Peyronie's disease in men under age 40: characteristics and outcome

Peyronie's disease is most commonly seen in the fifth decade of life. However, a wide range of age (20-83 y) is reported. During a 6-year period, men with Peyronie's disease presenting under the age of 40 were reviewed retrospectively and followed-up. The prevalence of Peyronie's patients presenting under age 40 was 8.2%. Their mean age was 32.47 +/- 5.37 (range: 23-39) y and 78.9% of them presented during the acute phase of the disease. Pain on erection was a part of presenting symptom complex in 52.6% and the majority (84%) had a degree of penile curvature < 60 degrees. Erectile dysfunction (ED) was present in 21% of patients, who responded well to intracavernous injection test. After a minimal 2-year follow-up, improvement in penile deformity was observed in 36.8%, and 42.1% had stable disease while 21% experienced deterioration of the penile curvature. The onset of Peyronie's disease is clinically more noisy and acute in patients presenting under age 40 and this forces the physicians to treat them more vigorously.     

Free-Floating Tumor Thrombus in the Left Atrium Associated with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract   A free-floating tumor thrombus in the left atrium is an unusual metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer. Surgical resection of free-floating tumor thrombus prior to adjuvant therapy relieves cardiac symptoms such as exertional dyspnea, and prevents life-threatening complications including systemic embolization, mitral obstruction, or sudden death.     

Atypical endometrial stromal cells related with a polypoid leiomyoma with bizarre nuclei: a case report.

We presented a polypoid leiomyoma with bizarre nuclei having atypical endometrial stromal cells adjacent to the leiomyoma. Although atypical stromal cells of the female genital tract have been described, to our knowledge, no lesion identical to ours has been reported thus far. These atypical cells may be mistaken for malignant cells on histologic examination, especially in small endometrial samples. To differentiate these kinds of atypical-featured lesions from sarcoma is important, especially in curettage materials. The etiology and precise nature of multinucleated giant cells and atypical stromal cells in the endometrium are unclear. To prevent radical surgery, pathologists must be familiar with these atypical cells in the female genital tract.     

Use of fluorescence resonance energy transfer for rapid detection of isoniazid resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates.

SETTING: Rapid detection of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis is important to select effective treatment and prevent transmission of resistant isolates. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the use of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) for rapid detection of isoniazid (INH) resistance in M. tuberculosis clinical isolates. DESIGN: One hundred INH-resistant and 50 INH-susceptible isolates of M. tuberculosis were included in the study. The drug susceptibility of all isolates was determined by the standard agar proportion method, and all isolates were then tested by FRET. Three genes associated with INH resistance, katG, inhA and ahpC, were analysed. All isolates were amplified with three pairs of primers. Three pairs of fluorescently labelled DNA probes specific to codon 315 of katG, nucleotide 209 in the regulatory region of inhA and a frequent mutation site in the intergenic region of oxyR-ahpC, were used for mutation detection. RESULTS: The results obtained using FRET were compared with those from the proportion method. The sensitivity and specificity of FRET were respectively 76% and 100%. The frequencies of mutations were 48% in katG, 17% in inhA, 8% in ahpC, 2% in inhA-ahpC and 1% in inhA-katG. CONCLUSION: FRET is a rapid, specific method that can be useful to detect INH resistance in M. tuberculosis clinical isolates.     

A predictable pathophysiological model of porcine hepatic failure

A technique is described in which acute hepatic failure may be uniformly induced in pigs using a combination of oral phenobarbitone pretreatment and 2-hour interruption of hepatic arterial blood supply followed by intragastric carbon tetrachloride. This results in deep hepatic coma over a narrowly predictable time span and death within 12-52 h. Amino acid levels in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid obtained 24 h after the induction of hepatic failure were similar to those reported in human and experimental encephalopathy.