Aim:To examine the efficiency of α1-blocker treatment on disease-specific and generic quality of life (QOL) in men with clinically diagnosed benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), the improvement of QOL scores with International prostate symptom score (I-PSS) and Rand Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Health Survey (SF-36) was prospectively analyzed. Methods: A total of 68 newly diagnosed patients with symptomatic BPH that satisfied all inclusion and none of the exclusion criteria were prospectively recruited. All patients received 0.2 mg/day of tamsulosin for 12 weeks. All patients underwent pretreatment documentation of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and assessment of symptom-specific QOL. Symptoms and general health-related QOL (HRQOL) were assessed using the I-PSS and SF-36, respectively. Also, other objective variables, such as prostate volume, maximal urinary flow and postvoid residual urine volume, were evaluated. Results: After 12 weeks, decrease in I-PSS was 27% compared with baseline (from 16.4 ± 7.18 to 11.9 ± 7.56). All questionnaires in the I-PSS showed improvement after tamsulosin treatment and the I-PSS QOL score was improved from 4.51 ± 1.14 to 3.17 ± 1.38 (P < 0.0001) at 12 weeks after tamsulosin administration. In intragroup comparisons of HRQOL scores with agegender adjusted SF-36 Japanese national norms, three SF-36 subscales (bodily pain, BP; social function, SF; and mental health, MH) were worse in the BPH group aged over 70 years, while younger BPH groups aged <70 had better mean SF-36 physical function (PF) scores compared with age-gender adjusted Japanese national norms. In the BPH group with a prostatic volume ≥20 mL, three mean SF-36 scales (BP, SF and MH) were significantly improved after tamsulosin treatment. It is noteworthy that these SF-36 subscales were identical to those observed to worsen in the older BPH group compared to Japanese national norms. Conclusions: Treatment with tamsulosin for symptomatic BPH patients is associated with significant improvement in the generic HRQOL, in addition to disease-specific QOL and symptoms, at 3 months after drug administration. In particularly, for generic HRQOL with SF-36, tamsulosin treatment can efficiently improve three mean SF-36 subscales (BP, SF and MH) that are decreased in older BPH patients.Key words α1-blocker, benign prostatic hyperplasia, I-PSS, quality of life, SF-36 health survey.

bThe genus Methylobacterium tolerates hygiene agents like benzalkonium chloride (BAC), and infection with this organism is an important public health issue. Here, we found that the combination of BAC with particular alcohols at nonlethal concentrations in terms of their solitary uses significantly reduced bacterial viability after only 5 min of exposure. Among the alcohols, Raman spectroscopic analyses showed that pentanol (pentyl alcohol [PeA]) and benzyl alcohol (BzA) accelerated the cellular accumulation of BAC. Fluorescence spectroscopic assays and morphological assays with giant vesicles indicated that PeA rarely attacked membrane structures, while BzA increased the membrane fluidity and destabilized the structures. Other fluorescent spectroscopic assays indicated that PeA and BzA inactivate bacterial membrane proteins, including an efflux pump for BAC transportation. These findings suggested that the inactivation of membrane proteins by PeA and BzA led to the cellular accumulation but that only BzA also enhanced BAC penetration by membrane fluidization at nonlethal concentrations.

Abbreviations & Acronyms AUC = area under the receiver operating characteristic curve BMI = body mass index CI = confidence interval CT = computed tomography EAU = European Association of Urology EBM = evidence-based medicine ESWL = extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy f-TUL = flexible-transurethral ureterolithotripsy KUB = kidney-ureter-bladder plain X-ray ROC = receiver operating characteristic TUL = transurethral ureterolithotripsy WBC+ = positive white blood cells Objectives: To develop and to internally validate a novel nomogram for predicting the stone-free rate after transurethral ureterolithotripsy. Methods: A total of 412 patients with 534 ureteral stones were treated with transurethral ureterolithotripsy using semi-rigid ureteroscopes. Treatment efficacy was evaluated 3 months after the procedure. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent predictors of being stone-free in the model-building set. A total of 427 stones (80% of 534) were randomly allocated for identification and statistical analysis to build the model, and the remaining 107 (20%) were used for crossvalidation. A nomogram for the stone-free rate was developed based on the final logistic regression model. Results: Stone length, number of stones, stone location and the presence of pyuria were independent factors related to the stone-free rate after transurethral ureterolithotripsy treatment, and these were used to develop a nomogram. In this nomogram, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.7432 for the nomogram, 0.5641 for stone size, 0.5908 for the number of stones, 0.6594 for stone location and 0.6076 for pyuria. Validation using 20% of the data also achieved a reasonable predictive accuracy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.682). Conclusions: The first nomogram for predicting the stone-free rate after transurethral ureterolithotripsy was developed. It has a reasonable predictive accuracy, and in combination with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy nomograms, it might be useful for deciding treatment methods.

We report a 300mm×360mm flexible FET substrate made by our transfer technology and 3.4-inch full-color AMOLED display with oxide FET flexible substrate. Our transfer technology has advantages in applicability for a large-size substrate and cost performance because laser irradiation is not needed.

Genetic alterations of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene and the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene in renal tumors were examined by PCR-SSCP analysis and direct sequencing. Tissues from 58 primary sporadic human renal cell tumors (49 clear-cell carcinomas, 6 non-clear-cell carcinomas and 3 oncocytomas) from Japanese patients were used in this study. Somatic VHL mutations were detected in 26 (53%) of the clear-cell carcinomas, although no mutations in this gene were observed in any non-clear-cell carcinomas or oncocytomas. The frequency of mutations did not correlate with histological grade, clinical stage or any of several other clinical factors examined. No differences in the frequency of VHL mutations or in the exons where mutations occurred within the gene were evident when we compared our results with those reported for American patients. However, frame-shifts were more common in our Japanese panel of tumors than in American cases, where single-point mutations appear to be more frequent. No APC gene mutation was detected in any of our samples. These results indicate that VHL gene mutations are related to the carcinogenesis of the clear-cell type of primary renal cell carcinomas, whereas alteration of the APC gene is not involved in the pathogenesis of this cancer.