PRESIUS, Predictive value of sonographic functional urethral length and urethral closure angle for the diagnosis of stress urinary incontinence.

Introduction: Numerous anatomical theories have been developed to explain women stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and improve its management. The transperineal ultrasound is an efficient and non-invasive exam that perfectly studies the bladder neck movement and the urethral anatomy. The measurement of the static portion of the distal urethral length, considered as the functional urethral length (FUL), and of the posterior urethral closure angle (PUCA) have not been studied before and could be of interest.

Thoracoscopic Guided Pericostal Sutures as a Solid Fixation for Primary Closure of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernias.

To describe a minimally invasive technique with primary closure and strong suture connection that is feasible in cases of larger, most common type B defects of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). The thoracoscopic approach (TA) is a favorable technique for the repair of CDH and is still evolving globally. A common issue is finding the optimal suture technique for secure closure in order to prevent recurrences.

Transanal Endoscopic-Assisted Pull-Through Colectomy for Children with High Intestinal Aganglionosis.

Intestinal aganglionosis in children is a common cause of neonatal and infantile obstruction or ileus. Diagnosis is based on a histologically proven absence of enteric ganglion cells in deep biopsies of the gut wall. Therapeutic goal is a one-stage repair with a resection of the affected segment.

["Frühe Hilfen": what must pediatricians know?].

In early childhood, essential foundations are laid for healthy growing up and long-term quality of life and health. Stressful life situations can disrupt good early childhood development, therefore early support is essential. Early childhood interventions like "Frühe Hilfen" provide support systems with coordinated services for parents and children during early childhood.

Experiences and well-being of healthcare professionals working in the field of ultrasound in obstetrics and gynaecology as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic were evolving: a cross-sectional survey study.

Objective: Assess experience of healthcare professionals (HCPs) working with ultrasound in obstetrics and gynaecology during the evolving SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, given the new and unprecedented challenges involving viral exposure, personal protective equipment (PPE) and well-being.

Design: Prospective cross-sectional survey study.

Setting: Online international survey.

Systematic Investigation of Polyurethane Biomaterial Surface Roughness on Human Immune Responses .

It has been widely shown that biomaterial surface topography can modulate host immune response, but a fundamental understanding of how different topographies contribute to pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory responses is still lacking. To investigate the impact of surface topography on immune response, we undertook a systematic approach by analyzing immune response to eight grades of medical grade polyurethane of increasing surface roughness in three models of the human immune system. Polyurethane specimens were produced with defined roughness values by injection molding according to the VDI 3400 industrial standard.

Isolated fallopian tube metastasis from colorectal cancer: ultrasonographic features.

We present here the first-reported case of tubal metastasis from colorectal cancer diagnosed by a preoperative pelvic ultrasound. A 53-year-old woman suffering from vaginal discharge was referred to us 2 years after she underwent a partial colectomy for adenocarcinoma. The pelvic ultrasound examination revealed a right pelvic mass of 52 × 24 × 38 mm, independent of the right ovary, which was apparently unaffected.

Pilot Study of a Software-Supported Protocol for Second-Trimester Ultrasound Screening.

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and impact of using a software-supported protocol for routine second-trimester ultrasound scanning.

Methods: We conducted a comparative observational study of 2 sets of 25 randomly selected normal routine second-trimester examinations performed by the same expert sonographer before and 1 year after the introduction of a software-supported protocol. The scanning protocol was identical during both periods and conformed to International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology guidelines.

Prospective multicenter registration study of colorectal cancer: significant variations in radicality and oncosurgical quality-Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research Protocol SAKK 40/00.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate in a multicenter cohort study the radicality of colorectal cancer resections, to assess the oncosurgical quality of colorectal specimens, and to compare the performance between centers.

Methods: One German and nine Swiss hospitals agreed to prospectively register all patients with primary colorectal cancer resected between September 2001 and June 2005. The median number of eligible patients with one primary tumor included per center was 95 (range 12-204).

Delaying surgery to perform CT scans for suspected appendicitis decreases the rate of negative appendectomies without increasing the rate of perforation nor postoperative complications.

Purpose: Negative appendectomies are costly and are embedded with unnecessary risks for the patients. A careful indication for surgery seems mandatory even more so, since conservative therapy emerges as a potential alternative to surgery. The aims of this population-based study were to analyze whether radiological examinations for suspected appendicitis decreased the rate of negative appendectomies without increasing the rate of perforation or worsening postoperative outcomes.

Tumor promotion and inhibition by phenobarbital in livers of conditional Apc-deficient mice.

Activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling is important for human and rodent hepatocarcinogenesis. In mice, the tumor promoter phenobarbital (PB) selects for hepatocellular tumors with activating β-catenin mutations via constitutive androstane receptor activation. PB-dependent tumor promotion was studied in mice with genetic inactivation of Apc, a negative regulator of β-catenin, to circumvent the problem of randomly induced mutations by chemical initiators and to allow monitoring of PB- and Wnt/β-catenin-dependent tumorigenesis in the absence of unknown genomic alterations.

Coordinating Role of RXRα in Downregulating Hepatic Detoxification during Inflammation Revealed by Fuzzy-Logic Modeling.

During various inflammatory processes circulating cytokines including IL-6, IL-1β, and TNFα elicit a broad and clinically relevant impairment of hepatic detoxification that is based on the simultaneous downregulation of many drug metabolizing enzymes and transporter genes. To address the question whether a common mechanism is involved we treated human primary hepatocytes with IL-6, the major mediator of the acute phase response in liver, and characterized acute phase and detoxification responses in quantitative gene expression and (phospho-)proteomics data sets. Selective inhibitors were used to disentangle the roles of JAK/STAT, MAPK, and PI3K signaling pathways.

