Prostate cancer detection is also relevant in low prostate specific antigen ranges.

Objective: To address detection rates and clinical features of the cancers detected with low prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels.

Methods: In the context of a prostate cancer (PCa) screening program 1097 men attended to a new rescreen round. Sextant prostate biopsy was recommended when PSA > or =3 ng/ml.

Hypoglycemia does not affect gonadotroph responsiveness to gonadotropin-releasing hormone in rhesus monkeys.

Hypoglycemia inhibits gonadotropin secretion in primates by an undefined mechanism. Some evidence suggests that hypoglycemia inhibits gonadotropin secretion independent of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) inhibition. To this end, the effect of insulininduced hypoglycemia on the luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) response to graded doses of GnRH (25, 75, and 250 ng/kg) administered at 120-min intervals was determined in rhesus monkeys.

Estrogen-induced gonadotropin surge in rhesus monkeys is not inhibited by cortisol synthesis inhibition or hypoglycemia.

Acute administration of corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) has been shown to inhibit gonadotropin secretion in several species including rodents, sheep, humans, and nonhuman primates. Similarly, a variety of acute stressors have been shown to inhibit tonic gonadotropin secretion and may do so through a CRH mechanism. Stress-induced inhibition of tonic gonadotropin secretion below levels required for follicular maturation would be expected to inhibit ovulation.

Pleomorphic leiomyosarcoma of the adrenal gland.

Primary leiomyosarcomas arising in the adrenal gland are exceedingly rare, with only 3 cases reported in the literature. We present the clinical, morphologic, and immunohistochemical features of a pleomorphic leiomyosarcoma, a variant of leiomyosarcoma that has not been described in the adrenal gland. A 63-year-old man presented with a 1-year history of enlarging right upper quadrant mass and pulmonary nodule.

Prostate specific antigen density. Is there a role for this parameter when screening for prostate cancer?

The objective of this paper is to validate prostate specific antigen (PSA) density (PSAD) routine use to enhance PSA specificity in men with normal digital rectal examination and intermediate PSA values. It is a retrospective study of 235 men from a prostate cancer (PCa) screening program. All of them presented PSA values between 4 and 10 ng/ml, normal digital rectal examination, and a transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided biopsy available (PSA>/=4 ng/ml as the sole criterion for biopsy).

PSA-use in a Spanish industrial area.

Objectives: To document the extent of prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-testing in the general population at Getafe (Spain) outside our prostate cancer (PC) screening program, and to check its performance in terms of PC detection.

Methods: A total of 5371 PSA-test records (1997-1999) were reviewed and testing rates estimated per 1000 person-years. The extent of patient referral (men referred to our facilities) was calculated adjusting for PSA levels.

Polyphenols in red wine inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis of LNCaP cells.

Objective: To assess the effect of five polyphenol constituents of red wine (quercetin, morin, rutin, gallic acid and tannic acid) on the proliferation of LNCaP cells, and to quantify the extent of apoptosis with each polyphenol.

Materials And Methods: LNCaP cells (500) were cultured in microtitre plates and treated with gallic acid, tannic acid, quercetin (1, 5 and 10 micromol/L), rutin and morin (25, 50 and 75 micromol/L). A colorimetric immunoassay was then used to determine the extent of proliferation at 24, 48, 72 and 96 h, and a cell-death detection assay to assess apoptosis at 24, 48 and 72 h.

Late-onset congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation of the lung. Embryology, clinical symptomatology, diagnostic procedures, therapeutic approach and clinical follow-up.

Background: Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation of the lung (CCAM) is an embryonic developmental anomaly of an unknown etiology usually diagnosed antenatally by imaging techniques. A minority of cases may not be identified by prenatal imaging techniques and may go unnoticed for the first 6 months of their extrauterine life. Due to its rarity, physicians are unlikely to suspect the condition.

Long-term response to interferon plus ribavirin in patients with chronic hepatitis C refractory to interferon.

Objective: A sustained response (SR) to interferon (IFN) is only observed in 15-20% of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). The aim of this study was to determine the long-term effectiveness and safety of the treatment with IFN plus ribavirin (RIB) over two years in CHC patients without SR to IFN.

Design: A prospective and open longitudinal follow-up study was conducted over 3 years.

Pulmonary nocardiosis: clinical experience in ten cases.

Background: Pulmonary nocardiosis is an infrequent infection whose incidence seems to be increasing due to a higher degree of clinical suspicion and the increasing number of immunosuppressive factors.

Objective: To study the predisposing factors, clinical characteristics, diagnostic procedures, treatment and progress of pulmonary nocardiosis (PN).

Methods: Review of 10 patients (9 male, 1 female, mean age 61) with PN in a 600-bed teaching hospital, diagnosed from 1992 to 1999.

