Serum biomarkers for diagnosis and characterization of prostate cancer.

PSA is the most widely used diagnosticand prognostic biomarker in prostate cancer (PCa).However, its lack of specificity has generated the needto search for new complementary markers. In thisscenario, blood plasma constitutes one of the sourcesof search for new markers, which have been tried tobe combined with PSA and other clinical variables inorder to develop tests that increase their diagnosticspecificity.

New Approach to Guide Target Prostate Biopsy: Technique and Initial Experience.

Objective: To describe the technique of transrectal biopsy with a new device that fuses multiparametric magnetic resonance (mpMRI) and ultrasound images in real time to guide target biopsies and to evaluate our initial experience.

Methods: Patients with persistent suspicion of prostate cancer despite a previous negative biopsy and who had an mpMRI before the biopsy were selected. All patients underwent target biopsy plus standard systematic biopsy.

Influence of surgical complications on kidney graft survival in recipients of simultaneous pancreas kidney transplantation.

Purpose: Simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation is the gold standard treatment for patients with end-stage renal failure secondary to insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. This kind of transplantation is a complex operation associated with a high incidence of surgical complications and mortality risk which could influence graft survival. The aim of this study was to establish the influence of different grades of postoperative complications, classified according to Clavien-Dindo, on the rate of kidney graft loss.

Impact of 3D vision on mental workload and laparoscopic performance in inexperienced subjects.

Objective: To assess the effect of vision in three dimensions (3D) versus two dimensions (2D) on mental workload and laparoscopic performance during simulation-based training.

Materials And Methods: A prospective, randomized crossover study on inexperienced students in operative laparoscopy was conducted. Forty-six candidates executed five standardized exercises on a pelvitrainer with both vision systems (3D and 2D).

Pre-chemotherapy abiraterone acetate. A proposal of a treatment algorithm in castration resistant prostate cancer.

Context: Prostate cancer treatment remains a challenge for the urologist. Medical control in locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer is usually performed with LHRH analogues and/or antiandrogens. Different treatments have been proposed when there is biochemical and clinical progression of the disease and other new ones have changed the patients' perspective and life expectancy.

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy for distal ureteral calculi: improved efficacy using low frequency.

Objectives: To compare low versus high frequency for lithotripsy in the management of distal ureteral calculi.

Methods: A total of 154 patients with radio-opaque calculi (0.5-1 cm diameter) in the distal ureter were randomized to be given either lithotripsy at 80 or 60 pulses per min (high frequency or low frequency groups, respectively).

[State of acute phase markers and oxidative stress in patients with kidney stones in the urinary tract].

Objective: This present study has aimed to assess the state of acute phase markers and oxidative stress in patients with kidney stones.

Material And Methods: A prospective study was carried out on 100 patients with kidney stones and 25 healthy controls. Albumin, ß2 microglobulin, Gamma-glutamyl transpepsidase, Lactate dehydrogenase, Tumor necrosis factor alpha, Interleukin 1 and Interleukin-6 were evaluated as acute phase markers and lipid peroxidation products, Superoxide dismutase and Glutathione peroxidase levels acted as oxidative stress markers.

Hand metastasis from renal carcinoma.

Renal carcinoma may develop metachronous distant metastases without evidence of regional or local disease recurrence. These lesions may be misdiagnosed because of its benign-like appearance and lack of evidence of other disease spread.

[New epidemiologic patterns and risk factors in renal cancer].

Incidence of renal carcinoma, one of the most fatal solid neoplasms, has steadily increased in Western society. Moreover, these tumors are being increasingly detected in their early stages. As with most cancers, the underlying causes of the disease remain unknown.

[Paired kidneys in transplant].

Objectives: Many factors affect the graft and patient survival on the renal transplant outcome. These factors depend so much of the recipient and donor. We accomplished a study trying to circumvent factors that depend on the donor.

[Renal elimination of contrast after retrograde urethrocystography].

We describe a case report in which is shown an extensive extravasation of contrast media from urethra lumen following a retrograde urethrocystography. It is shown filling of cavernous system and, at once, iliac vessels and inferior cava. Later X ray plates demonstrates entire collecting system due to the renal contrast excretion.

[Review of cut-off points between stages T1 and T2 in the 1997 TNM classification of renal carcinoma].

Objective: We retrospectively review the patients treated at our institution for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We compare the patients classified in TNM state T1N0M0 in the 1997 revision with the 1992 one in order to determine survival differences. We divide patients in three size related groups and compare its survival rates.

