Ureteric injury after laparoscopic hysterectomy: a report of 3 cases and brief literature review.

Objectives: The application of minimally invasive laparoscopic techniques in gynecologic surgery gained popularity due to quicker recovery, shorter hospital stays as well as lower risk of complications. Ureteric injuries at laparoscopic hysterectomies are incidental and occur in less than 1% of cases. They can be identified intra-operatively but most of them are undetected.

Uterovesical fistula caused by cervical pessary placed for the prevention of preterm delivery - case report.

Uterovesical fistulas are the rarest of all urogenital fistulas, mostly occurring as a complication of cesarean section. We present a case of a 32-year-old woman, who noticed continuous vaginal urine leakage starting immediately after a vaginal delivery. The shortening of the uterine cervix was reported at 26 week of gestation, and a cervical pessary was placed.

Bumblebees Use Sequential Scanning of Countable Items in Visual Patterns to Solve Numerosity Tasks.

Most research in comparative cognition focuses on measuring if animals manage certain tasks; fewer studies explore how animals might solve them. We investigated bumblebees' scanning strategies in a numerosity task, distinguishing patterns with two items from four and one from three, and subsequently transferring numerical information to novel numbers, shapes, and colors. Video analyses of flight paths indicate that bees do not determine the number of items by using a rapid assessment of number (as mammals do in "subitizing"); instead, they rely on sequential enumeration even when items are presented simultaneously and in small quantities.

Reliability of the Polish version of the Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS) questionnaire : Correlation of the OABSS with urodynamic study and the UDI-6 and IIQ-7 questionnaires.

Introduction And Hypothesis: Overactive bladder (OAB) and mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) are significant problems worldwide. Their broad definition makes them difficult to diagnose; therefore, specialists need a tool to confirm diagnosis. The Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS) is used in the objective diagnosis of OAB.

Should We Always Use Antibiotics after Urodynamic Studies in High-Risk Patients?

Aim: The aim of this observational study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a phytotherapic drug (Canephron N) in preventing urinary tract infection (UTI) in high-risk women undergoing urodynamic studies (UDS).

Methods: The study protocol was approved by the local institutional ethical committee. Adult women with at least one risk factor for acquiring UTI (defined as: age over 70, elevated postvoid residual urine>100 ml, recurrent UTI, pelvic organ prolapse (POP) ≥II in POP-Q scale, and neurogenic bladder) had received after UDS either a single oral dose of fosfomycin trometamol (FT) (3 grams) or a phytodrug containing centaury herb, lovage root, and rosemary leaves (5 ml taken orally three times daily for one week).

Counting insects.

When counting-like abilities were first described in the honeybee in the mid-1990s, many scholars were sceptical, but such capacities have since been confirmed in a number of paradigms and also in other insect species. Counter to the intuitive notion that counting is a cognitively advanced ability, neural network analyses indicate that it can be mediated by very small neural circuits, and we should therefore perhaps not be surprised that insects and other small-brained animals such as some small fish exhibit such abilities. One outstanding question is how bees actually acquire numerical information.

Novel biomarkers of overactive bladder syndrome.

The social aspect of overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) and the lack of objective diagnostic methods for this syndrome have spurred research into its potential biomarkers which can constitute useful diagnostic tools, while also allowing the evaluation of the intensity of clinical symptoms and the efficacy of implemented pharmacotherapy in OAB patients. Due to the complex etiopathogenesis of this syndrome, the researchers are seeking biomarkers connected with inflammation or nerve growth. The aim of this review was to analyse the latest literature data regarding potential biomarkers in OAB.

Development and validation of the Polish version of the Urogenital Distress Inventory short form and the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire short form.

Objective: The Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ) measures the impact of urinary incontinence on activities, roles, and emotional states of women, whereas the Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI) measures how troubling the symptoms are. The aim of this study was to develop and assess the effectiveness of a Polish version of the IIQ and UDI.

Study Design: The translation into Polish followed standardized procedures.

Colour constancy in insects.

