PURPOSE The metabolic syndrome (MS) has been accepted as an important cause of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in old age. However, there are no studies of the influence of MS on prostate volume in relatively young adults. We evaluated the relationship between parameters of MS and prostate volume in men under 50 years of age who visited our health promotion center. MATERIALS AND METHODS A ...

BACKGROUND Despite improving arterial oxygen saturation and pH, bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with chest compressions plus rescue breathing (CC+RB) has not improved survival from ventricular fibrillation (VF) compared with chest compressions alone (CC) in numerous animal models and 2 clinical investigations. METHODS AND RESULTS After 3 minutes of untreated VF, 14 swine (32+/-1...

BACKGROUND Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation with intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a widely accepted treatment for unexplained and male subfertility. No consensus exists about the drug of first choice to be used as hyperstimulation. This randomized multicentre trial using a parallel design compares the efficacy of clomiphene citrate (CC) with that of recombinant FSH (rFSH). METHODS Couple...

BACKGROUND Postoperative oral nutritional supplementation has been shown to be of clinical benefit. This study examined the clinical effects and cost of administration of oral supplements both before and after surgery. METHODS This was a randomized clinical trial conducted in three centres. Patients undergoing lower gastrointestinal tract surgery were randomized to one of four groups: group C...

Background: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TM) is characterized by acute and transient myocardial segmental wall motion abnormality especially at the apical area with chest pain mimicking acute myocardial infarction. TM is generally accepted to show good prognosis, however, we experience some cases with severe cardiac complications including acute heart failure (AHF), cardiac rupture and ventricular...

IL-18 polymorphisms influence the transcriptional activity of the IL-18 gene and associated with various diseases. However, their relationships with hepatitis B virus-related liver diseases had not reached a consensus. So we conducted this case-control study with a view to clarifying the association. We included four groups: healthy controls, chronic hepatitis B virus (CHB) carriers, liver cirr...

Height and weight were measured and body mass index (BMI) calculated in 56 sickle cell disease (SCD), 57 Caucasian (CC), and 63 African/Caribbean (AC) 3-9 year old children. The SCD children were taller, but had similar weight and BMI to the CC controls. The SCD group had lower weight and BMI than the AC controls. The AC controls were of greater height, weight, and BMI than CC controls. These d...

The negative impacts of high stocking density on the commercial poultry industry compromise sustainable birds’ productivity and welfare. Thus, we investigated potential colocynth seed (CC) supplementation in alleviating broilers’ performance, immunity, inflammation, redox status. A total 648 one-day-old male Cobb 500 chicks were recruited distributed into 2 × factorial arrangements. treatment g...

Nutrition during pregnancy and lactation could exert a key role not only on maternal bone, but also could influence the skeletal development of the offspring. This study was performed in rats to assess the relationship between maternal dietary intake of prebiotic oligofructose-enriched inulin and its role in bone turnover during gestation and lactation, as well as its effect on offspring peak b...

Human papillomavirus (HPV) can activate Toll-like receptor (TLR)/nitric oxide (NO) signaling pathways; however, whether the TLR/NO pathway is involved in cervical cancer caused by high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) remains unclear. In this study, 43 HR-HPV-positive patients with cervical cancer (CC group), 39 HR-HPV-positive patients with a healthy cervix (HR-HPV group), and 33 HR-HPV-negative controls wer...