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Aim: The aim of this article is to estimate prevalence of menopausal symptoms among women in the menopausal age group and study the urban-rural differences. Methods and Design: Analytical cross-sectional study conducted in rural and urban field practice areas of a tertiary care center affiliated to Medical College, where 290 women (145 each from urban and rural areas) were interviewed to measure prevalence of menopausal symptoms. Forty-one symptoms were divided into ‘Psycho-somatic’ (17 symptoms), ‘genito-urinary (9 symptoms)’ and musculo-skeletal (5 symptoms) domains. The prevalence of each of these symptoms is reported as proportion and the differences in the median scores in the two groups were tested using Mann-Whitney U test. Results: From among 145 women each, in urban and rural settings, most common psychosomatic symptoms were physical exhaustion-fatigue (73.1%), difficulty climbing stairs (59.3%), sleep problems (45.2%), body ache (43.4%), and hot flushes (41.4%). Among the urban participants, most common was physical exhaustion (42.1%), difficulty climbing stairs (62.1%), anger (46.9%), sleep problems (45.5%), and irritability (42.1%), while among the rural participants they were physical exhaustion (66.2%), difficulty climbing stairs (56.6%), insomnia (54.5%), and body ache (46.2%). Most common genito-urinary symptoms overall and in rural areas were urinary urgency (35.9% and 38.6%), increased frequency of urine (31.7% and 37.2%) and incontinence (30% and 35.2% respectively). Among the urban women, common symptoms were urinary urgency (33.1%) followed by itching of private parts (30.3%) and increased frequency of urination (26.2%). Among musculo-skeletal symptoms, joint pain (74.1%, 74.5%, 73.8%) was the most common symptom followed by joint and muscular discomfort (71.7%, 73.8%, 69.7%) among the overall, urban and rural participants. There was a significant difference in the median psychosomatic score as per the symptoms experienced by the urban and rural participants (U = 36, Z statistic = 2.31, and P = 0.02). However, there was no significant difference in the scores for genito-urinary and musculo-skeletal symptoms; thereby, median scores under both these domains were almost similar in both urban and rural groups Conclusion: There was significant difference in the median psychosomatic score as per the symptoms experienced by the urban and rural participants however; there was no significant difference in genito-urinary and musculo-skeletal symptom scores.

Background: Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is an effective non-invasive method for managing urinary tract calculi. Present study was undertaken to evaluate factors that may influence ESWL clinical outcomes in Indian patients with urinary tract calculi.Methods: This prospective study was conducted at Department of Urology, Medical Trust Hospital Cochin, India in the period from September 2006 to March 2009. Sixty patients with upper urinary tract lithiasis having stone size between 5 to 25 mm were included and patients with ˃2 calculi, distal ureteric obstruction (not relieved), renal anomalies were excluded. All patients were treated with DIREX medical system lithotripter. Clinical outcome of ESWL was assessed by factors like site, size, density and skin-to-stone distance. After statistical analysis, p-value ≤0.05 was taken as the level of significance.Results: The overall success of ESWL was 82%. The final success of ESWL for sites like ureter, pelvis, mid or upper and lower calyx were 94.1%, 84%, 85.7% and 58% respectively (p = 0.095). The rate of fragmentation of stone after one session of ESWL for stone size ≤10 mm, 11 mm - 20 mm and ≥21 mm was 76.5%, 68.4% and 16.7% respectively (p=0.009). For stone density 751-1000 HU, 22.2% patients required ≥2 sessions to achieve stone free status (p<0.0005). Around 15.6% patients in skin-to-stone distance (SSD) ≤10cm required ≥2 sessions to achieve stone free status (p = 0.27).Conclusions: ESWL should be considered a primary modality of treatment in patients with calculi size ≤20 mm, density ≤ 1000 HU, pelvic, ureteric and upper and/or middle calyceal calculi and for SSD ≤10 cm.

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