Perioperative Outcomes of Transurethral Resection, Open Prostatectomy, and Laser Therapy in the Surgical Treatment of Benign Prostatic Obstruction: A "Real-World" Data Analysis from the URO-Cert Prostate Centers.

Introduction: The aim of the study is to compare length of hospital stay, transfusion rates, and re-intervention rates during hospitalization for transurethral resection of the prostate (TUR-P), open prostatectomy (OP), and laser therapy (LT) for surgical treatment of benign prostatic obstruction (BPO).

Methods: URO-Cert is an organization, in which clinical data of prostatic diseases from 2 university, 19 public, and 3 private hospitals and 270 office-based urologists are collected in order to document treatment quality. Data on diagnostics, therapy, and course of disease are recorded web based.

Negative predictive value of systematic ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy: which tumours do we miss?

Background: The aim of the study was the determination of the negative predictive value of sextant core prostate biopsy.

Patients And Methods: Prostate cancer was diagnosed in 126 patients by systematic ultrasound-guided sextant biopsy and was subsequently treated with radical prostatectomy. The prostatectomy specimens were examined histopathologically using the whole-mount section technique.

EAU guidelines on chronic pelvic pain.

Context: These guidelines were prepared on behalf of the European Association of Urology (EAU) to help urologists assess the evidence-based management of chronic pelvic pain (CPP) and to incorporate the recommendations into their clinical practice.

Objective: To revise guidelines for the diagnosis, therapy, and follow-up of CPP patients.

Evidence Acquisition: Guidelines were compiled by a working group and based on a systematic review of current literature using the PubMed database, with important papers reviewed for the 2003 EAU guidelines as a background.

Treatment of bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis 2008: can we make evidence-based decisions?

Context: Opinions on how to best treat bladder pain/interstitial cystitis are ambiguous.

Objective: To review previous and recent literature on this subject to assess the current state of evidence.

Evidence Acquisition: With important previous papers reviewed for the 2003 European Association of Urology guidelines as background, the PubMed database was searched and articles published in 2003-2007 were reviewed and relevant ones were selected for detailed study.

Hyperbaric oxygen for the treatment of interstitial cystitis: long-term results of a prospective pilot study.

Objective: We conducted a prospective pilot study to assess the safety and efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) for the treatment of interstitial cystitis (IC).

Methods: Six patients underwent 30 sessions of 100% oxygen inhalation in a hyperbaric chamber and were followed up over 15 months. The measures of efficacy were changes in pain and urgency (visual analog scales), alteration in the patient's assessment of overall change in his well-being (Patient Global Assessment Form), and changes in frequency and functional bladder capacity (48-hours voiding log).

Bicycle riding has no important impact on total and free prostate-specific antigen serum levels in older men.

Objectives: To investigate whether bicycle riding significantly alters total prostate-specific antigen (tPSA), free PSA (fPSA), and percent free PSA (%fPSA) serum concentrations in potential candidates for prostate cancer screening.

Methods: Thirty-three men, ranging in age from 50 to 74 years (mean 61 +/- 8), rode a 13-mile bicycle course. Blood samples for PSA analysis were drawn immediately before and 1 hour after cycling for 90 minutes.

Semi-quantitative immunochromatographic test for prostate specific antigen in whole blood: tossing the coin to predict prostate cancer?

Objectives: A strip test for the semi-quantitative determination of prostate specific antigen (PSA) based on whole blood was evaluated by the Working Group on Laboratory Diagnostics of the German Urological Association.

Methods: In 301 men (156 volunteers and 145 referred patients, mean ages 57 years and 64 years) handling and capability of the strip test to predict PSA serum concentrations (Access Hybritech, Beckman Coulter, Inc., Fullerton, CA, USA) relative to a cutoff of 4 micro g/l were investigated.

A new modification of the Chiron ACS assay for total prostate-specific antigen achieves equimolar response characteristics and improves the detection of prostate cancer.

Nonequimolar-response assays for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) are criticized for overestimating total PSA in some men without prostate cancer (PCA), and underestimating total PSA in some men with PCA. We recently studied three nonequimolar-response PSA assays that had undergone modifications. While two of the studied assays achieved equimolar-response characteristics with improved areas under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUC), the modification of the Chiron ACS PSA assay (ACS PSA2, Chiron) failed to achieve this.

Combining free and total prostate specific antigen assays from different manufacturers: the pitfalls.

Objectives: We investigated the impact of interchanging free prostate specific antigen (f-PSA) concentrations from 10 different assays over a reference total PSA (t-PSA) on predicting prostate histology with free-to-total PSA ratios (f/t-PSA).

Methods: Archival sera from 80 t-PSA- and age-matched pairs of histologically confirmed prostate cancer (PCA) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients with t-PSA levels between 2 and 25 microg/l were investigated. Serum aliquots were analyzed for t- and f-PSA using a reference method (Access, Beckmann-Coulter Hybritech) and 10 commercially available f-PSA assays.

Interstitial cystitis: an update.

Purpose Of Review: Interstitial cystitis is a chronically progressive, severely debilitating, heterogeneous syndrome affecting the urinary bladder, mainly associated with urgency, frequency and pain. Though known for over a century, its etiology is poorly understood and universally effective treatments are lacking. This review focuses on recently published literature on the disorder.

Long-term results of trigone-preserving orthotopic substitution enterocystoplasty for interstitial cystitis.

Purpose: Interstitial cystitis is a chronic debilitating condition mainly affecting women. Conservative treatment often produces unsatisfactory results and the identification of the best surgical treatment modality is difficult. We evaluate retrospectively the long-term results of trigone-preserving cystectomy followed by orthotopic substitution enteroplasty for women suffering from interstitial cystitis.