Seasonal trends in the prevalence of hypospadias: Aetiological implications.

The aim of the present study was to examine the seasonality of hypospadias in Greece in an attempt to elucidate the aetiology. All boys born between 1991-1998, who underwent hypospadias repair at 'Aghia Sophia' Children's Hospital, Athens (n=542) were analysed. All Greek live-born males during the same period (population at risk; m=421,175) served as the controls.

Management and postoperative outcome in primary lung cancer and heart disease co-morbidity: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Co-morbidity of primary lung cancer (LC) and heart disease (HD), both requiring surgical therapy, characterizes a high risk group of patients necessitating prompt diagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study is the review of available evidence guiding the management of these patients.

Methods: Postoperative outcome of patients operated for primary LC (first meta-analysis) and for both primary LC and HD co-morbidity (second meta-analysis), were studied.

Mortality from cancer and other causes in commercial airline crews: a joint analysis of cohorts from 10 countries.

Background: Commercial airline crew is one of the occupational groups with the highest exposures to ionising radiation. Crew members are also exposed to other physical risk factors and subject to potential disruption of circadian rhythms.

Methods: This study analyses mortality in a pooled cohort of 93 771 crew members from 10 countries.

Diet and cataract: a case-control study.

We conducted a case-control study to assess the association between diet and risk of cataract in Athens, Greece. Totals of 314 cases and 314 frequency-matched controls of both sexes, aged 45-85 years and attending the ophthalmology department of a major teaching hospital in Athens, Greece, were included in the study. All participants were interviewed using a semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire, covering the average frequency of consumption of about 120 food items.

Intratympanic and systemic steroids for sudden hearing loss.

Objective: To investigate the therapeutic efficacy of intratympanic dexamethasone combined with systemic prednisolone in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL).

Study Design: Prospective, quasirandomized, multicenter clinical trial.

Setting: One university hospital and 2 affiliated hospitals.

Vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors for treatment of corneal neovascularization: a meta-analysis.

Purpose: To evaluate the therapeutic effect of bevacizumab (Avastin) on corneal neovascularization (NV).

Methods: Systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature was performed. Seven eligible clinical human studies and 18 eligible experimental animal studies examining the effectiveness of bevacizumab treatment on corneal NV were included in the meta-analysis.

Reliability and validity of the KIDSCREEN-52 health-related quality of life questionnaire in a Greek adolescent population.

Background: The KIDSCREEN-52 is a worldwide instrument for measuring health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children and adolescents. The aim of this study is to assess reliability and validity of the Greek version of KIDSCREEN.

Methods: Questionnaires were collected from a representative nationwide sample of 1,194 adolescents aged from 11 to 17 years.

High prevalence of autonomous aldosterone secretion among patients with essential hypertension.

Background: Previous studies based on standard endocrine testing have generally shown a low prevalence of primary aldosteronism, a form of autonomous aldosterone secretion (AAS), in hypertensive individuals. The purpose of this case-control study was to evaluate whether use of appropriately defined controls and combined testing reveal previously undetected AAS in hypertensives.

Materials And Methods: We investigated aldosterone secretion in 180 hypertensives with (n = 44) and without (n = 136) adrenal adenomas on computerized tomography (CT) and 72 matched nonhypertensive individuals with normal adrenal CT.

Intratympanic steroid therapy for sudden hearing loss: a review of the literature.

Objective: Administration of steroids systematically is considered to be the most commonly accepted treatment for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL). In recent years there has been increasing scientific interest in treating ISSNHL by means of local steroid delivery. Usually, intratympanic steroids are used in three main protocols, as initial treatment, as adjunctive treatment given concomitantly with systemic steroids and as salvage treatment after failure of standard therapy.

Multiplex RT-PCR-based detections of CEA, CK20 and EGFR in colorectal cancer patients.

Aim: To develop a multiplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method detecting circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients.

Methods: Peripheral blood samples were collected from 88 CRC patients and 40 healthy individuals from the blood donors' clinic and subsequently analyzed by multiplex RT-RCR for the expression of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin 20 (CK20) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mRNA. The analysis involved determining the detection rates of CEA, CK20 and EGFR transcripts vs disease stage and overall survival.

The epidemiology of cataract: a study in Greece.

Purpose: We conducted a case-control study to identify risk factors for cataract in the Mediterranean Greek population. Three hundred and fourteen cases and 314 frequency-matched controls of both genders, aged 45-85, attending the ophthalmology department of a major teaching hospital in Athens, Greece, were included in the study.

Methods: Cases were medically diagnosed and classified.

Logistic Regression and Linear Discriminant Analyses in Evaluating Factors Associated with Asthma Prevalence among 10- to 12-Years-Old Children: Divergence and Similarity of the Two Statistical Methods.

Logistic regression and discriminant analyses are both applied in order to predict the probability of a specific categorical outcome based upon several explanatory variables (predictors). The aim of this work is to evaluate the convergence of these two methods when they are applied in data from the health sciences. For this purpose, we modeled the association of several factors with the prevalence of asthma symptoms with both the two methods and compared the result.

Glycemic load in relation to hepatocellular carcinoma among patients with chronic hepatitis infection.

Background: Chronic infections with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are of paramount etiologic importance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but other factors are likely to be important. The association of diabetes mellitus and obesity with HCC raises the possibility that dietary glycemic load (GL) may interact with chronic hepatitis infection in the causation of HCC.

