Prostatitis: Updates on diagnostic evaluation

Prostatitis accounts for almost 2 million office visits to urologists and primary care physicians. The label “prostatitis” refers to a diverse constellation of symptoms and disease processes. The diagnosis and treatment of this disorder present numerous challenges for the physician, including a lack of abnormal findings on physical examination, laboratory tests, and radiographic images. In this article, we offer a review of the current literature and recommendations for the evaluation and diagnosis of the patient presenting with prostatitis.     

Clinical and histopathological findings of ''psoriatic neurodermatitis'' and of typical lichen simplex chronicus

BACKGROUND: We have seen several patients with itchy lichenified plaques located bilaterally on the elbows and/or knees and have named this condition 'psoriatic neurodermatitis' (PN). OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare clinical and histopathological characteristics of these patients to those of patients with typical lichen simplex chronicus (LSC). METHODS: Nineteen patients with PN and 34 patients with typical LSC were included. Besides clinical dermatological evaluation, the prick test was carried out on 49 patients; the Phadiatop test on 40 patients; the patch test with European standard series on 47 patients; histopathological evaluation on 39 patients; and clinical psychiatric examination on 38 patients. RESULTS: Almost exclusively, PN was seen in females and was located on the extremities. It caused more plaques than typical LSC did. In PN, the plaques were smaller, sharper, more keratotic and less excoriated, and had fewer lichenoid papules around them. Itching was usually more severe in the evening, while resting and in a hot environment in typical LSC, but not in PN. In plaques of PN, microabscesses in the horny layer, hypogranulosis, regular acanthosis and thinning of the suprapapillary plates were more frequent, and hyperpigmentation in the basal layer was less. In patients with PN, depressive disorder was found more frequently; and generalized anxiety disorder or psychosomatic characteristics, less. There were no significant differences in the results of prick, Phadiatop and patch tests between patients with PN and those with typical LSC. CONCLUSION: In our opinion, it is most likely that the so-called PN is itchy psoriasis superimposed by LSC.     

Catastrophic failure of modular Zirconia—Ceramic femoral head components after total hip arthroplasty

Catastrophic failure of two zirconia—ceramic modular femoral heads occurred, despite the theoretical improved toughness of zirconia—ceramic relative to alumina—ceramic. This experience led the authors to return to cobalt—chromium as the metal of choice for articulation against polyethylene in total hip arthroplasty.     

Localized 1H NMR spectra of glutamate in the human brain.

Localized 1H NMR spectra at TE = 12 ms were obtained from cerebral cortex of human subjects using ISIS with surface suppression. The 2.29-ppm resonance was assigned to C4 glutamate with contributions from C4 glutamine and GABA using in vivo spectral editing and comparison of chemical shift with pure compounds. The measured intensity ratio between the 2.29 resonance and the creatine resonance at 3.03 ppm was in good agreement with the ratio predicted from previously reported measurements of glutamate, glutamine, and GABA concentrations in biopsied human brain tissue.     

Longitudinal predictors of continued tobacco use among patients diagnosed with cancer

Even though continued smoking by cancer patients adversely affects survival and quality of life, about one third of patients who smoked prior to their diagnosis continue to smoke after their diagnosis. The implementation of smoking cessation treatments for cancer patients has been slowed by the lack of data on correlates of tobacco use in this population. Thus, this longitudinal study assessed demographic, medical, addiction, and psychological predictors of tobacco use among 74 head, neck, and lung cancer patients. Multivariable binary logistic regression analyses, with outcome categorized as smoker or nonsmoker, indicated that the likelihoodthat patients would be a smoker was associated with lower levels of perceived risk and a higher level of quitting cons. Multivariable nominal logistic regression, with outcome classified as continuous smoker, continuous quitter, relapser, or follow-up quitter, indicated that: (a) patients categorized as continuous smokers reported significantly lower quitting self-efficacy than follow-up quitters and continuous quitters, (b) relapsers reported a significantly lower level of quitting self-efficacy than either follow-up quitters or continuous quitters, and (c) continuous smokers exhibited a significantly lower level of risk perceptions than continuous abstainers. These findings can be useful for the development and evaluation of treatments to promote smoking cessation among cancer patients. Support for this study was provided by National Institutes of Health Grants CA57708, CA06927, CA88610, CA95678, and CA76644.     

