[LIMITATIONS OF QUESTIONNAIRE-BASED EVALUATION OF LOWER URINARY TRACT DYSFUNCTION IN ELDERLY PATIENTS].

(Purpose) Questionnaires are frequently used to evaluate subjective symptoms in clinical practice and research on lower urinary tract dysfunction. The usefulness and reliability of questionnaires such as the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and the Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS) are well known. However, elderly patients are often unable to fill out such questionnaires.

Altered detrusor gap junction communications induce storage symptoms in bladder inflammation: a mouse cyclophosphamide-induced model of cystitis.

Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) include storage, voiding and post-micturition symptoms, featuring many urological diseases. Storage symptoms are the most frequent among these and associated with overactive bladder and non-bacterial bladder inflammation such as interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS). Gap junction, a key regulator of hyperactive conditions in the bladder, has been reported to be involved in pathological bladder inflammation.

PTHrP is endogenous relaxant for spontaneous smooth muscle contraction in urinary bladder of female rat.

Acute bladder distension causes various morphologic and functional changes, in part through altered gene expression. We aimed to investigate the physiologic role of PTHrP, which is up-regulated in an acute bladder distension model in female rats. In the control Empty group, bladders were kept empty for 6 hours, and in the Distension group, bladders were kept distended for 3 hours after an artificial storing-voiding cycle for 3 hours.

Role of Rev-erbα domains for transactivation of the connexin43 promoter with Sp1.

Rev-erbα, a component of the circadian clock, has also been known as a nuclear receptor that lacks activation function domain 2, functioning as a ligand-dependent transcriptional repressor. However, we recently reported that Rev-erbα activates connexin43 transcription by forming a complex with Sp1. Here we show that heme, a REV-ERB ligand, is dispensable for this novel mechanism and that Rev-erbβ, having homologies with Rev-erbα, does not activate connexin43, but competes with the Rev-erbα/Sp1.

[Case of a laparoscopic seminal vesicle cyst excision].

A 58-year-old man was referred to our hospital for investigation and treatment of a retrovesical cystic tumor that was detected during his annual health check-up. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a 5 cm cystic mass including a 1.5 cm solid mass between the bladder and rectum.

[Case of pharyngeal emphysema with airway obstruction during retroperitoneal laparoscopic nephroureterectomy].

A 76-year-old woman with right renal pelvic cancer underwent a laparoscopic nephroureterectomy via a retroperitoneal approach. During the 300 minutes of CO2 insufflation, arterial blood pressure, temperature, and oxygen saturation were stable, whereas the end-tidal CO2 (ETCO2) gradually increased and reached a peak of 55 mmHg. Her arterial blood gas analysis suggested acute respiratory acidosis.

[A case of penile metastasis of malignant melanoma with priapism].

A metastatic penile tumor of malignant melanoma is very rare. The patient had priapism caused by metastatic penile tumor and the primary cancer was in the end stage. However, in this case, we could relieve the dysuria and pain by percutaneous cystostomy and partial penectomy.

[Pericardial effusion due to metastatic prostate cancer: a case report].

We describe a patient whose complaints were related to pericardial effusion due to prostatic carcinoma. An 80-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of chest discomfort and dyspnea. The chest radiograph revealed cardiomegaly and computed tomographic scan showed a large pericardial effusion.

[A case of accelerated acute rejection in kidney transplantation rescued by plasma exchange].

A 30-year-old female received living donor kidney transplantation from her mother. The surgical procedure was uneventfully performed and urine output was observed a few minutes after reperfusion. However, 24 hours after the surgery, the urine volume rapidly decreased with worsened renal blood flow as determined by Doppler ultrasonography, diagnosed as accelerated acute rejection (AAR).

[A case of schwannoma in the renal hilum].

A 58-year-old female presented with a well-encapsulated tumor in the left renal hilum on computed tomography (CT). On magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the tumor showed low intensity on the T1-weighted image, high intensity on the T2-weighted image. Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy was performed because we could not exclude the possibility of malignancy such as renal cell carcinoma.