A retrospective comparison between transrectal and transperineal prostate biopsy in the detection of prostate cancer.

Background: The aim of this study was to analyze the differences between TRUSguided transrectal prostate biopsy (TR) and transperineal prostate biopsy (TP) in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. The two biopsy methods were evaluated in terms of diagnostic sensitivity and of early and late complications.

Methods: This retrospective study was realized through the review of clinical records of 219 men that received a prostate biopsy between 2004 and 2014.

[Pain in urology: pathophysiological aspects of pain and chronicity.].

Chronic pain has been traditionally defined by pain duration, but this approach has limited empirical support and does not account for chronic pain multidimensionality. Defining chronic pain solely by duration is based on the view that acute pain signals potential tissue damage, whereas chronic pain results from central sensitization in which pain is sustained after nociceptive inputs have diminished. Chronic urological pain is a prevalent condition, which can represent a major challenge to health care providers due to its complex aetiology and poor response to therapy.

A brief historical survey of "Peyronie's disease".

Introduction: Historians of medicine and urology, sexology, and andrology in particular maintain that many other physicians, surgeons, anatomists, and pathologists have already described "Peyronie's disease" some centuries before the author after whom it has been called, François Gigot de La Peyronie (1678-1747).

Aim: To perform a brief historical survey of Peyronie's disease. Methods.

Molecular biology and the staging of prostate cancer.

Cancer of the prostate is still controlled or cured by surgery, radiotherapy, and hormone therapy. The present criteria of complication and prediction are criticized more and more for not being sufficiently reliable, due to the high heterogeneity of prostatic cells. The continuing discoveries of intra- and extracellular mechanisms of the molecular informational network, which allow the continuity or discontinuity of the cell's life, are also related to prostate cancer.

Prognostic value of a combination of IPSS, flow rate and residual urine volume compared to pressure-flow studies in the preoperative evaluation of symptomatic BPH.

Objective: Evaluate the predictive value of a combination of IPSS, uroflowmetry and ultrasound determination of residual urine volume in the determination of bladder outflow obstruction (BOO) and in predicting treatment outcome.

Methods: Forty-five out of a group of 60 BPH symptomatic patients were included. Preoperative evaluation: urine culture, PSA, uroflowmetry with sonographic measurement of post-void residual urine, DRE, IPSS with quality of life questions and pressure-flow study.

Quantitative and qualitative AgNORs rates of prostate cancer on needle core biopsies: a multicentric study.

From 1992 to 1993, the Scarpa Foundation Center of Pavia (SFCP) with 12 associated Italian Urological Units selected 40 cases of prostate diseases discovered on needle core biopsies, 5 of which were benign hyperplasias (BPH) in patients without clinical and morphological evidence of cancer and 35 prostate cancers (PRC) classified according to Gleason's histological grades (GLG) of PRC malignancy. Serum prostatic specific antigen (PSA) values were tested before clinical urological examination or biopsy or surgery. In all groups, AgNORs scores/nucleus were obtained by semi- and -automatic computerized image analysis and also by qualitative subjective counts of three observers on light microscopy.

Case report: uneventful treatment of a giant prostate.

Objective: Redefine the meaning of the old term "giant adenoma" and evaluate the diagnosis and safest method of treatment of such cases.

Method: The world literature was reviewed, particularly concerning diagnostic approaches and therapeutic techniques.

Results: The open surgery technique appears to be the safest in the treatment of giant adenoma.

The Medical School at Ravenna.

The existence of the Ravenna School of Medicine can be deduced from a codex in the Ambrosian Library of Milan, which contains Latin translations of 3 Hippocratic works and commentaries on 4 works by Galen. Although it was written in the 9th century, the codex appears to be a copy of an earlier work, probably 7th century. The Ambrosian commentaries follow other commentators on Aristotle, rather than the original Aristotelian works, and contain a number of misinterpretations.

The Aristotelian kidney.

Aristotle incorrectly observed the absence of the kidney in fish and birds and deduced that it was not essential for the existence of a living organism. This underlies his observations on structure and function of the kidney. From examination of rhesus monkeys he generalized that the right kidney is higher than the left.