Detecting circulating prostate cells in patients with clinically localized prostate cancer: clinical implications for molecular staging.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical utility of using the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect prostate-specific antigen (PSA) mRNA in peripheral blood samples from patients with prostate cancer, as a predictor of extraprostatic disease, and to assess any correlations with known predictive markers of this condition.

Patients And Methods: Immediately before radical prostatectomy, peripheral blood samples were taken from 25 men with clinically localized prostate cancer and analysed for PSA mRNA using RT-PCR (in 'hot-start' conditions and confirmed using ClaI restriction enzyme). The relationships between PSA mRNA positivity, pathological and clinical features were analysed; PSA mRNA positivity, PSA level and biopsy Gleason score were then compared as predictors of extraprostatic disease.

Retreatment for 24 vs 48 weeks with interferon-alpha2b plus ribavirin of chronic hepatitis C patients who relapsed or did not respond to interferon alone.

We assessed the efficacy of interferon (IFN) plus ribavirin over 24 or 48 weeks for the retreatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C who had relapsed or did not respond to a previous course of IFN. One-hundred and twenty patients (69 non-responders and 51 relapsers) were randomly assigned to receive IFN-alpha2b (3 million units thrice weekly) plus ribavirin (1,000-1,200 mg per day) for 24 weeks (group A: 58 patients) or 48 weeks (group B: 62 patients). Treatment was discontinued at week 12 if the alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level remained elevated.

[Non-aneurysmatic aortic dysphagia].

Esophageal compression by a vascular structure is a rare cause of dysphagia, the aberrant right subclavian artery being the most common congenital abnormality. Aortica dysphagia is usually observed in the elderly, especially in hypertensive women with cardiopathy and degenerative osteopathy. We report a 73-year-old woman with dysphagia, caused by a non-aneurysmatic aortic elongation, who presented progressive dysphagia, which ended in aphagia associated with heart failure.

Prostate specific antigen variation in patients without clinically evident prostate cancer.

Purpose: We address long-term within individual variation of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) in men without clinical or biopsy evidence of prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: We studied 943 men from a prostate cancer screening program with 2 PSA (PSA1 and PSA2) measurements available. A third PSA (PSA3) was obtained from 571 men.

Reliability of the routine cytological diagnosis in bladder cancer.

Objectives: To establish the reliability of three cytopathologists for cytological diagnosis of primary bladder tumors.

Methods: Preoperative voided urine specimens of 71 patients with bladder cancer and 55 noncancer controls were retrospectively and blindly reviewed by 3 independent cytologists, and their results compared. The estimation of the interobserver agreement was calculated using the weighted kappa coefficient.

Final results of a screening campaign for prostate cancer.

Objective: To detect curable prostate cancer in a male Spanish population. The results of screening 2,576 men are reported.

Patients And Methods: Patients underwent digital rectal examination (DRE) and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) determination.

[Focal nodular liver hyperplasia of atypical presentation].

Focal nodular hyperplasia is a benign hepatic tumor that usually appears in young women. Diagnosis of focal nodular hyperplasia is often incidental when an ultrasonography or computed tomography is performed by other reasons, because its course is generally asymptomatic; the presence of a central fibrous scar is characteristic. Management in focal nodular hyperplasia must be conservative, with ultrasonographic follow-up, and it only must be treated when patients are symptomatics or in case of tumoral enlargement.

[Prevalence of anti-hepatitis A in patients with chronic liver disease].

The recent availability of an effective vaccine for preventing hepatitis A has led to the performance of a prevalence study of antibodies versus the hepatitis A virus (HAV) in our patients with chronic liver disease by hepatitis B and C, as a step prior to vaccination. The sera of 425 patients with a mean age of 40 years was studied, with the global antibodies versus HAV being determined (Abbott). The prevalence was to 75.

Role of autonomic innervation in rat prostatic structure maintenance: a morphometric analysis.

Purpose: To analyze the effects of major pelvic ganglion (MPG) excision on the structure of rat prostate.

Materials And Methods: We studied 80 Sprague-Dawley rats (300-350 gm. weight).

Application of self-expanding stents in prostate cancer with rectal involvement. Report of two cases and review of the literature.

Objectives: Rectal involvement due to local spread from prostate cancer is an uncommon finding. When this condition occurs, prognosis is ominous. Our objective is to report our experience in the use of self-expanding endorectal stents in the management of rectal invasion from prostate cancer.

[Clinical course of prostatic abscess treated with transperineal drainage].

It is true that appearance of prostate abscesses is currently not so frequent due to the antibiotic therapy available to stop any kind of infectious process which may trigger abscess formation. Even so, it is important to channel right from the beginning the correct diagnosis and treatment in order to avoid, as far as possible, any complications that may derive from the process. This paper deals with the case of a young patient diagnosed in our service with a prostate abscess, and faced with that suspicion we advocated the use of transrectal ultrasound (TRU) as the method for diagnostic imaging.