Collectives of diagnostic biomarkers identify high-risk subpopulations of hematuria patients: exploiting heterogeneity in large-scale biomarker data.

Background: Ineffective risk stratification can delay diagnosis of serious disease in patients with hematuria. We applied a systems biology approach to analyze clinical, demographic and biomarker measurements (n = 29) collected from 157 hematuric patients: 80 urothelial cancer (UC) and 77 controls with confounding pathologies.

Methods: On the basis of biomarkers, we conducted agglomerative hierarchical clustering to identify patient and biomarker clusters.

Standardization of diagnostic biomarker concentrations in urine: the hematuria caveat.

Sensitive and specific urinary biomarkers can improve patient outcomes in many diseases through informing early diagnosis. Unfortunately, to date, the accuracy and translation of diagnostic urinary biomarkers into clinical practice has been disappointing. We believe this may be due to inappropriate standardization of diagnostic urinary biomarkers.

Renal arteriovenous fistula: a rare complication of electro-hydraulic lithotripsy.

Renal arteriovenous fistula (rAVF) is an uncommon condition, usually iatrogenic and in most cases caused by percutaneous renal needle biopsy. This is a report of rAVF following flexible ureteroscopic electro-hydraulic lithotripsy of a lower pole renal calculus and its subsequent management. A high index of suspicion is required for the diagnosis of this rare complication, which is easily treated by radiological intervention.

Penoscrotal incarceration, four rings, and estate department bolt to the rescue.

Combined penoscrotal incarceration is rarely reported in the literature. It is a urological emergency. Depending on the nature of the constricting object, duration of constriction, and with no defined treatment methods, inventiveness is usually required in removing difficult objects.

The impact of biomarkers in multivariate algorithms for bladder cancer diagnosis in patients with hematuria.

Background: We appraised 23 biomarkers previously associated with urothelial cancer in a case-control study. Our aim was to determine whether single biomarkers and/or multivariate algorithms significantly improved on the predictive power of an algorithm based on demographics for prediction of urothelial cancer in patients presenting with hematuria.

Methods: Twenty-two biomarkers in urine and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in serum were evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and biochip array technology in 2 patient cohorts: 80 patients with urothelial cancer, and 77 controls with confounding pathologies.