Patients And Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 333 HCC patients and 360 controls in Athens, Greece.

Bone mass density and associated factors in cystic fibrosis patients of young age.

Aim: To investigate bone mineral status in young cystic fibrosis (CF) patients and determine risk factors related with the development of low bone mineral density (BMD).

Methods: We determined, in 81 patients with CF, 4 to 23-years-old, BMD as well as factors, which are thought to play a role in the development of reduced BMD.

Results: BMD Z-score was between -1 and -2.

Occupational physical activity in relation with prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Using data from two case-control studies undertaken in Athens, Greece from 1994 to 1997, we have examined the association of occupational physical activity with the risk of prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Cases consisted of 320 patients with histologically confirmed incident prostate cancer and 184 patients with surgically treated BPH. Controls were 246 patients hospitalized for minor conditions.

Flavonoid intake and liver cancer: a case-control study in Greece.

In the context of a case-control study undertaken in Greece, we examined the role of six flavonoid classes in the etiology of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), by viral status, and of cholangiocarcinoma (CAC). Data and blood samples were collected between 1995 and 1998. Information about dietary intakes and covariates, including chronic infection with hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) virus, were available for 250 HBV and/or HCV positive HCC cases, 83 HBV and HCV negative HCC cases, six CAC cases, and 360 hospital controls.

Secular growth changes in the Hellenic population in the twentieth century.

Statural growth is dependent on hereditary and environmental factors, i.e disease, nutrition. The improvement of socioeconomic conditions that took place during the 20th century resulted in a secular trend towards greater height and earlier sexual maturation.

Angiopoietin-2 in the perinatal period and the role of intrauterine growth restriction.

Background: Angiopoietin-2, an angiogenic factor, causing destabilization and postnatal remodeling of blood vessels, is upregulated by hypoxia. We hypothesized that circulating Angiopoietin-2 levels might differ in intrauterine growth restricted and appropriate for gestational age fetuses and neonates, as the former have restricted growth and development and suffer from in utero hypoxia.

Methods: This is a prospective, controlled study, including forty asymmetric, mainly due to hypertension or pre-eclampsia intrauterine growth restricted (0-9 customized centiles, corrected for gestational age, sex, maternal weight, height, ethnic group, and parity), and 20 appropriate for gestational age (42-82 customized centiles) full-term infants, as well as their mothers.

A pooled analysis of bladder cancer case-control studies evaluating smoking in men and women.

Objective: A recent study suggested that risk of bladder cancer may be higher in women than in men who smoked comparable amounts of cigarettes. We pooled primary data from 14 case-control studies of bladder cancer from Europe and North America and evaluated differences in risk of smoking by gender.

Methods: The pooled analysis included 8316 cases (21% women) and 17,406 controls (28% women) aged 30-79 years.

Behçet's disease associated with malignancies. Report of two cases and review of the literature.

Objective: To investigate the incidence of malignancies in a cohort of Behçet's disease patients and review the world literature.

Methods: Our database of 128 patients was searched and the age standardized rate (ASR) for cancer was calculated. Furthermore, we performed a MEDLINE search from 1970 through 2003, as well as, a search in the proceedings of international conferences for cases of malignancies associated with Behçet's disease.

Study on the morphology and reproducibility of the diagnosis of endometrial lesions utilizing liquid-based cytology.

Background: The objective of the current study was to determine the diagnostic cytomorphologic criteria for liquid-based cytology and to evaluate the reproducibility and usefulness of the cytologic diagnosis in endometrial lesions.

Methods: A total of 162 direct endometrial samplings taken from postmenopausal women were evaluated by 2 skilled cytopathologists in endometrial cytology. The cytologic diagnosis was made according to the 1994 classification scheme of the World Health Organization.

Breast arterial calcifications as an indicator of systemic vascular disease.

Purpose: To evaluate the association between mammographically detected arterial calcifications and systemic vascular disease.

Material And Methods: The medical records of 77 women who had either breast arterial calcifications or underwent surgery for carotid stenosis, abdominal aortic aneurysm, or femoropopliteal bypass (study groups A and B) were evaluated and compared with 33 women without breast arterial calcifications (group C). Patients in both arms of the study underwent additional vascular tests or mammography.

Intake of specific flavonoid classes and coronary heart disease--a case-control study in Greece.

Objective: Dietary intake of flavonoids has been reported to protect against coronary heart disease (CHD) risk, but associations of specific classes of flavonoids with CHD have not been adequately studied.

Design: Hospital-based case-control study relying on interviewer administered questionnaires.

Setting: Cardiology Department of the University of Athens Medical School in the Hippokrateion General Hospital (1990-1991).

Circulating angiogenic factors during periovulation and the luteal phase of normal menstrual cycles.

Objective: To measure serial serum concentrations of the angiogenic factors vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and angiogenin (ANG) in the periovulatory and secretory phase of normal menstrual cycles in healthy women and to determine their peaks, which might reflect the stage of their critical angiogenic action.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: University departments of obstetrics and gynecology.

The influence of indomethacin co-administration on ofloxacin levels in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid in rats.

The possible increase of ofloxacin levels in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by concomitant indomethacin administration was investigated in 120 healthy adult rats. The animals were administered intramuscular doses of ofloxacin 30 mg/kg alone (Group A, n = 60) or with indomethacin 2 mg/kg (Group B, n = 60). Blood and CSF samples were obtained from both groups at 30, 45, 60 and 90 min post-administration.