Successful management of renal artery aneurysm rupture after cesarean section.

Renal artery aneurysm is a rare entity, and patients are usually asymptomatic at the time of presentation. These aneurysms are rare among pregnant patients, especially after childbirth, and usually form due to changes in vascular wall integrity secondary to hormonal and hemodynamic changes. Here we describe a patient with an intraparenchymal renal artery aneurysm that ruptured after a cesarean section but was immediately identified and managed appropriately, allowing for a successful outcome.

Febrile urinary tract infections in children with an early negative voiding cystourethrogram after treatment of vesicoureteral reflux with dextranomer/hyaluronic acid.

Purpose: Children in whom nonsurgical management for vesicoureteral reflux fails are considered candidates for surgical intervention. An option is endoscopic treatment with Deflux(R). We reviewed our experience with febrile urinary tract infections in children following initial successful treatment of vesicoureteral reflux with Deflux and identified factors predictive of post-Deflux urinary tract infections.

Signaling through PI3K/Akt mediates stretch and PDGF-BB-dependent DNA synthesis in bladder smooth muscle cells.

Purpose: Smooth muscle cells (SMC) of the bladder undergo hypertrophy and hyperplasia following exposure to sustained mechanical overload. Although superficial similarities in the response of the heart and bladder to hypertrophic stimuli suggest that similar molecular mechanisms may be involved, this remains to be demonstrated. In this study we compared signal transduction pathway activation in primary culture bladder SMC and cardiac myofibroblasts in response to cyclic stretch.

Heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor stimulates androgen-independent prostate tumor growth and antagonizes androgen receptor function.

Peptide growth factors have been implicated in progression of prostate cancer (PCa) to the androgen-independent state; however, much of the evidence linking diffusible mitogens and survival factors to this process remains circumstantial. Heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF), a prostate stroma-derived factor, promotes survival, proliferation, and neuroendocrine differentiation of androgen-dependent LNCaP PCa cells in vitro. To test whether sustained exposure to HB-EGF can confer an androgen-independent phenotype, we generated stable populations of LNCaP cells that express constitutively a secreted form of HB-EGF (LNCaP/sHB).