Obesity and benign prostatic hyperplasia: clinical connections, emerging etiological paradigms and future directions.

Purpose: Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a highly prevalent disease in older men with substantial adverse effects on public health. Classic etiological paradigms for benign prostatic hyperplasia focus on nonmodifiable risk factors. However, obesity also potentially promotes benign prostatic hyperplasia.

The extracellular matrix differentially regulates the expression of PTHrP and the PTH/PTHrP receptor in FG pancreatic cancer cells.

Objectives: Previous studies by our laboratory have demonstrated that parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) and its receptor (PTH/PTHrP receptor) are commonly expressed in pancreatic cancer and suggest their participation in the progression of this devastating disease. It has also been demonstrated that one of the major hallmarks of pancreatic adenocarcinoma is an increased production of the extracellular matrix (ECM), a critical regulator of diverse cellular processes such as differentiation, proliferation, and angiogenesis. The present study focused on the relationship between the PTHrP and ECM axes in the pathobiology of pancreatic cancer.

Assessment of relationship between acid reflux and heartburn using receiver operating characteristic curves.

Arguments proposed in this article may explain why a subgroup of patients, having so-called "functional heartburn," does not respond to acid inhibition therapy [19,20]. It is highly likely that acid is not the cause of heartburn in this group of subjects. These conclusions are supported further by observations of Wiener et al [2] and Howard et al [21], who found that a subgroup of patients with high SI have a negative Bernstein test, which suggests that the presence of acid in the esophagus at the time of spontaneous heartburn may be coincidental and does not reflect a cause-and-effect relationship between the two.

Sleep deprivation, EEG, and functional MRI in depression: preliminary results.

One night of total or partial sleep deprivation (SD) produces temporary remissions in 40-60% of patients with major depression. Two unmedicated patients with major depression and a matched control received quantitative perfusion MR images at baseline and after one night of partial SD (PSD). A reduction > or =30% in the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (omitting sleep and weight loss items) defined antidepressant response.

The effects of total sleep deprivation on cerebral responses to cognitive performance.

We review the findings from a study utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to examine the effects of total sleep deprivation (TSD) on verbal learning, arithmetic, and divided attention. For verbal learning and divided attention, TSD was associated with increased activation in the bilateral prefrontal cortex and parietal lobes. Increased sleepiness after TSD and lower levels of memory impairment were correlated with increased activation in specific regions of the prefrontal cortex and parietal lobes, respectively.

Adenosine formed by 5'-nucleotidase mediates tubuloglomerular feedback.

Nephron function is stabilized by tubuloglomerular feedback (TGF). TGF operates within the juxtaglomerular apparatus, sensing changes in tubular flow and eliciting compensatory changes in single nephron GFR (SNGFR). The mediator(s) of TGF remains unconfirmed.

Is there a relationship between delta sleep at night and afternoon cerebral blood flow, assessed by HMPAO-SPECT in depressed patients and normal control subjects? Preliminary data.

We wished to explore the relationships between waking HMPAO uptake and visually scored polysomnography. We hypothesized that HMPAO activity would correlate positively with slow wave sleep measures the same night. Eight unmedicated unipolar patients with current DSM-IV major depression (17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score 21.