Prevalence of Peyronie's Disease-Like Symptoms in Men Presenting With Dupuytren Contractures.

IntroductionPeyronie's disease (PD) and Dupuytren contractures (DC) are often comorbid and are believed to have a similar underlying pathophysiologic mechanism.AimTo investigate the prevalence of PD-like symptoms (PDLS) in men with DC.MethodsFrom October 2013 to December 2016, men who were seen and evaluated for DC were offered the opportunity to participate in an anonymous survey. The survey assessed several basic demographic and sexual health factors and included items from the International Index of Erectile Function and the Erection Hardness Scale. Men who reported PDLS were asked a series of questions derived from the Peyronie's Disease Questionnaire and for their opinions on theoretical treatment modalities for sexual problems and penile deformity.Main outcome measurePrevalence of PDLS in men with DC.ResultsOne hundred forty men with DC were invited to participate; 85 surveys were returned (response rate = 61%). Twenty-two respondents (26%, 95% confidence interval = 17-35) reported PDLS. Approximately one fourth of all respondents had an Erection Hardness Scale score lower than 3. The most common specific PDLS concerns were penile curvature (91%), length loss (55%), narrowing (36%), and hinging (32%). In men with PDLS, 73% felt at least a little bothered by the symptoms when attempting sexual activity and 40% reported having sex less frequently because of the symptoms. Just 27% of men with PDLS had ever used a treatment for a sexual concern. In terms of treatments for penile deformities, 64% of men with PDLS expressed an interest in treatment administered in the form of an in-office procedure; 41% were potentially amenable to a surgical procedure.ConclusionThe prevalence of PDLS in men with DC is similar to the prevalence of DC in men diagnosed with PD. A substantial number of these men have distress and would consider standard-of-care treatments for PD. Shindel AW, Sweet G, Thieu W, et al. Prevalence of Peyronie's Disease-Like Symptoms in Men Presenting With Dupuytren Contractures. Sex Med 2017;5:e135-e141

Leveraging deep active learning to identify low-resource mobility functioning information in public clinical notes

Function is increasingly recognized as an important indicator of whole-person health, although it receives little attention in clinical natural language processing research. We introduce the first public annotated dataset specifically on the Mobility domain of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), aiming to facilitate automatic extraction and analysis of functioning information from free-text clinical notes. We utilize the National NLP Clinical Challenges (n2c2) research dataset to construct a pool of candidate sentences using keyword expansion. Our active learning approach, using query-by-committee sampling weighted by density representativeness, selects informative sentences for human annotation. We train BERT and CRF models, and use predictions from these models to guide the selection of new sentences for subsequent annotation iterations. Our final dataset consists of 4,265 sentences with a total of 11,784 entities, including 5,511 Action entities, 5,328 Mobility entities, 306 Assistance entities, and 639 Quantification entities. The inter-annotator agreement (IAA), averaged over all entity types, is 0.72 for exact matching and 0.91 for partial matching. We also train and evaluate common BERT models and state-of-the-art Nested NER models. The best F1 scores are 0.84 for Action, 0.7 for Mobility, 0.62 for Assistance, and 0.71 for Quantification. Empirical results demonstrate promising potential of NER models to accurately extract mobility functioning information from clinical text. The public availability of our annotated dataset will facilitate further research to comprehensively capture functioning information in electronic health records (EHRs)

The role of microRNA in castration-resistant prostate cancer

IntroductionCastration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) has a historically low median survival rate, but recent advances and discoveries in microRNAs (miRNAs) have opened the potential for new prognostication modalities to enhance therapeutic success. As new chemotherapies and immunotherapies are developed, there is an increasing need for precision and stratification of CRPC to allow for optimization and personalization of therapy.MethodsA systematic literature review was conducted via electronic database resulting in the selection of 42 articles based on title, abstract, study format, and content by a consensus of all participating authors. Most selected articles were published between 2002 and 2013. In this review, we discuss the robustness of miRNAs as a biomarker platform, miRNAs associated with prostate cancer, and recent discoveries of miRNA associations with CRPC.ResultsThe associations discovered have been of interest owing to the ability to differentiate between CRPC and localized prostate cancer. With the evaluation of multiple miRNAs, it is possible to provide a profile regarding tumor characteristics. Furthermore, actions of miRNAs on CRPC tumor cells have the ability to suppress metastatic phenotypes.ConclusionmiRNAs may have a growing role in CRPC prognostication and may potentially transform into a therapeutic potential

Prevalence of Peyronie's Disease-Like Symptoms in Men Presenting With Dupuytren Contractures.

IntroductionPeyronie's disease (PD) and Dupuytren contractures (DC) are often comorbid and are believed to have a similar underlying pathophysiologic mechanism.AimTo investigate the prevalence of PD-like symptoms (PDLS) in men with DC.MethodsFrom October 2013 to December 2016, men who were seen and evaluated for DC were offered the opportunity to participate in an anonymous survey. The survey assessed several basic demographic and sexual health factors and included items from the International Index of Erectile Function and the Erection Hardness Scale. Men who reported PDLS were asked a series of questions derived from the Peyronie's Disease Questionnaire and for their opinions on theoretical treatment modalities for sexual problems and penile deformity.Main outcome measurePrevalence of PDLS in men with DC.ResultsOne hundred forty men with DC were invited to participate; 85 surveys were returned (response rate = 61%). Twenty-two respondents (26%, 95% confidence interval = 17-35) reported PDLS. Approximately one fourth of all respondents had an Erection Hardness Scale score lower than 3. The most common specific PDLS concerns were penile curvature (91%), length loss (55%), narrowing (36%), and hinging (32%). In men with PDLS, 73% felt at least a little bothered by the symptoms when attempting sexual activity and 40% reported having sex less frequently because of the symptoms. Just 27% of men with PDLS had ever used a treatment for a sexual concern. In terms of treatments for penile deformities, 64% of men with PDLS expressed an interest in treatment administered in the form of an in-office procedure; 41% were potentially amenable to a surgical procedure.ConclusionThe prevalence of PDLS in men with DC is similar to the prevalence of DC in men diagnosed with PD. A substantial number of these men have distress and would consider standard-of-care treatments for PD. Shindel AW, Sweet G, Thieu W, et al. Prevalence of Peyronie's Disease-Like Symptoms in Men Presenting With Dupuytren Contractures. Sex Med 2017;5:e135-e141

