Effect of 5-alpha Reductase Inhibitor on Storage Symptoms in Patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Purpose Many patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) have storage symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of treatment with a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (5ARI) on storage symptoms in patients with BPH. Methods This study was conducted in 738 patients with lower urinary tract symptoms secondary to BPH. Patients with a prostate volume of higher than 30 mL on the transrectal ultrasound were classified into two groups: group A, in which an alpha blocker was solely administered for at least 12 months, and group B, in which a combination treatment regimen of an alpha blocker plus 5ARI was used. This was followed by an analysis of the changes in parameters such as the total International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), voiding symptom subscore, and storage symptom subscore between the two groups. In addition, we examined whether there was a significant difference between the two groups in the degree of change in storage symptoms between before and after the pharmacological treatment. Results Of the 738 men, 331 had a prostate volume ≥30 mL, including 150 patients in group A and 181 patients in group B. Total IPSS, the voiding symptom subscore, and the storage symptom subscore were significantly lower after treatment than before treatment in both groups (P<0.05). A comparison of the degree of change between before and after treatment, however, showed no significant differences in the storage symptom subscore between the two groups (P>0.05). Conclusions Alpha blocker and 5ARI combination treatment is effective for patients with BPH including storage symptoms. However, 5ARI does not exert a significant effect on storage symptoms in BPH patients

Controlling the Magnetic Anisotropy of the van der Waals Ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2 through Hole Doping.

Identifying material parameters affecting properties of ferromagnets is key to optimized materials that are better suited for spintronics. Magnetic anisotropy is of particular importance in van der Waals magnets, since it not only influences magnetic and spin transport properties, but also is essential to stabilizing magnetic order in the two-dimensional limit. Here, we report that hole doping effectively modulates the magnetic anisotropy of a van der Waals ferromagnet and explore the physical origin of this effect. Fe3-xGeTe2 nanoflakes show a significant suppression of the magnetic anisotropy with hole doping. Electronic structure measurements and calculations reveal that the chemical potential shift associated with hole doping is responsible for the reduced magnetic anisotropy by decreasing the energy gain from the spin-orbit induced band splitting. Our findings provide an understanding of the intricate connection between electronic structures and magnetic properties in two-dimensional magnets and propose a method to engineer magnetic properties through doping

VR/AR head-mounted display system based measurement and evaluation of dynamic visual acuity

This study evaluated the dynamic visual acuity of candidates by implementing a King–Devick (K-D) test chart in a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR HMD) and an augmented reality head-mounted display (AR HMD). Hard-copy KD (HCKD), VR HMD KD (VHKD), and AR HMD KD (AHKD) tests were conducted in 30 male and female candidates in the age of 10S and 20S and subjective symptom surveys were conducted. In the subjective symptom surveys, all except one of the VHKD questionnaire items showed subjective symptoms of less than 1 point. In the comparison between HCKD and VHKD, HCKD was measured more rapidly than VHKD in all tests. In the comparison between HCKD and AHKD, HCKD was measured more rapidly than AHKD in Tests 1, 2, and 3. In the comparison between VHKD and AHKD, AHKD was measured more rapidly than VHKD in Tests 1, 2, and 3. In the correlation analyses of test platforms, all platforms were correlated with each other, except for the correlation between HCKD and VHKD in Tests 1 and 2. There was no significant difference in the frequency of errors among Tests 1, 2, and 3 across test platforms. VHKD and AHKD, which require the body to be moved to read the chart, required longer measurement time than HCKD. In the measurements of each platform, AHKD was measured closer to HCKD than VHKD, which may be because the AHKD environment is closer to the actual environment than the VHKD environment. The effectiveness of VHKD and AHKD proposed in this research was evaluated experimentally. The results suggest that treatment and training could be performed concurrently through the use of clinical test and content development of VHKD and AHKD

Identification of Gene Expression Signature Modulated by Nicotinamide in a Mouse Bladder Cancer Model

BACKGROUND: Urinary bladder cancer is often a result of exposure to chemical carcinogens such as cigarette smoking. Because of histological similarity, chemically-induced rodent cancer model was largely used for human bladder cancer studies. Previous investigations have suggested that nicotinamide, water-soluble vitamin B3, may play a key role in cancer prevention through its activities in cellular repair. However, to date, evidence towards identifying the genetic alterations of nicotinamide in cancer prevention has not been provided. Here, we search for the molecular signatures of cancer prevention by nicotinamide using a N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)-nitrosamine (BBN)-induced urinary bladder cancer model in mice. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Via microarray gene expression profiling of 20 mice and 233 human bladder samples, we performed various statistical analyses and immunohistochemical staining for validation. The expression patterns of 893 genes associated with nicotinamide activity in cancer prevention were identified by microarray data analysis. Gene network analyses of these 893 genes revealed that the Myc and its associated genes may be the most important regulator of bladder cancer prevention, and the gene expression signature correlated well with protein expression data. Comparison of gene expression between human and mouse revealed that BBN-induced mouse bladder cancers exhibited gene expression profiles that were more similar to those of invasive human bladder cancers than to those of non-invasive human bladder cancers. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study demonstrates that nicotinamide plays an important role as a chemo-preventive and therapeutic agent in bladder cancer through the regulation of the Myc oncogenic signature. Nicotinamide may represent a promising therapeutic modality in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer