Penetrating Ureteral Trauma.

The purpose of this series is to report our experience in managing ureteral trauma, focusing on the importance of early diagnosis, correct treatment, and the impact of associated injuries on the management and morbid-mortality. From January 1994 to December 2002, 1487 laparotomies for abdominal trauma were performed and 20 patients with ureteral lesions were identified, all of them secondary to penetrating injury. Medical charts were analyzed as well as information about trauma mechanisms, diagnostic routine, treatment and outcome. All patients were men. Mean age was 27 years. The mechanisms of injury were gunshot wounds in 18 cases (90%) and stab wounds in two (10%). All penetrating abdominal injuries had primary indication of laparotomy, and neither excretory urography nor computed tomography were used in any case before surgery. The diagnosis of ureteric injury was made intra-operatively in 17 cases (85%). Two ureteral injuries (10%) were initially missed. All patients had associated injuries. The treatment was dictated by the location, extension and time necessary to identify the injury. The overall incidence of complications was 55%. The presence of shock on admission, delayed diagnosis, Abdominal Trauma Index > 25, Injury Severity Score > 25 and colon injuries were associated to a high complication rate, however, there was no statistically significant difference. There were no mortalities in this group. A high index of suspicion is required for diagnosis of ureteral injuries. A thorough exploration of all retroperitoneal hematoma after penetrating trauma should be an accurate method of diagnosis; even though it failed in 10% of our cases.33142-8, discussion 149-5

Intraprostatic Injection of Alcohol Gel for the Treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: Preliminary Clinical Results

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is one of the most common diseases ailing older men. Office-based procedures offer the advantage of being more effective than medications, while limiting the adverse effects, cost, and recovery of surgery. This study presents preliminary data on a new procedure that utilizes intraprostatic alcohol gel injection to ablate prostatic tissue. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of using this gel as a treatment for BPH

Two-loop RGEs with Dirac gaugino masses

The set of renormalisation group equations to two loop order for general supersymmetric theories broken by soft and supersoft operators is completed. As an example, the explicit expressions for the RGEs in a Dirac gaugino extension of the (N)MSSM are presented.Comment: 10 pages + 24 pages of RGEs in appendix; no figure

Pre-Micro RNA Signatures Delineate Stages of Endothelial Cell Transformation in Kaposi Sarcoma

MicroRNAs (miRNA) have emerged as key regulators of cell lineage differentiation and cancer. We used precursor miRNA profiling by a novel real-time QPCR method (i) to define progressive stages of endothelial cell transformation cumulating in Kaposi sarcoma (KS) and (ii) to identify specific miRNAs that serve as biomarkers for tumor progression. We were able to compare primary patient biopsies to well-established culture and mouse tumor models. Loss of mir-221 and gain of mir-15 expression demarked the transition from merely immortalized to fully tumorigenic endothelial cells. Mir-140 and Kaposi sarcoma–associated herpesvirus viral miRNAs increased linearly with the degree of transformation. Mir-24 emerged as a biomarker specific for KS