A Floor-Plate Extracellular Protein-Protein Interaction Screen Identifies Draxin as a Secreted Netrin-1 Antagonist.

Floor-plate-derived extracellular signaling molecules, including canonical axon guidance cues of the Netrin family, control neuronal circuit organization. Despite the importance of the floor plate as an essential signaling center in the developing vertebrate central nervous system, no systematic approach to identify binding partners for floor-plate-expressed cell-surface and secreted proteins has been carried out. Here, we used a high-throughput assay to discover extracellular protein-protein interactions, which likely take place in the zebrafish floor-plate microenvironment.

[Ultrasonographic features in the preoperative diagnosis of primitive fallopian tube carcinoma].

Objectives: To review the characteristic ultrasound features of primary fallopian tube carcinoma (PFTC) and its relationship to the clinical history in order to establish specific findings useful for the preoperative diagnosis.

Method: An extensive review of the current literature was done on Medline via PubMed by using the following keywords: "primary fallopian tube cancer", "tubal cancer", "adnexal malignancy mass" and "ultrasound".

Results: PFTC corresponds to complex, sausage-shaped structures or cystic adnexal masses.

Adenocarcinomas of the upper third of the rectum and the rectosigmoid junction seem to have similar prognosis as colon cancers even without radiotherapy, SAKK 40/87.

Purpose: To investigate the prognosis of adenocarcinomas of the upper third of the rectum and the rectosigmoid-junction without radiotherapy.

Methods: Patients from a multicenter randomized controlled trial from 1987-1993 on adjuvant chemotherapy for R0-resected colorectal cancers with stage I-III disease were retrospectively allocated: cancers of the lower two-thirds of the rectum (11 cm or less from anal-verge, Group A, n = 205), of the upper-third of the rectum and rectosigmoid-junction (>11-20 cm from anal-verge, Group B, n = 142), and of the colon (>20 cm from anal-verge, Group C, n = 378). The total mesorectal excision (TME) technique had not been introduced yet.

Cross-platform toxicogenomics for the prediction of non-genotoxic hepatocarcinogenesis in rat.

In the area of omics profiling in toxicology, i.e. toxicogenomics, characteristic molecular profiles have previously been incorporated into prediction models for early assessment of a carcinogenic potential and mechanism-based classification of compounds.

Expression of cancer testis antigens CT10 (MAGE-C2) and GAGE in gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Introduction: Expression of cancer testis antigens (CTAs) has been associated with prognosis in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and other malignancies. CTAs are currently being investigated for cancer immunotherapy.

Materials And Methods: We analyzed two CTAs, CT10/MAGE-C2 and GAGE, in 51 GIST by immunohistochemistry and correlated it with established histopathological criteria for malignancy.

Ha-ras and β-catenin oncoproteins orchestrate metabolic programs in mouse liver tumors.

The process of hepatocarcinogenesis in the diethylnitrosamine (DEN) initiation/phenobarbital (PB) promotion mouse model involves the selective clonal outgrowth of cells harboring oncogene mutations in Ctnnb1, while spontaneous or DEN-only-induced tumors are often Ha-ras- or B-raf-mutated. The molecular mechanisms and pathways underlying these different tumor sub-types are not well characterized. Their identification may help identify markers for xenobiotic promoted versus spontaneously occurring liver tumors.

Identification of Dlk1-Dio3 imprinted gene cluster noncoding RNAs as novel candidate biomarkers for liver tumor promotion.

The molecular events during nongenotoxic carcinogenesis and their temporal order are poorly understood but thought to include long-lasting perturbations of gene expression. Here, we have investigated the temporal sequence of molecular and pathological perturbations at early stages of phenobarbital (PB) mediated liver tumor promotion in vivo. Molecular profiling (mRNA, microRNA [miRNA], DNA methylation, and proteins) of mouse liver during 13 weeks of PB treatment revealed progressive increases in hepatic expression of long noncoding RNAs and miRNAs originating from the Dlk1-Dio3 imprinted gene cluster, a locus that has recently been associated with stem cell pluripotency in mice and various neoplasms in humans.

Ground-level ozone differentially affects nitrogen acquisition and allocation in mature European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and Norway spruce (Picea abies) trees.

Impacts of elevated ground-level ozone (O(3)) on nitrogen (N) uptake and allocation were studied on mature European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.

Value of three-dimensional contrast-enhanced power Doppler ultrasound for characterizing adnexal masses.

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic performance of 3-D contrast-enhanced power Doppler ultrasonography (3-D CEPDUS) for differentiating benign and malignant adnexal masses.

Material And Methods: Consecutive patients with adnexal masses were included prospectively and underwent 2-D ultrasonography and 3-D CEPDUS in a tertiary centre in Paris, France. The main outcome measure was the diagnostic accuracy of 3-D CEPDUS to diagnose malignant and borderline adnexal masses.

[External validation of simple ultrasound rules of Timmerman on 122 ovarian tumors].

Objective: To study the correlation between the nature of the ovarian tumors presumed according to the ultrasound criteria of Timmerman and the final histological diagnosis.

Patients And Methods: We made a prospective study during a period of 4 years, concerning consecutive patients having an ovarian tumor, investigated by pelvic ultrasonography using Timmerman's rules estimating their benign or malignant characteristics in order to determine the efficiency of this score. The diagnostic reference was histology.

Embryology of the midgut.

In most textbooks of embryology and pediatric surgery, the puzzling spectrum of midgut "malrotations" is explained by an "impaired" process of rotation of the midgut. However, this "process of rotation" is explained in a rather schematic way and aims more to explain pathologic findings whereas detailed embryologic investigations are still rare in this field. Good animal models which would allow the comparison of normal and abnormal midgut development are missing.