Peyronie's disease:a silent consequence of diabetes mellitus

Aim:To investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with Peyronie's disease(PD)and diabetes mellitus(DM).Methods:During an 8-year period,a total of 307 men seen at our outpatient clinic were diagnosed with PD.Clinicalcharacteristics,penile deformities and the erectile status of patients with PD and DM together(n=102)were retro-spectively analyzed and compared to patients with PD alone with no risk factors for systemic vascular diseases(n=97).Results:The prevalence of PD among men with DM and sexual dysfunction was 10.7%.The mean ageof diabetic patients with PD was(55.9±8.9)years;in the no risk factor group it was(48.5±9.0)years(P<0.05).The median duration of DM was 5 years.The majority of diabetic patients with PD(56.0%)presented in the chronicphase(P<0.05),and they were more likely to have a severe penile deformity(>60°)than the no risk factor group(P<0.05).In the diabetic group,the most common presenting symptom was penile curvature(81.4 %),followedby a palpable nodule on the shaft of the penis(22.5%)and penile pain with erection(14.7 %).A total of 19.6 % ofpatients were not aware of their penile deformities in the diabetic group.Erectile function,provided by history and inresponse to intracavernosal injection and a stimulation test,was significantly diminished in patients with PD and DM(P<0.05).Conclusion:DM probably exaggerates the fibrotic process in PD.Diabetic patients with PD have ahigher risk of severe deformity and erectile dysfunction(ED).PD seems to be a silent consequence of DM andshould be actively sought in diabetic men.(Asian J Androl 2006 Jan;8:75-79)     

上肢骨肿瘤切除后的自体骨移植重建

目的探讨应用自体骨移植对上肢骨肿瘤切除后的骨缺损修复重建的效果。方法1998年8月～2004年3月，收治上肢骨肿瘤切除后的骨缺损16例。男8例，女8例。年龄7～45岁。经病理确诊，肱骨近端尤文肉瘤和骨肉瘤各1例；肱骨远端尤文肉瘤2例；桡骨远端骨巨细胞瘤8例，高分化软骨肉瘤2例，恶性纤维组织细胞瘤和骨肉瘤各1例。2例肱骨近端肿瘤行自体锁骨代肱骨；2例肱骨远端肿瘤行自体腓骨代肱骨；12例桡骨远端肿瘤中，1例行自体髂骨移植，11例行自体腓骨代桡骨进行重建。采用MSTS系统进行术后功能评价。结果2例肱骨近端自体锁骨移植患者分别随访36个月和12个月，术后保持部分肩关节前屈和后伸功能，但外展功能丧失；MSTS评分分别为23分和22分。2例肱骨远端自体腓骨移植患者分别随访4个月和6个月，肘关节功能良好，移植骨连接处已经出现骨愈合；MSTS功能评分分别为24分和19分。12例桡骨远端自体骨移植患者中11例随访6～75个月，功能良好，无明显并发症；1例髂骨植骨的桡骨远端骨巨细胞瘤术后3个月移植骨完全愈合，至今随访75个月，肿瘤无复发。MSTS功能评分18~27分，平均22．6分。结论自体骨移植在上肢骨肿瘤切除后骨缺损的重建，尤其是儿童的骨缺损重建中，是一种较好的方法。     

Estimation of policy effects using parametric nonlinear models: a contextual critique of the generalized method of moments

The typical empirical study in health services and outcomes research is aimed at estimating the causal effect that an exogenously imposed condition (e.g. a policy mandate) will have (or has had) on a specified outcome of interest. Controlling for unobservable confounding influences is of primary importance in such analyses. The instrumental variables (IV) method has been widely used for this purpose in the linear regression context. The present paper examines the pros and cons of alternative versions of the generalized method of moments (GMM) [of which the IV estimator is a special case] for the estimation of policy effects when endogeneity is present in a nonlinear regression setting. We show that conventional GMM is difficult to implement for policy analysis because it does not typically accommodate symmetry—similar treatment of both observable and unobservable confounders in the regression specification. Although, simple additive (nonsymmetric) regression specifications afford practical GMM estimators, they are difficult to defend from both intuitive and conceptual standpoints. Moreover, as we show via simulation, if symmetry is ignored and conventional GMM is applied based on an incorrectly specified non-symmetric model, then policy analytic estimates can be seriously biased. As a result, prospects for the development and application of intuitive consistent GMM-based policy effect estimators are dim. The problem stems from the reasonable desire on the part of the researcher to derive GMM estimators in the nonlinear framework that are based solely upon the conventional minimalist linear IV assumptions. We show, in the context of our formulation of a simple but consistent alternative to GMM in the probit case, that intuitively appealing additional assumptions about the data generating process of the policy variable will often be sufficient for the development of desirable alternatives to the GMM.