Nocturia.

Purpose: We review the current state of knowledge of nocturia and present algorithms for diagnosis, classification and treatment.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed the recent literature on nocturia, and state-of-the-art methods of diagnosis, classification and treatment.

Results: Nocturia, which is among the most bothersome of all urological symptoms, has heretofore been poorly classified and understood.

Words without mind.

A woman (LR), unconscious for 20 years, spontaneously produces infrequent, isolated words unrelated to any environmental context. Fluorodeoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging coregistered with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a mean brain metabolism equivalent to deep anesthesia. Nevertheless, PET imaging demonstrated islands of modestly higher metabolism that included Broca's and Wernicke's areas.

Rostral and orbital prefrontal cortex dysfunction in the manic state of bipolar disorder.

Objective: This study investigated prefrontal cortex function in the manic state of bipolar disorder.

Method: High-sensitivity [15O]H2O positron emission tomography and a word generation activation paradigm were used to study regional cerebral blood flow in five manic and six euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder and in five healthy individuals.

Results: Decreased right rostral and orbital prefrontal cortex activation during word generation and decreased orbitofrontal activity during rest were associated with mania.

Cardiac angiogenesis and gene therapy: a strategy for myocardial revascularization.

Angiogenesis, the de novo formation of new vasculature, is a critical response to ischemia that provides neovascularization of ischemic tissues. In therapeutic angiogenesis, an angiogen--a mediator that induces angiogenesis--is delivered to targeted tissues, augmenting the native angiogenic process and enhancing reperfusion of ischemic tissues. Gene transfer is a novel means of providing therapeutic angiogenesis: the cDNA coding for specific angiogens, rather than the proteins themselves, is administered to the tissues in which angiogenesis is desired.

Vacuum constriction devices for erectile dysfunction: a long-term, prospective study of patients with mild, moderate, and severe dysfunction.

Objectives: To evaluate, using a long-term, prospective study, the satisfaction rate, attrition rate, and follow-up treatment of well-trained patients using an external vacuum erection device, the Osbon ErecAid System, in the treatment of mild, moderate, and severe organic erectile dysfunction.

Methods: One hundred twenty-nine patients were assessed to determine the severity and cause of their erectile dysfunction. Patients with organic erectile dysfunction who were interested in the Osbon ErecAid received the device after thorough training.

Carotid intimal-medial thickness and stiffness are not affected by hypercholesterolemia in uncomplicated essential hypertension.

The combined effects of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia on carotid anatomy and stiffness were studied in 62 normotensives, 141 uncomplicated essential hypertensives with a total cholesterol level <240 mg/dL, and 60 essential hypertensives with a total cholesterol level >/=240 mg/dL. Carotid ultrasonography was performed to evaluate intimal-medial thickness (IMT), relative wall thickness, and the presence of plaque. Carotid pressure waveforms were recorded by applanation tonometry to measure carotid stiffness (beta) and pressure wave reflection (ie, augmentation index).

Comparison of a novel rectilinear biphasic waveform with a damped sine wave monophasic waveform for transthoracic ventricular defibrillation. ZOLL Investigators.

Objectives: We compared the efficacy of a novel rectilinear biphasic waveform, consisting of a constant current first phase, with a damped sine wave monophasic waveform during transthoracic defibrillation.

Background: Multiple studies have shown that for endocardial defibrillation, biphasic waveforms have a greater efficacy than monophasic waveforms. More recently, a 130-J truncated exponential biphasic waveform was shown to have equivalent efficacy to a 200-J damped sine wave monophasic waveform for transthoracic ventricular defibrillation.

State-mandated voluntary newborn human immunodeficiency virus screening in a New York City Hospital.

Objective: To report the experience with state-mandated voluntary newborn human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening in a large university hospital.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of delivery records and newborn HIV screening data for infants born between May 4, 1996, and January 31, 1997.

Results: Of 3111 women, 40% had HIV testing during pregnancy, 28% had testing before pregnancy, 30% never had testing, and 2% gave no information.

Implant brachytherapy: a novel treatment for recurrent orbital rhabdomyosarcoma.

Background: Orbital rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common primary malignancy of the orbit in childhood. Tumor resection and exenteration were the preferred treatment modalities for rhabdomyosarcoma. In the past 20 years, however, combined local radiation and systemic chemotherapy have shown excellent survival results.

Uric acid in the aqueous humor and tears of retinoblastoma patients.

Purpose: Malignancy can be associated with high levels of catabolic products. We performed a two-part study. Part 1 measured levels of uric acid and xanthine in the aqueous humor of eyes with malignant and nonmalignant diagnoses.

Comparison of anterior transposition and recession of the inferior oblique muscle in unilateral superior oblique paresis.

Purpose: Both anterior transposition and graded recession have been shown to be effective procedures in weakening the inferior oblique muscle. Anterior transposition may work in part by converting the inferior oblique muscle from an elevator to a depressor of the globe. In theory, this would be useful in treating the inferior oblique overaction associated with superior oblique paresis.

