Sacral neuromodulation: an effective treatment for lower urinary tract symptoms in multiple sclerosis.

Introduction And Hypothesis: Most subjects with multiple sclerosis (MS) suffer from lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Detrusor overactivity, detrusor hypocontractility and detrusor-sphincter dyssynergia are the most common bladder dysfunctions. Management is not straightforward due to the progressive course of the disease.

The 2013 EAU guidelines on chronic pelvic pain: is management of chronic pelvic pain a habit, a philosophy, or a science? 10 years of development.

Context: Progress in the science of pain has led pain specialists to move away from an organ-centred understanding of pain located in the pelvis to an understanding based on the mechanism of pain and integrating, as far as possible, psychological, social, and sexual dimensions of the problem. This change is reflected in all areas, from taxonomy through treatment. However, deciding what is adequate investigation to rule out treatable disease before moving to this way of engaging with the patient experiencing pain is a complex process, informed by pain expertise as much as by organ-based medical knowledge.

Botulinum neurotoxin type A injection of the pelvic floor muscle in pain due to spasticity: a review of the current literature.

The role of muscle spasm is not a new concept in the genesis of pain. Botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNTA) has been successfully employed in a variety of muscular and inflammatory conditions. The aim of our study was to review the published literature on the role of BoNTA injection of the pelvic floor muscle in the management of women with chronic pelvic pain (CPP).

Diagnostic criteria, classification, and nomenclature for painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis: an ESSIC proposal.

Objectives: Because the term "interstitial cystitis" (IC) has different meanings in different centers and different parts of the world, the European Society for the Study of Interstitial Cystitis (ESSIC) has worked to create a consensus on definitions, diagnosis, and classification in an attempt to overcome the lack of international agreement on various aspects of IC.

Methods: ESSIC has discussed definitions, diagnostic criteria, and disease classification in four meetings and extended e-mail correspondence.

Results: It was agreed to name the disease bladder pain syndrome (BPS).

Comparison of connexin expression patterns in the developing mouse heart and human foetal heart.

Heart muscle cells are electrically coupled by gap junctions, clusters of low-resistance transmembrane channels composed of connexins (Cx). The expression of the three major connexins (Cx43, Cx40 and Cx45) present in cardiac myocytes is known to be developmentally regulated but it is not clear how the patterns in the human heart compare with those found in the mouse. This issue is of importance given the wide use of transgenic mice to investigate gene function with the aim of extrapolating the results to human.