Colour constancy is the perceptual phenomenon that the colour of an object appears largely unchanged, even if the spectral composition of the illuminating light changes. Colour constancy has been found in all insect species so far tested. Especially the pollinating insects offer a remarkable opportunity to study the ecological significance of colour constancy since they spend much of their adult lives identifying and choosing between colour targets (flowers) under continuously changing ambient lighting conditions.

Can bees see at a glance?

Primates can analyse visual scenes extremely rapidly, making accurate decisions for presentation times of only 20 ms. We asked whether bumblebees, despite having potentially more limited processing power, could similarly detect and discriminate visual patterns presented for durations of 100 ms or less. Bumblebees detected stimuli and discriminated between differently oriented and coloured stimuli when presented as briefly as 25 ms but failed to identify ecologically relevant shapes (predatory spiders on flowers) even when presented for 100 ms.

The polymorphisms of the MMP-1 and the MMP-3 genes and the risk of pelvic organ prolapse.

Introduction And Hypothesis: To investigate the associations between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) type 1G/2G at position -1607/-1608 of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 gene and SNP type 5A/6A at position -1612/-1617 of the MMP-3 gene and the development of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) in women.

Methods: 133 patients with symptomatic POP were included in the study group. The control group consisted of 132 women with a normal pelvic floor.

What is comparable in comparative cognition?

To understand how complex, or 'advanced' various forms of cognition are, and to compare them between species for evolutionary studies, we need to understand the diversity of neural-computational mechanisms that may be involved, and to identify the genetic changes that are necessary to mediate changes in cognitive functions. The same overt cognitive capacity might be mediated by entirely different neural circuitries in different species, with a many-to-one mapping between behavioural routines, computations and their neural implementations. Comparative behavioural research needs to be complemented with a bottom-up approach in which neurobiological and molecular-genetic analyses allow pinpointing of underlying neural and genetic bases that constrain cognitive variation.

Transvaginal Prolift(®) mesh surgery due to advanced pelvic organ prolapse does not impair female sexual function: a prospective study.

Objectives: To evaluate sexual function among women with advanced pelvic organ prolapse (POP) before and after Prolift(®) vaginal reconstructive mesh surgery.

Study Design: Assessments were performed preoperatively and 12-18 months after the surgery, including physical examination using the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POP-Q) scale as well as the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire.

Results: Fifty-nine sexually active patients who underwent vaginal reconstructive surgery due to advanced POP between June 2008 and January 2010 were included in the study.

[Sacral nerve stimulation in the treatment of the lower urinary tract function disorders].

Functional disorders of the female lower urinary tract like urge incontinence, idiopathic urinary retention and symptoms of urgency-frequency occasionally do not respond properly to classical behavioral and pharmacological therapy Therefore, additional alternative therapies are needed to alleviate these bothersome symptoms. Sacral neuromodulation (SNS) utilize mild electrical pulses which activate or suppress neural reflexes responsible for voiding by stimulating the sacral nerves that innervate the bladder, external urethral sphincter and pelvic floor muscles. The exact mechanism of SNS action is not yet fully understood but it is assumed that it influences the neuroaxis at different levels of the central nervous system and restores the balance between inhibitory and activatory control over the voiding reflex.

Photoreceptor processing speed and input resistance changes during light adaptation correlate with spectral class in the bumblebee, Bombus impatiens.

Colour vision depends on comparison of signals from photoreceptors with different spectral sensitivities. However, response properties of photoreceptor cells may differ in ways other than spectral tuning. In insects, for example, broadband photoreceptors, with a major sensitivity peak in the green region of the spectrum (>500 nm), drive fast visual processes, which are largely blind to chromatic signals from more narrowly-tuned photoreceptors with peak sensitivities in the blue and UV regions of the spectrum.

Tape fixation: an important surgical step to improve success rate of anti-incontinence surgery.

Purpose: Mid urethral slings are effective surgical treatment for stress urinary incontinence. However, 5% to 20% of patients still experience surgical failure with clinically significant recurrent or persistent stress urinary incontinence. Since a subset of these failures may be caused by improper tape position, we elucidated whether additional paraurethral fixation of a tape to prevent displacement during tensioning could improve the transobturator sling outcome.

Botulinum toxin--a new therapeutic agent in girls with non-neurogenic overactive bladder--a case report and review of the literature.