Combined treatment with vitamin E and colchicine in the early stages of Peyronie's disease.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of the combination of colchicine and vitamin E (which has anti-fibrotic, anti-mitotic and anti-inflammatory effects) in modifying the early stages of Peyronie's disease, by evaluating pain relief, correction of deformities and plaque size.

Patients And Methods: In all, 45 patients were divided into two groups and treated from January 1998 to November 2001. Their mean (range) age was 53.

[Encrusted pyelitis. Lithiasic disease with infectious etiology].

We report on two new cases of encrusted pielitis, a lithiasic disease of infectious ethiology--Corynebacterium of D group-. The clinic diagnostic is difficult and this disease develops in immunosuppressed patients, mainly in renal transplanted ones. One of our two cases is diagnosed in a patient with a transplanted kidney and the other one develops the disease within her native kidneys.

[Clinico-pathologic differences between bladder neoplasm with low malignant potential and low-grade carcinoma].

Objective: To determine if the morphologic subgrouping of grade I bladder tumors between papillary neoplasm of low malignant potential and low grade papillary carcinoma is of clinical and survival value.

Material And Methods: All 257 consecutive patients diagnosed of superficial bladder cancer between 1990 and 1995 in HU Reina Sofia of Cordoba were reviewed and further reclassified according to WHO/ISUP consensus classification of urothelial neoplasms of the bladder. Of the tumors 12 were urothelial papilloma, 51 were papillary neoplasm of low malignant potential, 43 were low grade papillary carcinoma Ta, 65 were low grade papillary carcinoma T1 and 37 were high grade papillary carcinoma.

[Renal abscess in patients with HIV infection in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy].

Renal abscess is a very rare complication of HIV infection, usually occurs in patients with severe immune deficiency. The immune status is the main factor that predict disease advancement. Highly activate antiretroviral therapy (HAART) improve the CD4 cell count.

Treatment with sildenafil citrate in renal transplant patients with erectile dysfunction.

Objective: To assess the safety and efficacy of sildenafil citrate in renal transplant patients with erectile dysfunction, as up to half of men with renal failure may be affected and only 60-75% recover potency after transplantation.

Patients And Methods: Fifty patients with erectile dysfunction and a functioning renal transplant were treated using sildenafil (mean age 54 years, mean time on dialysis 35 months, mean time from transplantation 20 months). The hypogastric artery was not used during transplantation in any patient.

[Pneumocysts, unusual infective complication in diabetics].

We report on a case of fully gas-filled bladder with no evidence of intramural gas, fistula between bladder and gastrointestinal tract or instrumentation. The patient is diagnosed of a diabetic neurogenic bladder. We comment the causes of this rare finding and its relation with emphysematous cystitis.

[Malignant fibrohistiocytoma of the bladder].

We report on new case of a rare vesical tumour. We result the importance of immunohistochemistry and ultrastructural study to support the diagnosis of malignant fibrous histiocytoma of the urinary bladder. There has been described another 16 cases of this tumour in the literature, however, only four of them -five with ours- reports an extensive immunohistochemical and ultrastructural study.

[Wolfram syndrome. Urologic implications].

Objectives: We report on four new cases of Wolfram's Syndrome. We emphasize in urological aspects of this disease.

Patients And Methods: Three male siblings.

[Incidence of high grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia in urologic practice].

High grade (PIN AG) intraepithelial neoplasia of the prostate is a likely precursor of prostate adenocarcinoma (PA) because of their association. Since the risk to suffer PA increases in patients with no previous PIN AG, its finding requires an arduous search for PA. This paper reviews the incidence of PIN AG in 499 histological studies in prostate transrectal biopsies, prostate TUR and adenomectomy specimens and radical prostatectomy (RP) sections.

[Tuberculous orchiepididymitis as clinical onset of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection].

The emergence of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome has changed the natural history of tuberculosis which has now become the second most common infection associated to human immunodeficiency virus infection. It is only rarely that a tuberculous infection has an urogenital location, and extrapulmonary locations are generally related to severe immunosuppression. This paper presents one case of tuberculous orchitis that presented as the clinical onset of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

[Extragonadal germ tumor].

Extragonadal primary tumors are uncommon and account for 3 to 5% of all germ cells neoplasias. Preferentially found in middle line structures, such tumors are frequently in an advanced stage when diagnosed. Differentiation between primary extragonadal tumors and metastasis of testicular primary tumors is essential, but may be difficult in many instances.