Characterization of thrombus stiffening in radio frequency (rf) Mechanical thrombectomy.

Intra-arterial mechanical thrombectomy (IAMT) for ischemic stroke has high recanalization rate, long treatment time window and low risk of symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage (sICH), but thrombus fragments produced during treatment can lead to distal embolization. Fragmentation can be reduced if the thrombus is strengthened by increasing the thrombus's crosslink density. Radio frequency (rf) electric current commonly used in surgery to cut and coagulate tissue can induce crosslinking in thrombus.

Simultaneous bilateral retrograde intrarenal surgery for stone disease in patients with significant comorbidities.

Background And Purpose: Advances in endoscopic equipment have allowed urologists to access stones in virtually any location in the upper tracts. Where clinically appropriate, this approach may represent the preferred treatment option, regardless of stone size. We report the first description of simultaneous bilateral retrograde intrarenal surgery (SB-RIRS) in patients with both significant upper-tract stone burdens and comorbidities such as morbid obesity or heart disease.

Bladder reconstitution with bone marrow derived stem cells seeded on small intestinal submucosa improves morphological and molecular composition.

Purpose: Tissue engineering has been used for bladder augmentations with small intestinal submucosa (SIS). Although favorable short-term outcomes have been reported, long-term followup has been poor. We investigate whether tissue engineering with stem cells improves the morphological and genetic composition.

Health disparities in lifestyle choices among hypertensive Korean Americans, non-Hispanic Whites, and Blacks.

Purpose And Methods: To describe medication profile, diet, and exercise/physical activity in hypertensive Korean Americans, a convenience sample of 100 hypertensive Korean Americans (KAs) at two KA health clinics were interviewed by bilingual Korean nurses using questions from the 1988-1994 Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). One hundred age- and gender-matched hypertensive non-Hispanic Whites and 100 Blacks were randomly selected from the NHANES III dataset, and results were compared to describe the health disparities in lifestyle choices among the three groups.

Results: The medication profile among the three groups was similar.

Looped silk tie: surgical technique for management of the renal vein during laparoscopic live-donor nephrectomy.

Laparoscopic live-donor nephrectomy has revolutionized the field of kidney transplantation and has been adopted in many tertiary centers as the method of choice in procuring kidneys. While standard techniques for laparoscopic live-donor nephrectomy have been well described in the literature, there continues to be ample discussion about renal-vein ligation. Endo-GIA and other commonly used vascular stapling devices can be costly and prone to mechanical failures and may not be applicable in certain anatomic situations.

Simultaneous bilateral retrograde intrarenal surgery for bilateral complex upper tract stone disease.

Recent advances in retrograde endoscopy have greatly expanded the role of minimally invasive surgery in addressing upper tract stone disease. In an attempt to decrease patient morbidity further, we present our initial experience with simultaneous bilateral retrograde intrarenal surgery in a patient with complex bilateral upper tract stones.

Newly designed laparoscopic retractable dissector and suture passer.

We introduce a novel laparoscopic instrument that performs as a dissector and retractable suture passer in preparation for intracorporeal knot tying. The newly designed instrument was developed at our institution to duplicate techniques of vessel ligation in open surgery.

Spontaneous, unremitting gross hematuria occurring one week after laparoscopic donor nephrectomy.

Complications associated with the ureteral stump after nephrectomies rarely occur, especially after donor nephrectomies. The potential for the slippage of clips is a well-known event associated with vascular ligations. We report on the first case of clip slippage from the ureter and describe diagnosis and management of the most extreme of morbid presentations.

Laparoscopic skills training using a webcam trainer.

Purpose: Many sophisticated and expensive trainers have been developed to assist surgeons in learning basic laparoscopic skills. We developed an inexpensive trainer and evaluated its effectiveness.

Materials And Methods: The webcam laparoscopic training device is composed of a webcam, cardboard box, desk lamp and home computer.

Impact of prior biopsy scheme on pathologic features of cancers detected on repeat biopsies.

The object of our study was to characterize the biopsy features of cancers detected in a repeat biopsy population stratified on the basis of the type of prior negative biopsy. We studied 218 patients with a prior negative biopsy who underwent a 10-core extended systematic biopsy scheme, and a subset (n = 139) underwent additional 6 anteriorly directed biopsies. Clinicopathologic features of patients with cancer on the biopsy were compared as a function of type of prior negative biopsy.

Gene expression patterns in human embryonic stem cells and human pluripotent germ cell tumors.

Remarkably little is known about the transcriptional profiles of human embryonic stem (ES) cells or the molecular mechanisms that underlie their pluripotency. To identify commonalties among the transcriptional profiles of different human pluripotent cells and to search for clues into the genesis of human germ cell tumors, we compared the expression profiles of human ES cell lines, human germ cell tumor cell lines and tumor samples, somatic cell lines, and testicular tissue samples by using cDNA microarray analysis. Hierarchical cluster analysis of gene expression profiles showed that the five independent human ES cell lines clustered tightly together, reflecting highly similar expression profiles.

Use of extended systematic sampling in patients with a prior negative prostate needle biopsy.

Purpose: We examine the potential impact of extended systematic biopsy schemes in patients with a prior negative prostate biopsy.

Materials And Methods: Between January 1999 and March 2001, 185 patients with a prior negative prostate needle biopsy underwent repeat biopsy. Systematic 10 core biopsies (sextant, lateral mid gland and lateral base) were performed in all patients.