The aim of this article is to present the safety and efficacy of intradetrusor botulinum toxin injections in the treatment of non-neurogenic overactive bladder in pediatric patients. The electronic database MEDLINE (1966-2009) was searched including the following entries: non-neurogenic overactive bladder and botulinum overactive bladder. Data on the investigation topic are scarce.

Information processing in miniature brains.

Since a comprehensive understanding of brain function and evolution in vertebrates is often hobbled by the sheer size of the nervous system, as well as ethical concerns, major research efforts have been made to understand the neural circuitry underpinning behaviour and cognition in invertebrates, and its costs and benefits under natural conditions. This special feature of Proceedings of the Royal Society B contains an idiosyncratic range of current research perspectives on neural underpinnings and adaptive benefits (and costs) of such diverse phenomena as spatial memory, colour vision, attention, spontaneous behaviour initiation, memory dynamics, relational rule learning and sleep, in a range of animals from marine invertebrates with exquisitely simple nervous systems to social insects forming societies with many thousands of individuals working together as a 'superorganism'. This introduction provides context and history to tie the various approaches together, and concludes that there is an urgent need to understand the full neuron-to-neuron circuitry underlying various forms of information processing-not just to explore brain function comprehensively, but also to understand how (and how easily) cognitive capacities might evolve in the face of pertinent selection pressures.

[MMP-1 and MMP-3 gene encoding polymorphism and the risk of the development of pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence].

Objectives: The estimation of the association between the polymorphism at position -1607/1608 of the gene promoter encoding matrix metalloproteinase type 1 (MMP- 1) and the polymorphism at position -1612/1617 of the gene promoter encoding stromelysin type 1 (MMP-3) and the risk of the occurrence of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI).

Material And Methods: 347 women were included into the analysis. POP study: the study group consisted of patients with clinically significant POP (POP-Q scale: 2, 3, 4).

Photoreceptor spectral sensitivity in the bumblebee, Bombus impatiens (Hymenoptera: Apidae).

The bumblebee Bombus impatiens is increasingly used as a model in comparative studies of colour vision, or in behavioural studies relying on perceptual discrimination of colour. However, full spectral sensitivity data on the photoreceptor inputs underlying colour vision are not available for B. impatiens.

Differences in photoreceptor processing speed for chromatic and achromatic vision in the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris.

Fast detection of visual change can be mediated by visual processes that ignore chromatic aspects of the visual signal, relying on inputs from a single photoreceptor class (or pooled input from similar classes). There is an established link between photoreceptor processing speed (in achromatic vision) and visual ecology. Highly maneuverable flies, for example, have the fastest know photoreceptors, relying on metabolically expensive membrane conductances to boost performance.

[The quality of life of patients with overactive bladder after local injections of botulinum toxin A--a preliminary report].

Objectives: The purpose of this work was to evaluate the quality of life of patients suffering from urge urinary incontinence resistant to anticholinergic therapy treated with intradetrusical injections of 200 U botulinum toxin A.

Materials And Methods: The study group consisted of 10 female patients who were diagnosed with urge urinary incontinence. Standard King's questionnaire was used for the assessment of the change in the quality of life after treatment.

Body mass index does not influence the outcome of anti-incontinence surgery among women whereas menopausal status and ageing do: a randomised trial.

Introduction And Hypothesis: A few series comparing the clinical efficacy of midurethral slings in obese and postmenopausal patients are available. The aim of the study was to assess clinical efficacy of suburethral tape operations for the surgical treatment of female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) stratified by obesity, menopause and ageing.

Methods: Five hundred thirty-seven patients underwent either retropubic or transobturator sling procedure.

Height at menarche is influenced by estrogen receptor alpha gene polymorphisms.

Background: It has been suggested that polymorphic variations in estrogen receptors (ERs) genes may have an impact on linear growth of girls during puberty.

Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate whether height at menarche is influenced by PvuII and XbaI polymorphisms of the ERalpha gene.

Subjects And Methods: The study population consisted of 127 healthy girls, who were observed from premenarcheal period at six monthly intervals, until menarche occurred in all participants.