Endourology treatment of giant ureteral stone: Distal ureteral stone lithotripsy with nephroscope and shockpulse.

There has been no article that publish the utilization of nephroscope to lithotripsy in removing giant distal ureteral stone. Here we reported a case of large multiple distal ureteral stones treated using nephroscope and litotripsy with shockpulse in a 53-year-old woman. The biggest stone measuring 40 × 35 mm and 5 × 5 mm for the smallest one.

Evaluation of the accuracy of soft tissue thickness measurements with three different methodologies: An in vitro study.

Background: Soft tissue thickness (STT) influences esthetics, peri-implant, and periodontal health. Non-invasive methods of STT evaluation include cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) with Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) files and registration of DICOM files with an intraoral scan or Standard Tessellation Language (STL) files. This study compares three methodologies: bone sounding, DICOM data alone, and DICOM and STL registration to absolute histomorphologic values.

Inferior vena cava thrombus shrinkage in patient with adult Wilms' tumor: A Case report.

Introduction And Importance: Adult Wilms' tumor is infrequent in adults and usually has poor prognosis. We report a case of inferior vena cava thrombus shrinkage in patient with adult Wilms' tumor.

Case Presentation: A 27-year-old male came to hospital due to pain in his left flank and repeated hematuria since one year ago.

Effects of Maternally Transferred Egg Selenium on Embryo-Larval Survival, Growth, and Development in Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus).

Selenium (Se) toxicity to fish is primarily manifested via maternal transfer to the eggs, which may result in adverse effects on larval survival and development. The present study assessed the effects of egg Se concentrations derived via maternal transfer on early life-stage development, survival, and growth of Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus), a salmonid species not previously assessed for Se sensitivity. Fish gametes were collected from 4 streams in Alaska known to exhibit a range of egg Se concentrations.

18-month outcomes of heterologous bilateral hand transplantation in a child: a case report.

Background: Although heterologous vascular composite allotransplantation has become a burgeoning treatment option for adult amputees, there have been no successful cases previously reported in children. Here, we describe the surgical, immunological, and neurorehabilitation details with functional outcomes 18 months after heterologous bilateral hand and forearm transplantation in an 8-year-old child with quadrimembral amputations and a previous kidney transplant.

Methods: 2 years of extensive preparation by medical and surgical teams preceded the hand-forearm transplantation of this child.

The Treatment of Juvenile Fibromyalgia with an Intensive Physical and Psychosocial Program.

Objective: To assess the short-term and 1-year outcomes of children with fibromyalgia treated with intensive physical and occupational therapy (PT/OT) and psychotherapy.

Study Design: Children with fibromyalgia seen at a tertiary care hospital were treated with 5-6 hours of intensive PT/OT daily and at least 4 hours of psychosocial services weekly. All medications used for fibromyalgia were discontinued.

In vitro fertilization with single euploid blastocyst transfer: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To determine whether performing comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS) and transferring a single euploid blastocyst can result in an ongoing pregnancy rate that is equivalent to transferring two untested blastocysts while reducing the risk of multiple gestation.

Design: Randomized, noninferiority trial.

Setting: Academic center for reproductive medicine.

Blastocyst preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) of a mitochondrial DNA disorder.

Objective: To evaluate the utility of trophectoderm biopsy for preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) of mitochondrial (mt) DNA mutation load.

Design: A PGD case and analysis of blastocyst mosaicism.

Setting: Academic center for reproductive medicine.

Oocyte vitrification does not increase the risk of embryonic aneuploidy or diminish the implantation potential of blastocysts created after intracytoplasmic sperm injection: a novel, paired randomized controlled trial using DNA fingerprinting.

Objective: To assess the impact of oocyte vitrification on aneuploidy and reproductive potential by comparing vitrified and control oocytes from a single patient within a single cycle and a single fresh transfer.

Design: Paired randomized controlled trial in which each patient's cohort of mature oocytes was divided into two even groups with half undergoing Cryotop vitrification and rapid warming and half serving as controls.

Setting: Academic center for reproductive medicine.

Single embryo transfer with comprehensive chromosome screening results in improved ongoing pregnancy rates and decreased miscarriage rates.

Background: Single embryo transfer (SET) provides the most certain means to reduce the risk of multiple gestation. Regrettably, prospective trials of SET have demonstrated reductions in per-cycle delivery rates. A validated method of comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS) has the potential to optimize SET by transferring only euploid embryos.

Development and validation of an accurate quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction-based assay for human blastocyst comprehensive chromosomal aneuploidy screening.

Objective: To develop and validate a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-based method for blastocyst trophectoderm comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS) of aneuploidy.

Design: Prospective, randomized, and blinded.

Setting: Academic center for reproductive medicine.

Comprehensive chromosome screening is highly predictive of the reproductive potential of human embryos: a prospective, blinded, nonselection study.

Objective: To determine both the negative and positive predictive values of comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS) results for clinical outcome.

Design: Data obtained from two prospective, double-blinded, nonselection studies.

Setting: Academic center for reproductive medicine.

Live birth outcome with trophectoderm biopsy, blastocyst vitrification, and single-nucleotide polymorphism microarray-based comprehensive chromosome screening in infertile patients.

