Transvesical prostatectomy in elderly patients.

Purpose: We assessed the results of transvesical prostatectomy in patients older than 80 years.

Materials And Methods: We studied 98 patients 80 to 90 years old who underwent transvesical prostatectomy between 1986 and 1993, including those with a large prostate (preoperative estimated weight more than 80 gm.), numerous or large cystolithiasis and large bladder diverticulum, which are indications for open prostatectomy.

The clinical and histological features of transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder with microcysts: analysis of 12 cases.

Objective: To describe the clinical course and histological features of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder with microcysts.

Patients And Methods: Among 940 patients with bladder TCC diagnosed at our institution during a 5 year period. 12 (1.

Effect of meal composition on alertness and performance of hospital night-shift workers. Do mood and performance have different determinants?

We have studied the effect of diet composition on performance during, and after night-shift work. On three occasions 21 night workers at the Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem ate one of three meal plans--a diet enriched with protein (PROT 52%), carbohydrate (CHO 70%) or their regular (REG) diet (PROT 18%, CHO 55%); fat composition was held constant (ca. 27%).

Postejaculation serum prostate-specific antigen level.

Objective: This study was carried out to determine whether ejaculation may modify the serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level and to investigate whether postejaculation serum PSA may play a role in male hypofertility work-up.

Methods: Serum PSA concentration was determined before and 1 h after ejaculation in 18 healthy men (group A) and in 16 men with male-factor infertility (group B). PSA change (delta) was recorded and analyzed.

A genetic sequence change in the 3'-noncoding region of the androgen receptor gene in prostate carcinoma.

Objective: We intended to identify structural changes in the hormone-binding domain and C-terminal region of the androgen receptor (AR) gene in carcinoma of prostate specimens.

Methods: Twelve prostate cancer specimens from prostate resections were analyzed for the presence of mutations in the E-H exons and part of the 3'-untranslated region of the AR cDNA, using RT-PCR and direct sequencing.

Results: A polymorphic sequence spanning 17 nucleotides was identified in the 3'-untranslated region of the AR cDNA from one prostate carcinoma tissue, suggesting the presence of a somatic mutation.

The role of external sphincterotomy for patients with a spinal cord lesion.

For the last three decades external sphincterotomy has been well accepted as a treatment for bladder outlet obstruction in patients with a spinal cord lesions. Recently, however, its value has been brought into question. To assess the current place of this procedure in the treatment of the neuropathic bladder of spinal origin, we studied the outcomes of sphincterotomy in 32 patients.

[Complete cytogenetic remission of chronic myeloid leukemia with low-dose interferon alfa-2b and monthly high-dose busulfan].

Two patients with chronic myelogenous leukaemia were treated according to an original regimen consisting of the association of alpha-2b interferon, three days a week, plus hydroxyurea during ten months, followed by interferon (same doses) and intermittent high doses of busulphan (50 mg, one dose per month, up to 6 doses). Both patients achieved minor cytogenetic remission in the first stage (50% and 80% of Ph'-positive metaphases, respectively). Upon concluding the second phase, one patient attained complete cytogenetic remission and the other showed major cytogenetic remission (3% Ph'-positive metaphases); complete remission was achieved in the second patient after 4 more doses of busulphan.

Late solitary pancreatic metastasis from renal cell carcinoma.

A 76-year-old woman was admitted for a pancreatic mass. Twenty-one years previously she had undergone a left nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma. A computerized tomography-guided needle biopsy of the pancreatic mass raised the suspicion of metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Glycine effects on glutamate-receptor elicited acetylcholinesterase release from slices and synaptosomes of the spinal ventral horn.

To study the mechanisms by which glutamate-elicited acetylcholinesterase release (GEAR) might play a part in the pathogenesis of excitotoxically triggered motor neurone disease, and to investigate the interaction of GEAR with spinal glycinergic mechanisms, we measured acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and cholinergic markers, after stimulating ventral horn slices and synaptosomes from the mouse spinal cord, with both glutamate- and glycine-receptor agonists. Glutamate (GLU), kainate and AMPA, as well as glycine (GLY) evoked dose-related, calcium-dependent liberation of soluble forms of AChE from both slices and synaptosomes. GLY-evoked AChE release showed remarkable age-related postnatal changes.

The pattern of radionuclide scrotal scan in torsion of testicular appendages.

The aim of this study was to define the radionuclide scrotal imaging (RSI) pattern in cases of torsion of testicular appendages and to correlate it with the duration of symptoms. Two hundred and seventeen patients with acute scrotal pain were evaluated prospectively during the past 13 years. Two groups of patients were defined according to the interval between the onset of symptoms and the performance of RSI: group A comprised patients in whom RSI was performed within 5 h after the onset of symptoms, while group B comprised patients in whom RSI was performed between 5 and 24 h after the onset of symptoms.

[Late solitary metastases of breast origin presenting as primary colonic carcinoma].

The case of a 72-year-old woman with 2 solitary metastases to the colon of breast origin with mimicked primary colonic cancer is presented. The primary breast lesion was an infiltrating duct carcinoma and the metastases to the colon were discovered 6 years later. Some of the regional lymph nodes draining the colon were infiltrated by tumor, probably originating from the 2 colonic metastases.

