1,721,194 research outputs found
The Role of Combination Therapy with α-Blockers and Hexanic Extract of Serenoa repens in the Treatment of LUTS/BPH
Full text linkThe hexanic extract of Serenoa repens (HESr) has been in use for decades as an effective, safe and well-tolerated therapy for relieving bothersome lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) associated with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). This manuscript gives an overview of HESr as monotherapy for LUTS/BPH treatment and focuses on the currently available literature investigating the possible clinical benefits of HESr combination therapy with α-blockers. Combination therapy of HESr with α-blockers has been gaining significant interest in recent years, as an increasing body of evidence shows the beneficial pharmacological effects that HESr treatment can add to standard first-line treatment with α-blockers. By reducing persistent Prostatic Inflammatory Status (PIS), commonly present in LUTS/BPH patients, HESr complements the relaxation of prostate smooth muscle induced by α-blockers, thus providing additional symptom relief. Data suggest that patients harbouring PIS and having a specific clinical profile might especially benefit from the combination therapy. Future therapeutic efforts may take advantage of more personalised strategies for LUTS/BPH management
The influence of the medical treatment of LUTS on benign prostatic hyperplasia surgery: Do we operate too late?
No full textAbstract
INTRODUCTION:
The aim of this article is to systematically collect the available evidence on the influence of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) medical treatment on benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) surgery.
EVIDENCE ACQUISITION:
A systematic literature search January 1990 until June 2016 was performed by combining the following MeSH terms: "lower urinary tract symptoms", "benign prostatic hyperplasia", "male", "medical treatment", "surgical treatment", "deferred/postponed treatment/intervention", "early intervention/treatment". Each article title and abstract was reviewed for relevance and appropriateness with regards to the topic of this review.
EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS:
The pharmacological treatment of LUTS is undoubtedly a successful story in the field of urology. Over the last two decades, the introduction of novel pharmaceutical agents has dramatically reduced the rate of BPH surgery interventions all over the world. Thus, nowadays, patients who undergo surgery are generally older, with more severe comorbidities and with larger prostates, theoretically requiring more challenging interventions. Nevertheless, the recent advances in surgical techniques and instruments have counterbalanced this unfavorable scenario and, overall, a non-pejorative trend has been observed in peri-/postoperative complications. On the other hand, evidence from the "pre-pharmacological-treatment era" suggested that immediate BPH surgery might be the best option for patients at risk of severe BPH progression. Still, no clear-cut, shared criteria have yet been established to effectively identify these patients.
CONCLUSIONS:
Several questions remain unanswered regarding the role of medical treatment in BPH, and good-quality studies available on this topic are surprisingly rare. The evidence presented in this review supports the need for prospective comparative studies evaluating long-term LUTS/BPH pharmacological treatment versus an early surgical intervention, particularly using the emerging laser technologies
Moderate-to-high cardiovascular risk is associated with increased lower urinary tract storage symptoms in patients with benign prostatic enlargement
No full textTo assess the association between cardiovascular risk (CVR) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in men with benign prostatic enlargement (BPE)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
VENTRAL ONLAY BUCCAL MUCOSA GRAFT URETHROPLASTY FOR FEMALE URETHRAL STRICTURE: MEDIUM-TERM RESULTS IN A SINGLE SURGEON EXPERIENCE
No full textObjective: To describe our own approach using buccal mucosal grafting and to assess the outcome of this approach. Materials and methods: A total of 42 patients underwent ventral onlay BMG by a single surgeon between 2017 and 2022. A longitudinal incision along the length of the urethra was made through the anterior vaginal wall and the peri-urethral fascia was incised to create two flaps. This ventral urethrotomy ran from the meatus into the proximal health urethra above the level of the stricture. A buccal mucosal graft was harvested and sutured to the margins of the urethral mucosa itself and the flaps of peri-urethral fascia. The vaginal wall was then closed. Results: The mean age of the patients was 53.6 ± 12.8 years. There were no perioperative or postoperative complications. At a mean follow-up of 38.1 months, 41 patients (98%) were stricture-free. Peak flow rate improved from a mean of 7.7 ± 3.2 ml/s preoperatively to 25.9 ± 5.9 ml/s postoperatively. No patient developed incontinence. One patient developed a recurrent urethral stricture which was treated by redo urethroplasty. Conclusions: The surgical technique applied has proved efficiency. The ventral BMG preserves the urethral sphincter and so avoids postoperative incontinence. The use of peri-urethral fascia represents a good vascular and mechanical support for the graft
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