Chemical Compositions and Mosquito Larvicidal Activities of Essential Oils from Piper Species Growing Wild in Central Vietnam

Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on earth and are the vectors of several neglected tropical diseases. Recently, essential oils have emerged as potential renewable, cost-effective, and environmentally benign alternatives to synthetic pesticides for control of mosquitoes. In this work, thirteen species of Piper were collected from different areas of central Vietnam. The essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The essential oils were screened for mosquito larvicidal activity against Aedes aegypti. Four of the Piper essential oils showed outstanding larvicidal activity against Ae. aegypti, namely P. caninum, P. longum, P. montium, and P. mutabile, with LC50 and LC90 values less than 10 µg/mL. Multivariate analysis has correlated concentrations of β-caryophyllene, β-bisabolene, α-pinene, and β-pinene with mosquito larvicidal activity

Prevalence of Peyronie's Disease-Like Symptoms in Men Presenting With Dupuytren Contractures

Introduction: Peyronie's disease (PD) and Dupuytren contractures (DC) are often comorbid and are believed to have a similar underlying pathophysiologic mechanism. Aim: To investigate the prevalence of PD-like symptoms (PDLS) in men with DC. Methods: From October 2013 to December 2016, men who were seen and evaluated for DC were offered the opportunity to participate in an anonymous survey. The survey assessed several basic demographic and sexual health factors and included items from the International Index of Erectile Function and the Erection Hardness Scale. Men who reported PDLS were asked a series of questions derived from the Peyronie's Disease Questionnaire and for their opinions on theoretical treatment modalities for sexual problems and penile deformity. Main Outcome Measure: Prevalence of PDLS in men with DC. Results: One hundred forty men with DC were invited to participate; 85 surveys were returned (response rate = 61%). Twenty-two respondents (26%, 95% confidence interval = 17–35) reported PDLS. Approximately one fourth of all respondents had an Erection Hardness Scale score lower than 3. The most common specific PDLS concerns were penile curvature (91%), length loss (55%), narrowing (36%), and hinging (32%). In men with PDLS, 73% felt at least a little bothered by the symptoms when attempting sexual activity and 40% reported having sex less frequently because of the symptoms. Just 27% of men with PDLS had ever used a treatment for a sexual concern. In terms of treatments for penile deformities, 64% of men with PDLS expressed an interest in treatment administered in the form of an in-office procedure; 41% were potentially amenable to a surgical procedure. Conclusion: The prevalence of PDLS in men with DC is similar to the prevalence of DC in men diagnosed with PD. A substantial number of these men have distress and would consider standard-of-care treatments for PD. Shindel AW, Sweet G, Thieu W, et al. Prevalence of Peyronie's Disease-Like Symptoms in Men Presenting With Dupuytren Contractures. Sex Med 2017;5:e135–e141

Mosquito Larvicidal Activity of the Essential Oils of Erechtites Species Growing Wild in Vietnam

Mosquito-borne infections are a constant problem in Vietnam, and mosquito vector control is a primary approach to control these infections. Essential oils represent environmentally friendly alternatives to synthetic pesticides for mosquito control. The essential oils of two weedy species in Vietnam, Erechtites hieraciifolius and E. valerianifolius, have been obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The essential oils have been screened for mosquito larvicidal activity against Aedes albopictus, Ae. aegypti, and Culex quinquefasciatus. The essential oil from the aerial parts of E. hieraciifolius was rich in α-pinene (14.5%), limonene (21.4%), and caryophyllene oxide (15.1%), while E. valerianifolius essential oil was dominated by myrcene (47.8%) and α-pinene (30.2%). Both essential oils showed good larvicidal activity against Ae. albopictus (24-h LC50 10.5 and 5.8 μg/mL, respectively) and Ae. aegypti (24-h LC50 10.6 and 12.5 μg/mL, respectively). The essential oil of E. valerianifolius also showed good activity against Cx. quinquefasciatus larvae (24-h LC50 = 40.7 μg/mL). Thus, Erechtites essential oils may serve as low-cost vector control agents for mosquito-borne infections

Premna Species in Vietnam: Essential Oil Compositions and Mosquito Larvicidal Activities

Essential oils have emerged as viable alternatives to synthetic insecticides for control of mosquito-borne pathogens. The leaf essential oils of eight species of Premna (Lamiaceae) growing in central Vietnam have been obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons dominated most of the Premna essential oils, with the notable exception of Premnamekongensis from Ngoc Linh Nature Reserve, which had α-pinene as the major component. Larvicidal activities against Aedes aegypti have been determined and all of the Premna essential oils showed larvicidal activity with 24-h LC50 < 65 μg/mL. The leaf essential oils of Premnacambodiana from Chu Mom Ray National Park and Premnamekongensis from Ngoc Linh Nature Reserve showed the best larvicidal activities with 24-h LC50 of 16.8 and 18.0 μg/mL, respectively. The essential oil compositions and larvicidal activities of P. cambodiana, Premna flavescens, Premnamaclurei, P. mekongensis, and Premnapuberula are reported for the first time. Although the larvicidal activities of Premna leaf essential oils are promising, the essential oil yields are relatively low (0.10–0.25%)