toxic agents. Prospective cohorts studies will clarify the predictive value of micronuclei for cancer and chronic diseases for both children and adults. Novel molecular technologies will assist in the elucidation of different biological pathways and molecular mechanisms connected with the micronulcei levels in newborn and children
Insulin resistance and risk of renal cell cancer: a case-control study
AbSTrAcT ObjEcTIvE: Obesity and diabetes are considered risk factors for renal cell carcinoma (rcc). We aimed to explore whether insulin resistance (Ir) plays an independent role in the development of rcc. DESIGN: In a hospital-based case-control study, we analyzed serum glucose, insulin, leptin and adiponectin levels among 60 incident rcc patients and 236 age-and gendermatched healthy controls. We assessed insulin resistance according to insulin levels, alone or controlled for diabetes mellitus (DM). An alternative measure of insulin resistance, such as the Homeostasis Model Assessment for Insulin resistance (HOMA-Ir) index, was also assessed with and without controlling for history of DM. We used logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (Ors) adjusted for possible confounders. rESulTS: The positive association of DM and waist to hip ratio as a measure of obesity with rcc was evident in the data set. Insulin levels controlled or not controlled for DM, however, were inversely associated with the risk for rcc; notably, an approximately 40% higher risk was observed in the 1 st tertile when compared with the 2 nd and 3 rd tertile levels of insulin resistance. Similar results were obtained when HOMAIr was alternatively used. The inverse associations persisted and were even strengthened after controlling for potential confounding factors in multivariate analyses. cONcluSIONS: Our HORMONES 2012, 11(3):308-31
ARCOCT: Automatic detection of lumen border in intravascular OCT images
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an invaluable tool for the detection of pathological features on the arterial wall and the investigation of post-stenting complications. Computational lumen border detection in OCT images is highly advantageous, since it may support rapid morphometric analysis. However, automatic detection is very challenging, since OCT images typically include various artifacts that impact image clarity, including features such as side branches and intraluminal blood presence. This paper presents ARCOCT, a segmentation method for fully-automatic detection of lumen border in OCT images. METHODS: ARCOCT relies on multiple, consecutive processing steps, accounting for image preparation, contour extraction and refinement. In particular, for contour extraction ARCOCT employs the transformation of OCT images based on physical characteristics such as reflectivity and absorption of the tissue and, for contour refinement, local regression using weighted linear least squares and a 2nd degree polynomial model is employed to achieve artifact and small-branch correction as well as smoothness of the artery mesh. Our major focus was to achieve accurate contour delineation in the various types of OCT images, i.e., even in challenging cases with branches and artifacts. RESULTS: ARCOCT has been assessed in a dataset of 1812 images (308 from stented and 1504 from native segments) obtained from 20 patients. ARCOCT was compared against ground-truth manual segmentation performed by experts on the basis of various geometric features (e.g. area, perimeter, radius, diameter, centroid, etc.) and closed contour matching indicators (the Dice index, the Hausdorff distance and the undirected average distance), using standard statistical analysis methods. The proposed method was proven very efficient and close to the ground-truth, exhibiting non statistically-significant differences for most of the examined metrics. CONCLUSIONS: ARCOCT allows accurate and fully-automated lumen border detection in OCT images