Is lower urinary tract dysfunction an early marker of Portuguese type familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy in women? Preliminary results.

Type 1 Portuguese Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy was first observed in 1939 and described in 1951 by Corino Andrade. FAP is a rare autosomal dominant disease caused by a mutant gene in chromosome 18, characterized by a variant transthyretin in which valine is substituted for methionine at position 30 (ATTR V30M), affecting mainly young adults. ATTR V30M positivity does not imply disease, but the disease is only present with ATTR V30M in serum.

[Surgical treatment of complete penile duplication].

Penile duplication is a rare anomaly with an incidence of 1 in 5,500,000. It is almost associated with other malformations like double bladder, presence of the cloaca, imperforate anus, duplication of the recto sigmoid and vertebral deformities. The authors present the surgical technique to resolve a rare case of complete penile duplication in a 4 years old child, without any other malformation.

Thymulin inhibits monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension modulating interleukin-6 expression and suppressing p38 pathway.

The pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension (PH) includes an inflammatory response. Thymulin, a zinc-dependent thymic hormone, has important immunobiological effects by inhibiting various proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. We investigated morphological and hemodynamic effects of thymulin administration in a rat model of monocrotaline (MCT)-induced PH, as well as the pattern of proinflammatory cytokine gene expression and the intracellular pathways involved.

[Penile abscess. Case report].

Objective: To report one case of penile abscess, with special reference to diagnostic and therapeutic aspects.

Methods: One case of penile abscess is presented in a patient referred for penile swelling.

Results: During surgical exploration it showed to be a corpora cavernosum rupture with drainage of a small volume of purulent fluid.

[Clinical, multicentric, and open study to evaluate the efficacy of and tolerance to sildenafil in patients with erectile dysfunction].

Erectile dysfunction (ED), defined by the Impotence-NIH Consensus Conference as the "persistent inability to achieve and/or maintain erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual activity" affect more than 100 million men worldwide, at particular severity levels. The global prevalence of ED is estimated to affect about 10%, but has been found to increase significantly with age (39% in men 40 years of age and 67% at 70 years of age). In men aged 40 to 70 years, the severe ED prevalence increased of three folds, 5 to 15%.