Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a common condition in women. Women with POP often experience pelvic discomfort, urinary and fecal problems, sexual dysfunction, and an overall decrease in their quality of life. Surgical treatment is a feasible option if conservative management fails. Various surgical techniques have been proposed to correct POP with or without the use of graft material. Owing to recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration warnings about mesh-related complications, sacrospinous ligament fixation (SSF), as a traditional vaginal procedure, may play an important role again. To answer this question and evaluate quantitatively the efficacy of SSF in POP, we conducted a systemic review of the available data about SSF and POP. Interventions had to include SSF as a point of attachment. To eliminate confounding bias and effect modification, at least one arm must include SSF without mesh or graft. All follow-up periods were allowed. Information on the following parameters was extracted and entered into a database: study design, type of intervention, number of patients, follow-up in months, cure rate, recurrence rate, intra/postoperative complications, and/or uni/bilateral, preventive/therapeutic, or concomitant procedures. Published papers from the years 1995 to 2011 were selected for analysis.

Our results indicate that genome-based expression profiling can be used for the diagnostic tests of Hunner's ulcer type IC in clinical practice.

The identification of elite swimmers' race patterns at the same time is an important unresolved problem. This problem appears to be of fundamental importance for coaches in training promising elite swimmers. To address this problem, a system of cluster analysis for studying group structures on the basis of elite swimmers' race results and various available race components, such as lengths, speeds and times, is described that uses standard statistical algorithms to arrange elite swimmers according to similarity in their race patterns. The outputs are displayed graphically using tree-like dendrograms, conveying elite swimmers' race patterns in a form intuitive for coaches. As an illustration of this, we have used this method to uncover a number of key race components in connection with Ian Thorpe's race results in the men's 400m freestyle final at the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics

Further characterization of human IC-induced gene expression profiles would enable the use of genome-based expression profiling for the therapeutic targets and diagnosis of IC.

Introduction and hypothesis The aim of the study was to investigate the molecular signatures underlying bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) using cDNA microarray. Methods Microarray gene expression profiles were studied in a matched case-control study by using a system of conditional regression modeling. ResultsThe main findings are summarized as follows: Firstly, a "139-gene" model was discovered to contain high expressions of bladder epithelium, which feature in BPS/IC. Secondly, complex metabolic reactions, including carbohydrate, lipid, cofactors, vitamins, xenobiotics, nucleotide, and amino acid metabolisms, were found to have a strong relationship with bladder smooth muscle contraction through IC status. Thirdly, we found the transcriptional regulations of IC-induced bladder smooth muscle contraction status, including the level of contractile force, tissue homeostasis, energy homeostasis, and the development of the nervous system. In addition, our study suggested the mast-cell activation mediated by the high-affinity receptor of Fc epsilon RI triggering allergic inflammation through IC status. Such genetic changes, jointly termed "bladder remodeling," can constitute an important long-term consequence of BPS/IC. Conclusions The success of this innovation has supported the use of microarray-based expression profiling as a single standardized platform for diagnosis of BPS/IC and offers drug discovery.The abstract of this article contained some errors that were overlooked or introduced while the manuscript was being prepared for publication. The corrected abstract is reproduced here.