Percutaneous renal mass biopsy: historical perspective,current status,and future considerations

Introduction: Percutaneous renal mass biopsy has evolved over the last decade with improvements on previous pitfalls including low tissue yield, high non-diagnostic rates, and complications. As understanding of tumor biology and natural history of renal cortical neoplasms has improved, percutaneous renal mass biopsy is poised to have an expanding role in an area characterized by individualized management and refined risk stratification.

Areas covered: This review summarizes the evolution of renal mass biopsy to its current state with respect to outcomes, indications, and clinical guidelines.

Expert opinion: With improved understanding of differential biological potential of renal cortical neoplasms combined with technical improvements in diagnostic yield and accuracy, utilization of renal mass biopsy is becoming an important adjunct to patient care in a broad range of clinical scenarios, including active surveillance, thermal ablation, and use of primary systemic therapy in localized and advanced settings.     

Oral and subcutaneous sumatriptan in the acute treatment of migraine: an open randomized cress-over study

In an open, randomized cross-over study in 124 patients, we compared the efficacy, safety and patient preference of oral and subcutaneous sum triptan in the acute treatment of migraine. Patients were treated for 3 attacks or 3 months and then crossed over. Primary clinical efficacy was defined as a reduction in headache severity on a four-point self-rating scale from severe (3) or moderate (2) to mild (1) or none (0), or mild (1) to none (0). Efficacy was evaluated 2 h after the administration of subcutaneous and 4h after the administration of oral sumatriptan. Subcutaneous sumatriptan was significantly more effective than oral sumatriptan in relieving headache (over all three attacks 78% vs 61% improvement), improving clinical disability (55% vs 41 % improvement) and relieving nausea (69% vs 53%), vomiting (72% vs 32%) and phono- or photophobia (67% vs 49%). Median time to recurrence was shorter after subcutaneous (12.5 h) than after oral sumatriptan (18 h); the number of patients experiencing a recurrence was similar Patients reported more adverse events after subcutaneous sumatriptan (1.32 per attack) than after the oral form (0.85 per attack), but all adverse events were mild to moderate in intensity and of short duration. Patient opinion was more often positive after subcutaneous sumatriptan. These results may be useful in counselling patients to choose between the available marketed formulations of sumatriptan.     

Knowledge and beliefs about tuberculosis among non-working women in Ravensmead, Cape Town

The results of a community-based survey on knowledge and beliefs about tuberculosis in non-working women are presented. The women in the sample showed a very good knowledge of the important aspects of tuberculosis: 90% were aware that it is a problem in their area; 97% knew that it affects the chest; 94% said that it could be fatal; 85% considered it to be infectious and 88% knew that the local clinic provided treatment. Their knowledge of symptoms was good overall but the study revealed misconceptions about the causes and transmission of tuberculosis; 16% indicated that they would not be keen to associate with people with tuberculosis owing to fear of infection. The design effect of cluster sampling was considered in the analysis. The highest design effects (i.e. the most clustering of responses) were found for responses to questions on the causes of tuberculosis and places where treatment could be obtained, possibly reflecting that these beliefs are influenced by neighbourhood contacts. Future tuberculosis education in this group needs to build on existing knowledge and awareness and should focus on changing attitudes such as misconceptions about transmission and the stigmatisation of the disease. Health workers face the challenge of changing behaviour in this community to ensure that people with symptoms present early for screening and that people diagnosed as having tuberculosis comply with treatment.     

Improved diagnostic effectiveness with a sequential diagnostic paradigm in idiopathic pediatric sensorineural hearing loss.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether a stepwise diagnostic paradigm is more diagnostically efficient and cost-effective than a simultaneous testing approach in the evaluation of idiopathic pediatric sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). DESIGN: Prospective prevalence study. SETTING: Tertiary referral children's hospital. PATIENTS: Consecutive children (n = 150) presenting with idiopathic SNHL in the last 2 years. INTERVENTIONS: All children were evaluated with full diagnostic evaluations including GJB2 screens, temporal bone computed tomography scans, and laboratory investigations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 1) Diagnostic yields of GJB2 screens, imaging, and laboratory results per SNHL category; 2) Cost analysis comparing a sequential versus a simultaneous testing approach. RESULTS: Overall, 12.0% of patients had biallelic mutations in the GJB2 gene, whereas 30% of patients had an abnormality on temporal bone scan. Laboratory testing did not reveal the SNHL etiology in any patient. While maintaining diagnostic accuracy, significant cost savings were inferred by using a sequential diagnostic algorithm. Our data show children with severe to profound SNHL should first be tested with a GJB2 screen, as opposed to those with milder SNHL, who should undergo imaging as the initial testing step. In patients with initially positive GJB2 or imaging screens, logistic regression analysis significantly predicted negative results on further testing. CONCLUSIONS: A stepwise diagnostic paradigm tailored to the level of the hearing loss in children with bilateral SNHL is more diagnostically efficient and cost effective than the more commonly used full, simultaneous testing approach. Laboratory investigation should not be routine but based on clinical history.     

Why is there a left side underestimation in rod bisection?

Subjects set the extremities of a horizontal rod to appear equidistant from a central reference point, with or without central fixation. On either side, the contrast (salience) of the rod against the background was high or low. Extents to the left were set smaller than those to the right, an effect (LSU) which was stronger with central fixation, indicating that both hemispatial and anatomical pathway factors contribute. Reduced salience on the left increased rather than decreased the LSU, indicating the importance of attentional factors.     

Abnormal line bisection judgements in children with Tourette's syndrome.

Tourette's syndrome (TS) has been associated with loss of normal basal ganglia asymmetry, as well as loss of normal functional asymmetry, including the leftward bias on traditional visuospatial tasks such as line bisection and turning bias tests. The aim of the present study was to examine the lateralisation of visuospatial attention in TS. We examined the effect of an irrelevant moving-dot background on line bisection judgements. Nine children with a DSM IV diagnosis of TS participated, in addition to 9 healthy controls, individually matched for age, sex and IQ. Horizontal lines of varying length were presented on a computer screen with either a blank background, or a moving, random-dot field. The dots moved either leftward or rightward across the screen at 40 or 80 mm/s, and participants were instructed to ignore these distracting stimuli when judging the lines. TS children were found to be abnormally right-biased in line bisection in a similar fashion to unmedicated ADHD children who, in a previous study, showed a similar small, yet significant, right-bias in line bisection. Matched controls showed a small, nonsignificant left bias, consistent with past research. Unlike previous findings with hemineglect patients, the irrelevant moving background had no effect on bisection performance for TS children or healthy controls. The present findings suggest a deficit in visuospatial attention consistent with the emerging picture of a lateralised dysfunction of frontostriatal circuitry in TS.     

Axillary vein approach for pulmonic valvuloplasty in infants with iliac vein obstruction

Repeated pulmonic balloon valvuloplasty from the axillary vein was performed in two infants with initial transvalvular gradients of 131 and 162 mm Hg. The first angioplasty was performed through the femoral vein and improved the valve gradient in both patients. Because of obstruction of the iliac system the axillary vein approach was used for the second angioplasty. The transaxillary pulmonic valvuloplasty decreased the gradient to acceptable levels, and no complications were noticed. The axillary vein approach can be the alternative to the femoral one in cases with obstructed iliac system or interrupted inferior vena cava.