The combination of trophectoderm biopsy, blastocyst vitrification, and single-nucleotide polymorphism microarray-based technology for comprehensive chromosome screening results in high implantation and live birth rates that could contribute to the practical application of single embryo transfer for infertility patients.

Effect of infertility, maternal age, and number of previous miscarriages on the outcome of preimplantation genetic diagnosis for idiopathic recurrent pregnancy loss.

Objective: To determine whether preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) would decrease spontaneous abortion rates in patients with idiopathic recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL).

Design: Controlled clinical study.

Setting: IVF center and PGD reference laboratory.

Recent insights into platinum drug resistance in cancer.

Cisplatin and its analogs have become important components of chemotherapeutic regimens for the treatment of solid tumors, however, their overall effectiveness is limited by the emergence of drug-resistant tumor cells. Resistance to the platinum drugs is multifactorial consisting of mechanisms that prevent the formation of lethal platinum-DNA adducts and mechanisms that operate downstream of the drug/target interaction to promote cell survival. Continued progress in the study of the drug resistance phenotype as well as the development of new platinum analogs may eventually lead to improved therapies and increased survival rates.

The effect of surgical office-based thyroid ultrasound on clinical decision making.

An important diagnostic tool for the evaluation of thyroid disease, thyroid ultrasound has recently become available for use in surgical offices. The purpose of this report is to determine the lesional sensitivity of office-based thyroid ultrasound and its impact on clinical decision making. Surgical office-based thyroid ultrasound was performed on 49 consecutive patients who presented with thyroid disease.

Esophageal carcinoma: current controversial topics.

Worldwide, esophageal carcinoma is a common gastrointestinal cancer with a high mortality. The incidence of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus is increasing in the western world, but squamous cell carcinoma remains dominant in the underdeveloped parts of the world. Both types of esophageal carcinoma remain equally virulent.

Neoadjuvant treatment for resectable cancer of the esophagus and the gastroesophageal junction: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

Background: There is no general agreement on the effect of neoadjuvant treatment for esophageal cancer on patient survival.

Methods: A meta-analysis was performed to determine the effect of preoperative treatment on survival of patients with resectable esophageal cancer and the effect of preoperative treatment on patient mortality. A standard variance-based method was used to derive summary estimates of the absolute difference in both 2-year survival and treatment-related mortality.

Social, neuroradiologic, medical, and neuropsychologic correlates of sexually aberrant behavior after traumatic brain injury: a controlled study.

Objective: To identify social, neuroradiological, medical, and neuropsychological correlates of sexually aberrant behavior (SAB) after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Design: A controlled study using a retrospective file review.

Setting: A brain injury unit providing inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services.

Human mdm2 mediates multiple mono-ubiquitination of p53 by a mechanism requiring enzyme isomerization.

The mdm2 gene product is an important regulator of p53 function and stability. mdm2 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase for p53 and the RING finger domain of mdm2 is critical for ligase activity. Ubiquitin (Ub) conjugation is a general targeting modification and poly-ubiquitin chains specifically target proteins to the proteasome for degradation.

Increased nucleotide excision repair in cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cells: role of ERCC1-XPF.

Increased platinum-DNA adduct removal has been shown by several DNA repair assays to be associated with cisplatin resistance in the A2780/C-series human ovarian cancer model system. In the present study, we provide further evidence that the resistance phenotype of these cell lines is due, in part, to enhanced nucleotide excision repair (NER). Cisplatin resistance was found to be associated with increased UV resistance.

Changing management trends in penetrating colon trauma.

Purpose: Recent prospective studies have recommended primary repair for all penetrating colon injuries. We evaluated our management trends given these recommendations and assessed our results of primary repair.

Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of 145 patients with penetrating colon injuries received between January 1, 1991, and December 31, 1997.

Decreased cisplatin damage-dependent DNA synthesis in cellular extracts of mismatch repair deficient cells.

The proficiency of both nucleotide excision repair (NER) and DNA mismatch repair (MMR) influences cellular sensitivity to cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum). To gain further insight into how MMR may influence platinum drug sensitivity, the effect of loss of MMR on repair synthesis was measured in vitro by a commonly used method that relies on whole-cell extracts to drive [alpha-32P]dATP incorporation into cisplatin-damaged plasmid DNA. Extracts evaluated include those from cells with or without functional hMLH1 (HCT116+ch2 versus HCT116+ch3, respectively) and hMSH2 (HEC59 versus HEC59+ch2, respectively).

Sentinel lymph node biopsy for melanoma.

Background: The most powerful predictor of survival for patients with melanoma is the status of the regional lymph nodes. Sentinel lymph node biopsy may provide improved staging accuracy without the morbidity of elective lymph node dissection (ELND).

Methods: Sixty-eight patients with intermediate thickness melanoma underwent gamma probe guided sentinel node biopsy without ELND and were followed up over a mean of 22 months.

No evidence of hemispheric facilitation following the induction of negative and positive affect.

A dichotomy is thought to exist between the hemispheres whereby the right hemisphere is specialized for the processing of negative emotions and the left hemisphere is specialized for positive emotions. Van Strien and Morpurgo (Neuropsychologia, 1992, 30, 845-848) demonstrated that the activation of negative and positive emotional states resulted in the allocation of attentional resources to the contralateral hemispace. In the present experiment we sought to replicate this effect and improve upon certain methodological features of the experiment.