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ObjectivesTo compare the outcomes of prostatic arterial embolization (PAE) in treating large (>80 mL) in comparison with medium-sized prostate glands (50-80 mL) to determine whether size affects the outcome of PAE. Patients and MethodsA total of 115 patients (mean age 71.5 years) diagnosed with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) attributable to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) refractory to medical treatment underwent PAE. Group A (n = 64) included patients with a mean prostate volume of 129 mL; group B (n = 51) included patients with a mean prostate volume of 64 mL. PAE was performed using 100-lm particles. Follow-up was performed using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality of life (QoL), peak urinary flow rate (Q max ), post-void residual urine volume (PVR), the International Index of Erectile Function short form (IIEF-5), prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate volume measured by magnetic resonance imaging at 1, 3 and 6 months, and every 6 months thereafter. ResultsThere were no significant differences between groups in baseline IPSS, QoL, Q max , PVR, PSA level or IIEF-5 score.The technical success rate was 93.8% in group A and 96.8% in group B (P = 0.7). A total of 101 patients (55 patients in group A and 46 patients in group B) completed the mean (range) follow-up of 17 (12-33) months. Compared with baseline, there were significant improvements in IPSS, QoL, Q max , prostate volume and PVR in both groups after PAE. The outcomes in group A were significantly better than in group B with regard to mean AE SD IPSS (À14 AE 6.5 vs À10.5 AE 5.5, respectively), Q max (6.0 AE 1.5 vs 4.5 AE 1.0 mL/s, respectively), PVR (À80.0 AE 25.0 vs À60.0 AE 20.0 mL, respectively), prostate volume (À54.5 AE 18.0 mL [À42.3%] vs À18.5 AE 5.0 mL [À28.9%], respectively), and QoL score (À3.0 AE 1.5 vs À2.0 AE 1.0) with P values <0.05. The mean IIEF-5 score was not significantly different from baseline in both groups. No major complications were noted. ConclusionsWe found that PAE is a safe and effective treatment method for patients with LUTS attributable to BPH. The clinical and imaging outcomes of PAE were better in patients with larger prostate glands than medium-sized ones.

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In this paper, adaptive synchronization of memristor-based neural networks (MNNs) with time-varying delays is investigated. The dynamical analysis here employs results from the theory of differential equations with discontinuous right-hand sides as introduced by Filippov. Sufficient conditions for the global synchronization of MNNs are established with a general adaptive controller. The update gain of the controller can be adjusted to control the synchronization speed. The obtained results complement and improve the previously known results. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.

This paper is concerned with the global exponential stabilization of memristor-based chaotic neural networks with both time-varying delays and general activation functions. Here, we adopt nonsmooth analysis and control theory to handle memristor-based chaotic neural networks with discontinuous right-hand side. In particular, several new sufficient conditions ensuring exponential stabilization of memristor-based chaotic neural networks are obtained via periodically intermittent control. In addition, the proposed results here are easy to verify and they also extend the earlier publications. Finally, numerical simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.