Three protein peaks were identified in the serum of men with prostate cancer and BPH, but not in controls, with relative molecular masses of 15.2, 15.9 and 17.5 kDa. These three proteins were significantly associated with BPH and prostate cancer when compared with controls ( P = 0.001, 0.004, and 0.011, respectively, Kruskal–Wallis test). Interestingly, the 17.5 kDa protein was more abundant in...

AIMS A prospective randomised clinical trial was set up to compare the effect of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (Ocucoat) and sodium hyaluronate (Healonid) on pupil size and reactivity following their use in cataract surgery. METHODS Pupil measurements were recorded before and 6 weeks after surgery. RESULTS There was no significant difference between the two groups with respect to pupil size...

BACKGROUND To determine the role played by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) based on an interventional immunology theory. METHODS Eyes with PCV were divided in a masked fashion into those with choroidal hyperpermeability (HP group) and those with normal choroidal permeability (NP group) based on the indocyanine green angiograms. The inter-ra...

BRCA1 mutation carriers face a high lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. Physical activity induces broad transcriptional changes, and multiple studies have documented its beneficial effects across cancers. Because haploinsufficiency predisposes to breast cancer in these women, factors that increase BRCA1 levels may mitigate the effect of the mutation. Whether physical activity modulates B...

AIM To explain the variability in the behavioral response after spinal nerve ligation by investigating the relation between the development of neuropathic pain and the expression of inflammatory indicators, in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and the spinal nerve. METHODS Ninety-six male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to the modified spinal nerve ligation, sham, and control group. Testin...

Methods Thirty-seven patients with HCC treated by RFA were evaluated. Lesion number, size and segmental location, T2-weighted (w), arterial, portal-venous and venous contrast-phase, b600 diffusion-w imaging (DWI) and delayed phase contrast-enhanced imaging pattern were assessed at MRI. The separate imaging patterns as well as pretreatment clinical variables were correlated with outcome (disease...

Cytogenetic investigation of stable-type aberrations (translocations) was carried out with our improved methods on 28 elderly individuals in a high-background radiation area (HBRA) in China, and on 24 elderly individuals in a control area (CA). The level of radiation in HBRA is 3 to 5 times higher than in CA. The mean frequencies of translocations per 1,000 cells in HBRA and CA were 12.4 +/- 5....

Purpose. This study retrospectively analyzed the postoperative visual functions of myopic eyes implanted with multifocal intraocular lens (IOL) to evaluate the efficacy of multifocal IOL in highly myopic eyes. Methods. We studied 61 patients (96 eyes) who were implanted with multifocal IOL ZMA00 or ZMB00 (Abbott Medical Optics). The patients were stratified into two groups by axial length: 26 m...

BACKGROUND Complementary bedside lung monitoring modalities are often sought in order to assist in the differentiation between several lung opacities in the intensive care unit (ICU). OBJECTIVES To evaluate the use of computerized lung acoustic monitoring as a complementary approach in the differentiation between various chest radiographic densities in critically ill patients. METHODS Lung ...

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare asbestos related cancer, aggressive and unresponsive to therapies. Histological examination of pleural lesions is the gold standard of MPM diagnosis, although it is sometimes hard to discriminate the epithelioid type of MPM from benign mesothelial hyperplasia (MH).This work aims to define a new molecular tool for the differential diagnosis of MPM, ...