A computer-assisted molecular epidemiologic approach to confronting the reemergence of tuberculosis.

Molecular epidemiologic approaches have provided important insights into the pathogenesis and epidemiology of tuberculosis. However, continued progress in this field will be reliant on the development of computerized information management systems capable of analyzing large numbers of bacterial DNA fingerprints and incorporating this with data collected as part of conventional disease surveillance. The specific attributes of these computer systems must be tailored to the nature and scope of the research question.

The value of radionuclide scrotal imaging in the diagnosis of acute testicular torsion.

Objective: To assess the accuracy of radionuclide scrotal imaging (RSI) in the diagnosis of testicular torsion and torsion of testicular appendages.

Patients And Methods: Eighty-seven patients (mean age 30.1 years, range 8-65) who presented with acute scrotal pain were evaluated by RSI and the results correlated with the clinical and surgical findings.

[Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia presenting with hematuria and severe anemia].

A patient with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia was admitted with hematuria and severe anemia after mild recurrent episodes of epistaxis. Telangiectasias were found in the skin and buccal and nasal mucosa. No defect in the coagulation mechanism was found; thrombocyte count and function were normal.

[Testicular metastasis from transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder].

We present a 54-year-old man with a testicular metastasis originating from a transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. Initially, radical cystectomy and ileal-conduit urinary diversion were performed, followed 9 months later by urethrectomy for local recurrence. A year later he presented with a tumorous right testis proved to harbor transitional cell carcinoma.

The epidemiology of tuberculosis in San Francisco. A population-based study using conventional and molecular methods.

Background: The epidemiology of tuberculosis in urban populations is changing. Combining conventional epidemiologic techniques with DNA fingerprinting of Mycobacterium tuberculosis can improve the understanding of how tuberculosis is transmitted.

Methods: We used restriction-fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis to study M.

Prenylated protein methyltransferase of rat cerebellum is developmentally co-expressed with its substrates.

High levels of prenylated protein methyltransferase are expressed in the developing rat cerebellum and are responsible for methylation of endogenous G-proteins and 50-52 kDa synaptosomal proteins. Enzyme activity in cerebellar synaptosomes of 3 week postnatal rats is 2-fold higher than that found in adult rat cerebellum. A 10-fold rise in activity occurs at the end of the second and during the third postnatal weeks, followed by a subsequent decline.

The uniquely distributed isoprenylated protein methyltransferase activity in the rat brain is highly expressed in the cerebellum.

Isoprenylated protein methyltransferase, the enzyme which catalyzes the reversible methylation of signal transducing G-proteins was studied in nine brain regions of the rat brain using S-farnesyl cysteine analogs as substrates. Enzyme activity, as determined with N-acetyl-S-farnesyl-L-cysteine (AFC) was found in the nuclear, synaptosomal and microsomal fractions of all brain regions but not in the cytosol. The enzyme is a unique methyltransferase with respect to its brain distribution.

Traumatic injury to the spinal cord. Prevalence in Brazilian hospitals.

Traumatic spinal cord lesions have a worldwide high morbidity and mortality, and in many developed countries the problem has received special attention, based on epidemiological studies. In Brazil these studies have been restricted to institutional data. In 1988 a survey conducted by the Integrated System of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, covering 36 public hospitals from 7 Brazilian capitals, revealed a point prevalence of 8.

Phage and host genetic determinants of the specific anticodon loop cleavages in bacteriophage T4-infected Escherichia coli CTr5X.

Anticodon loop cleavages of two host tRNA species occur in bacteriophage T4-infected Escherichia coli CTr5X, a host strain restricting phage mutants deficient in polynucleotide kinase (pnk) or RNA ligase (rli). The cleavage products accumulate with the mutants but are further processed in wt infection through polynucleotide kinase and RNA ligase reactions. Inactivating mutations in stp suppress pnk- or rli- mutations in E.

A specificity for cellular fibronectin in its effect on cultured chondroblasts.

Chick cellular fibronectin has previously been shown to alter the phenotypic properties of cultured chick-embryo vertebral chondroblasts. Over the course of several days, adhesion and spreading on plastic substrata in the presence of serum was stimulated, the morphology of the cells was changed, the synthesis of cartilage-specific type-IV proteoglycan was inhibited, and the synthesis of type-I collagen and fibronectin was induced or stimulated. In the present study, chick plasma fibronectin was isolated and observed to mimic the effect of cellular fibronectin on cell adhesion and spreading.

[Vegetative dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. Urogenital manifestations and treatment with hydantoin].

Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa has a rare recessive polydysplastic vegetant variant, which was described by Nicolas et al. Two siblings are reported. The male was affected by urethral lesions, an exceptional finding in this disease.

Microbiology of frozen goat meat and toxin production by Bacillus cereus isolated therefrom.

Microbial analysis of commercial samples of freshly frozen goat meat and those stored at - 12 degrees C for one week revealed high counts of aerobic bacteria, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococci. These counts increased with storage. Psychrophilic bacteria were higher in number than mesophiles.