Anesthesia and/or Sedation for Pulsed Dye Laser Therapy

One of the most exciting developments in pediatric dermatology has been the use of the flashlamp-pumped, 585-nm, pulsed dye laser for treatment of vascular birthmarks. In many cases the results are miraculous. The increase in self-esteem and happiness of many children and adolescents has been overwhelming; for some, depression has been lifted, stuttering has ceased, social involvement has increased, and antidepressants have been discontinued. There are many success stories to tell.
Despite the remarkable effects of the pulsed dye laser and the medical and psychosocial indications for its use, the issue of pain control remains significant. We have no perfect outpatient pediatric anesthetic. Most methods carry either some risk or, if not hazardous, often are not very effective for controlling pain. Needless to say, a diversity of opinions exist on how to manage discomfort from this treatment modality. Therefore, we thought it would be useful to share the experiences and opinions of several dermatologists who have extensive experience with the pulsed dye laser.     

Laryngoplasty for the treatment of vocal cord paralysis in an amateur singer.

We have performed a medialization laryngoplasty on a schoolteacher who was also an amateur singer. Medialization laryngoplasty has been slow to gain acceptance but offers many advantages over Teflon injection because it is a reversible procedure and can be utilized early in vocal cord paralysis instead of waiting 9 months. Postoperatively, the patient can vocalize more than two octaves with good volume. Objective measurements of results is needed in judging the success of these procedures.     

Thrombospondin levels in patients with malignancy.

Thrombospondin (TSP), a large glycoprotein present in platelets, and various normal and tumor tissues, has recently been shown to promote cell adhesion and platelet aggregation. Most importantly because TSP has been shown to promote metastasis of melanoma tumor cells to the lung in a murine model (1) and since thromboembolic events commonly occur in patients afflicted with metastatic tumors, we explored the role of TSP in human cancer by measuring TSP blood levels in patients with various malignant neoplasms. Blood TSP levels were measured by indirect enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay (ELISA) from 20 control subjects, 22 patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancer, 18 patients with breast cancer, and 17 patients with lung cancer. Control subjects consisted both of healthy subjects and acutely ill patients with no malignancies. TSP levels of both healthy and acutely ill controls were found to range between 245-440 ng/ml with a mean of 365 ng/ml. In contrast, elevated levels of TSP greater than the mean value of 400 ng/ml for controls ranging between 590-3,650 ng/ml were found in 20/22 (91%) patients with GI malignancies, 13/18 (72%) patients with breast cancer, and 15/17 (88%) with lung cancer. Mean TSP levels of GI, breast, and lung cancer patients were 3, 2, and 3 fold greater than controls, respectively. Increased blood TSP levels in patients were not due to increased levels of platelets since both control and patient groups had platelet counts within the normal range. These results suggest that TSP may play a role in tumor cell metastasis in man and could serve as a blood marker for metastasis.     

Dynamics of changes in blood flow, volume, and oxygenation: implications for dynamic functional magnetic resonance imaging calibration.

Changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF), volume (CBV), and oxygenation (blood-oxygenation level dependent (BOLD)) during functional activation are important for calculating changes in cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption (CMRo2) from calibrated functional MRI (fMRI). An important part of this process is the CBF/CBV relationship, which is signified by a power-law parameter: gamma=ln (1+DeltaCBV/CBV)/ln (1+DeltaCBF/CBF). Because of difficulty in measuring CBF and CBV with MRI, the value of gamma is therefore assumed to be approximately 0.4 from a prior primate study under hypercapnia. For dynamic fMRI calibration, it is important to know if the value of gamma varies after stimulation onset. We measured transient relationships between DeltaCBF, DeltaCBV, and DeltaBOLD by multimodal MRI with temporal resolution of 500 ms (at 7.0 T) from the rat somatosensory cortex during forepaw stimulation, where the stimulus duration ranged from 4 to 32 secs. Changes in CBF and BOLD were measured before the administration of the contrast agent for CBV measurements in the same subjects. We observed that the relationship between DeltaCBF and DeltaCBV varied dynamically from stimulation onset for all stimulus durations. Typically after stimulation onset and at the peak or plateau of the DeltaCBF, the value of gamma ranged between 0.1 and 0.2. However, after stimulation offset, the value of gamma increased to 0.4 primarily because of rapid and slow decays in DeltaCBF and DeltaCBV, respectively. These results suggest caution in using dynamic measurements of DeltaCBF and DeltaBOLD required for calculating DeltaCMRo2 for functional stimulation, when either DeltaCBV has not been accurately measured or a fixed value of gamma during hypercapnia perturbation is used.