Evaluation of functional and oncological outcomes of localized prostate cancer after different minimally invasive therapeutic methods: A single center experience.

Objectives: To study the functional and oncological results of minimally invasive treatment methods: cryoablation, brachytherapy, and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy of localized prostate cancer in a single hospital.

Methods: One hundred sixty patients with localized prostate cancer were treated with minimally invasive methods (53, 52, 55 patients with cryoablation, brachytherapy and HIFU therapy, respectively). Prostate-specific antigen and evaluation of post-procedure biopsies were used as an assessment.

Pathophysiology, Management, and Therapeutics in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage and Delayed Cerebral Ischemia: An Overview.

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a type of hemorrhagic stroke resulting from the rupture of an arterial vessel within the brain. Unlike other stroke types, SAH affects both young adults (mid-40s) and the geriatric population. Patients with SAH often experience significant neurological deficits, leading to a substantial societal burden in terms of lost potential years of life.

What is the relationship between photosensitizing drugs and skin cancer?

Many medications are associated with phototoxicity or photoallergy, the two types of photosensitivity. Recently, a warning related to increased skin cancer risk was added to the labeling of the popular diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. This article reviews some photosensitizing medications and describes patient education on preventing and recognizing photosensitivity reactions and skin cancer.

Candesartan Normalizes Changes in Retinal Blood Flow and p22phox in the Diabetic Rat Retina.

Angiotensin II has been implicated in the progression of diabetic retinopathy, which is characterized by altered microvasculature, oxidative stress, and neuronal dysfunction. The signaling induced by angiotensin II can occur not only via receptor-mediated calcium release that causes vascular constriction, but also through a pathway whereby angiotensin II activates NADPH oxidase to elicit the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In the current study, we administered the angiotensin II receptor antagonist candesartan (or vehicle, in untreated animals) in a rat model of type 1 diabetes in which hyperglycemia was induced by injection of streptozotocin (STZ).

Food Allergy: Catering for the Needs of the Clinician.

The practice of food allergy (FA) for clinicians has boomed, with a dramatic rise in the number of patients and families seeking care and with many advances on several fronts. The practice itself sometimes is evidence-based science and sometimes an art of pattern and phenotype recognition. This article examines the tools for diagnosis and management and therapy options available to physicians providing care for patients with FA.

Radiation Therapy for Positive Surgical Margins in Women ≥70 Years with Stage I, Estrogen Receptor-positive Breast Cancer.

Background/aim: A re-excision for positive margin(s) following a lumpectomy for invasive breast cancer is a standard recommendation. However, for elderly women with stage I estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) tumors, who may be at higher surgical risk, whether radiation therapy without re-excision will be adequate is not known.

Patients And Methods: We evaluated a cohort of 53,950 women aged ≥70 years with Stage I, ER+ breast cancer who had lumpectomy and anti-hormone therapy diagnosed between 2004 and 2011 in the National Cancer Data Base.

Transient Hyperthyroidism Induced by Thyroid Ultrasound.

Objectives: Transient hyperthyroidism has been documented following surgical manipulation or direct trauma to the normal thyroid gland. This has best been studied in patients following parathyroidectomy and also reported following trauma to the neck, strangulation, and vigorous palpation of the thyroid gland. It has not previously been reported following a thyroid ultrasound.

Eosinophilic Esophagitis Clinical Manifestations and Differential Diagnosis.

As a chronic inflammatory disease with eosinophilic infiltrate of the esophagus, eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) causes a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) clinical manifestations. None of the symptoms, endoscopic features, or biopsy findings is pathognomonic of the disease, even with high degrees of esophageal eosinophilia. The pathogenesis has been explored by several studies, yet it still far from being completely understood.

Impact of CALGB 9343 Trial and Sociodemographic Variation on Patterns of Adjuvant Radiation Therapy Practice for Elderly Women (≥70 Years) with Stage I, Estrogen Receptor-positive Breast Cancer: Analysis of the National Cancer Data Base.

Background: The Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 9343 trial demonstrated that adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) can be omitted in women 70 years or older, with small (≤2 cm), negative lymph nodes, estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. We examined whether RT usage following the CALGB publication had decreased over time and evaluated sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with RT omission.

Materials And Methods: From the National Cancer Data Base, we analyzed a cohort of 120,308 women aged 70 years or older with stage I, ER-positive breast cancer who underwent lumpectomy.

Diagnosing and managing mitral regurgitation.

Mitral regurgitation is the most prevalent valvular disorder in the United States. Patient presentation varies from asymptomatic to symptoms of severe heart failure. Primary care providers often are the first to detect mitral regurgitation as a result of careful auscultation.

The Non-Innoculous Hilar Calcification: Recurrent Pneumonia Secondary to Broncholith-Associated Actinomyces.

Dystrophic calcification of hilar lymph nodes is a common response to chronic inflammation related to several etiologies and rarely is associated with any clinical findings. A clinical scenario related to these calcified lymph nodes can thus be delayed by the low clinical suspicion associated with such a presumably innocuous finding. Normal respiratory movements however, can cause erosion into adjacent bronchi leading to a broncholith, complications of which can result in morbidity.

Jejunal Carcinoid Tumors Presenting as Small Bowel Obstruction.

Carcinoid tumors are the most common form of gut neuroendocrine tumors, however, they rarely present with small bowel obstruction. We present a case of a 65-year-old woman without prior abdominal operations who presented with symptoms of small bowel obstruction. Computed tomography (CT) showed multiple air fluid levels and a transition point in the left mesentery with two soft tissue densities at the same level.

