Aim: The aims of this study were to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and make the treatment decision less difficult. Methods: Between 2007 and 2009 radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) was performed in 96 patients and permanent prostate brachytherapy (PPB) in 88 patients at our hospital. The general and disease-specific HRQOL was measured using two instruments, the Medical Outcome Study 8-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-8) and the expanded prostate index composite (EPIC). Results: Comparing RRP and PPB, there were significant differences in all scores except for general health in the 1st month after treatment which had the same score in both groups. The baseline quality of life scores in physical function (p < 0.05), physical role (p < 0.01), social functioning (p < 0.01), emotional role (p < 0.01) and mental health (p < 0.01) showed significant differences between the group and were better in the PPB group than in the RRP group. The physical component summary score in the PPB group was better than in the RRP group in the 1st month (p < 0.01) but recovered up to 3 months in the RRP group. The urinary bother and irritative/obstructive scores in the 1st month were worse from baseline in both groups (p < 0.05) and remained significantly worse up to 6 months in the PPB group than in the RRP group where these scores recovered within3 months. The urinary incontinence score in the RRP group was still worse than in the PPB group up to 12 months (p < 0.01). Bowel function and bother were significantly better in the RRP group at 3 (p < 0.05) and 6 months (p < 0.01) than in the PPB group where bowel function at 12 months was worse than at baseline and in the RRP group. Sexual function (p < 0.01) and sexual bother were better in the PPB group and did not change until 12 months. Conclusion: The difference in disease-specific quality of life has become clearer using EPIC. As with other published studies, our results provide important information that will therefore be useful for selecting the optimal treatments for localized prostate cancer.
The ANI scoring system may be used for the estimation of alcoholic origin of steatosis/steatohepatitis and may help in triaging patients for liver biopsy. ANI less than -0.66 indicates NAFLD, whereas ANI greater than -0.66 confirms the alcoholic etiology, but does not exclude the contribution of associated factors toward the development of fatty liver in a Serbian population.
The subject of this paper is an analysis of the concepts and application of the augmented reality in e-commerce. The literature in the field suggests a huge potential for improving ecommerce using augmented reality services. The goal of the paper is to provide a new insight into this field through an example of development of an augmented reality service for furniture manufacturing company. The project includes creation of a virtual catalog of products which consists of 3D models of products and their positioning in real space. User interaction with the developed system is performed through mobile devices. The Vuforia and Unity platform were used for the realization of the project. The project was managed using Scrum.
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