Moving Beyond the Bladder Diary: Does New Technology Now Allow Us to Take Investigation of LUTS Into the Community? ICI-RS 2024.

Context: Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) are defined by their distressing effect on patients' day-to-day life. Given the pressures on secondary care resources, LUTS may be overlooked or inadequately assessed and therefore patients may be burdened for an extended period before treatment.

Methods: In a debate held at the International Consultation on Incontinence Research Society (ICI-RS) meeting in Bristol in June 2024, we considered how new technologies might contribute to an expedited, dignified and effective investigation of LUTS.

Therapeutic and Mechanistic Advances in Chronic Cough.

Cough is one of the most common reasons patients seek medical care in the outpatient setting. Chronic cough (CC) in adults is defined as a cough lasting more than 8 weeks, with a global prevalence of approximately 10%. CC significantly impairs quality of life, affecting physical, social, and psychological well-being.

Can We Prevent Recurrent UTIs Without Antibiotics, in Both Those Who Do and Do Not Use Catheters? ICI-RS 2024.

Aims: Urinary tract infections are one of the most common reasons for antibiotic prescription. The widespread use of antibiotic treatments contributes to the global health problem of antimicrobial resistance development. To slow down the progression of antimicrobial resistance, it is essential that we explore nonantibiotic preventive treatments for this common condition.

Impact of contrast administration and CT reconstruction plane on Hounsfield units for assessing underlying bone quality in the lumbar spine.

Objective: Hounsfield units (HUs) may better predict biomechanical complications of instrumented fusion than conventional bone quality measures. Typically, noncontrast axial slices are used. This study aims to address the influence of reconstruction plane and contrast administration on measured HUs in patients undergoing lumbar spine imaging.

Parasympathetic Airway Hyperreactivity Is Enhanced in Acute but Not Chronic Eosinophilic Asthma Mouse Models.

Airway hyperreactivity in asthma is mediated by airway nerves, including sensory nerves in airway epithelium and parasympathetic nerves innervating airway smooth muscle. Isolating the function of these two nerve populations in vivo, to distinguish how each is affected by inflammatory processes and contributes to hyperreactivity in asthma, has been challenging. In this study, we used optogenetic acti-vation of airway nerves in vivo to study parasympathetic contributions to airway hyperreactivity in two mouse models of asthma: 1) acute challenge with house dust mite antigen, and 2) chronic airway hy-pereosinophilia due to genetic IL-5 overexpression in airways.