Irreducible Indirect Inguinal Hernia in Premature Infant with Ectopic Uterus and Bilateral Adnexa.

Indirect inguinal hernia is one of the most common congenital anomalies in children, with a reported prevalence of 0.8-4.4%.

Longer Duration of MAO-B Inhibitor Exposure is Associated with Less Clinical Decline in Parkinson's Disease: An Analysis of NET-PD LS1.

Background: Monoamine oxidase type B (MAO-B) inhibitors exhibit neuroprotective effects in preclinical models of PD but clinical trials have failed to convincingly demonstrate disease modifying benefits in PD patients.

Objective: To perform a secondary analysis of NET-PD LS1 to determine if longer duration of MAO-B inhibitor exposure was associated with less clinical decline.

Methods: The primary outcome measure was the Global Outcome (GO), comprised of 5 measures: change from baseline in the Schwab and England (ADL) scale, the 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39), the UPDRS Ambulatory Capacity Scale, the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, and the most recent Modified Rankin Scale.

The Assembly and Application of 'Shear Rings': A Novel Endothelial Model for Orbital, Unidirectional and Periodic Fluid Flow and Shear Stress.

Deviations from normal levels and patterns of vascular fluid shear play important roles in vascular physiology and pathophysiology by inducing adaptive as well as pathological changes in endothelial phenotype and gene expression. In particular, maladaptive effects of periodic, unidirectional flow induced shear stress can trigger a variety of effects on several vascular cell types, particularly endothelial cells. While by now endothelial cells from diverse anatomic origins have been cultured, in-depth analyses of their responses to fluid shear have been hampered by the relative complexity of shear models (e.

Spectrophotometric assays for monitoring tRNA aminoacylation and aminoacyl-tRNA hydrolysis reactions.

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases play a central role in protein synthesis, catalyzing the attachment of amino acids to their cognate tRNAs. Here, we describe a spectrophotometric assay for tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase in which the Tyr-tRNA product is cleaved, regenerating the tRNA substrate. As tRNA is the limiting substrate in the assay, recycling it substantially increases the sensitivity of the assay while simultaneously reducing its cost.

Hyperactive Editing Domain Variants Switch the Stereospecificity of Tyrosyl-tRNA Synthetase.

d-Amino acids are excluded at three different steps during protein synthesis: the aminoacylation of tRNA, binding of aminoacyl-tRNAs to EF-Tu, and selection of the aminoacyl-tRNA by the ribosome. We previously altered the enantioselectivity of tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (TyrRS) by inserting the editing domain from phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase (FRSed) between Gly 161 and Ile 162 in tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (the editing domain hydrolyzes l-Tyr-tRNA but not d-Tyr-tRNA). In this paper, we test the hypothesis that the enantioselectivity of this TyrRS-FRSed chimera can be shifted further toward the formation of d-Tyr-tRNA by introducing activating mutations into the editing site.

Altering the Enantioselectivity of Tyrosyl-tRNA Synthetase by Insertion of a Stereospecific Editing Domain.

Translation of mRNAs by the ribosome is stereospecific, with only l-amino acids being incorporated into the nascent polypeptide chain. This stereospecificity results from the exclusion of d-amino acids at three steps during protein synthesis: (1) the aminoacylation of tRNA by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, (2) binding of aminoacyl-tRNAs to EF-Tu, and (3) recognition of aminoacyl-tRNAs by the ribosome. As a first step toward incorporating d-amino acids during protein synthesis, we have altered the enantioselectivity of tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase.

RETRACTED: Impact of Cooperative Trial and Sociodemographic Variation on Adjuvant Radiation Therapy Usage in Elderly Women (≥70 Years) with Stage I, Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer: Analysis of the National Cancer Data Base.

Background: The Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 9343 trial demonstrated that adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) can be omitted in women aged 70 years or older, with small, estrogen receptor (ER)+ breast cancer. We postulated that RT usage after CALGB's publication should have decreased over time.

Study Design: We evaluated a cohort of 205,860 women aged 70 years or older, with stage I, ER+/progesterone receptor (PR)+ breast cancer with lumpectomy, diagnosed between 1998 and 2012, in the National Cancer Data Base.

Cutaneous Granular Cell Tumor on the Arm in a Middle-Aged Man.

Granular Cell Tumors are uncommon, often benign neoplasms that occur primarily in the oral cavity. Granular Cell Tumors have also been reported in breast, gastrointestinal tissues, and less commonly in the dermis of the upper extremities. This is a case presentation of a 44-year-old Caucasian male with an asymptomatic Granular Cell Tumor on his right arm.

Expanding a tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase assay to other aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases.

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases catalyze the attachment of amino acids to their cognate tRNAs. In general, aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase assays require stoichiometric amounts of tRNA, which limits their sensitivity while increasing their cost. This requirement for stoichiometric amounts of tRNA can be alleviated if the aminoacyl-tRNA product is cleaved following the tRNA aminoacylation reaction, regenerating the free tRNA substrate.

A continuous tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase assay that regenerates the tRNA substrate.

Tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase catalyzes the attachment of tyrosine to the 3' end of tRNA(Tyr), releasing AMP, pyrophosphate, and l-tyrosyl-tRNA as products. Because this enzyme plays a central role in protein synthesis, it has garnered attention as a potential target for the development of novel antimicrobial agents. Although high-throughput assays that monitor tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase activity have been described, these assays generally use stoichiometric amounts of tRNA, limiting their sensitivity and increasing their cost.