Chemoprevention of colorectal cancer through inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2.

Two events in the last decade have set the stage for the large-scale clinical testing of chemopreventive agents for colorectal cancer in people at low to moderate risk for this disease. One of these is the discovery of a cause-effect relationship between the activities of cyclooxygenases (COX) and carcinogenesis in the colon, which can be interdicted by inhibitors of the enzymes. The other is the development of selective inhibitors of COX-2.

Results of pubovaginal sling for stress incontinence: a prospective comparison of 4 instruments for outcome analysis.

Purpose: Presently to our knowledge there are no standardized techniques to assess outcomes after surgery for stress incontinence. We performed a prospective blinded study to assess the correlation among physician and patient assessments, and a validated 24-hour pad test and voiding diary.

Materials And Methods: A total of 84 women were evaluated before and after pubovaginal sling for stress incontinence with a voiding diary, pad test and symptom questionnaire (patient assessment) administered by a blinded third party.

Substance dependence and eating disorders: impact of sequence on comorbidity.

There is a high comorbidity between eating disorders and substance dependence. The sequence of illness may indicate differences in the underlying pathology and could reflect different etiologies and treatment. The present study subjects were 218 inpatients and outpatients with diagnoses of anorexia nervosa binge-purge type (AN-BP), bulimia nervosa (BN), and eating disorder NOS (ED-NOS).

The future of psychosocial treatments for elderly patients.

Geriatric psychiatric disorders usually occur in the context of medical illness, disability, and psychosocial impoverishment. Preliminary evidence suggests that psychotherapy can reduce not only psychopathology but also physical complaints, pain, and disability and that it can improve compliance with medical regimens. Psychotherapy has been found effective in treatment of depression related to bereavement and caregiver burden.

Gastrin-releasing peptide suppresses independent but not intraoral intake.

Independent and intraoral intake tests have been used to separate the effects of various substances on the appetitive and consummatory phases of ingestive behavior. This study compared the ability of gastrin-releasing peptide1-27 (GRP) to suppress intraoral intake of nutrient solutions versus independent intake of the same solutions from a bottle. In a series of experiments, adult male Sprague Dawley rats implanted with anterior sublingual chronic intraoral catheters were injected intraperitoneally with saline control or 28 microg/kg GRP before 20-min intraoral and 20-min one-bottle intake tests of a sucrose (0.

Assessment of deep venous thrombosis using routine pelvic CT.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess routine pelvic CT both for accuracy in diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis and for frequency of detection of clinically unsuspected pelvic thrombi.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed the CT records of patients who had undergone pelvic CT during a 6-month period and cross-referenced these records to reports on lower extremity venous sonography to identify patients who had undergone this test within 1 week of pelvic CT. We compared the frequency and location of venous thrombosis revealed through these two tests.

Cyclic estradiol treatment normalizes body weight and test meal size in ovariectomized rats.

We tested whether cyclic estradiol treatment, like continuous estradiol treatment, is sufficient to normalize meal size and body weight in ovariectomized rats. In Experiment 1, adult Long-Evans rats were ovariectomized and subcutaneously injected with 0, 0.2, or 2.

Expression of the insulin-like growth factor-1 gene and its receptor in preimplantation mouse embryos; is it a marker of embryo viability?

Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of insulin-like growth factors (IGF) in mouse preimplantation development. We examined IGF-1 and IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) gene expression in a single blastomere of an early mouse embryo and compared it with subsequent embryo development in culture. Fertilized eggs and 2-cell embryos were obtained by tubal flushing in superovulated and mated female mice.

The effect of hydrosalpinges on IVF-ET outcome.

Purpose: Our purpose was to determine if the presence of a hydrosalpinx effects the outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF)-embryo transfer.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of IVF cycle stimulation sheets.

Results: A total of 1000 patients with tubal factor infertility was analyzed.

Bremsstrahlung radiation exposure from pure beta-ray emitters.

Unlabelled: With increasing therapeutic use of radionuclides that emit relatively high-energy (>1 MeV) beta-rays and the production in vivo of bremsstrahlung sufficient for external imaging, the potential external radiation hazard warrants evaluation.

Methods: The exposure from a patient administered beta-ray-emitting radionuclides has been calculated by extending the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement model of a point source in air to account for biologic elimination of activity, the probability of bremsstrahlung production in vivo and its mean energy and the absorption by the patient's body of the bremsstrahlung thus produced. To facilitate such calculations, a quantity called the "specific bremsstrahlung constant" (in C/kg-cm2/MBq-h), betaBr, was devised and calculated for several radionuclides.

Cyclosporiasis: clinical and histopathologic correlates.

Although the histopathologic changes associated with Cyclospora cayetanensis infection have been previously described, the histopathology and the appearance of various life cycle stages have not been correlated with severity, stage, and duration of clinical disease. We report a prospective clinical investigation of disease characteristics and histopathologic findings in three otherwise healthy, immunocompetent patients with symptomatic C. cayetanensis infection, the duration of which ranged from 6 to 60 days.