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Objective. To investigate the relationship between lesion severity and other clinical factors and bladder function recovery. Patients and methods. The charts of 269 patients with traumatic and non traumatic spinal cord lesion (SCL) were reviewed and the following information was recorded: lesion to admission time, injury variables, length of stay and neurological status. At five months, urological outcome was assessed by voiding modalities, and urodynamics according to International Continence Society. Statistics. Logistic approach with univariate and multivariate analysis. Results. Both ASIA impairment at admission and age were significantly correlated with bladder function outcome. None of the patients with ASIA A impairment at admission reached volitional voiding at five months. ASIA B patients had a 90% lower probability of achieving good bladder control and ASIA C ones a 65% lower than ASIA D patients (p < 0.05). Older patients had a significant lower probability (60%) of achieving volitional voiding than younger ones (p < 0.05). Of the 121 patients with ASIA D impairment at discharge only 78 voided spontaneously and showed a higher frequency of cervical lesions and a lower frequency of detrusor-external sphincter dyssynergia. Discussion and conclusion. Bladder recovery in patients with complete SCL is limited. ASIA B patients showed a better neurological recovery and, concurrently, better bladder function recovery than ASIA A patients, thus demonstrating the importance of sensation preservation for recovery. Younger patients show better bladder recovery than older ones, probably because of different efficiency of spinal cord plasticity. Finally, patients with good neurological recovery may not achieve volitional voiding. Patients with bladder function recovery show a higher frequency of central cord and Brown-Sequard syndromes (with better prognosis) and a lower frequency of detrusor-sphincter dyssynergia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been growing interest over recent years in the potential preventive role of the Mediterranean diet in the development of cardiovascular disease and cancer. The present study was designed to evaluate the relationship between the components of the Mediterranean diet and lung cancer. A hospital-based, case-control study of lung cancer was conducted on subjects aged 35+ yr living in the Lazio region and admitted to one of the main hospitals in Rome in the period from 1993 to 1996. Cases (n = 342) were patients with newly diagnosed primary lung cancer. Controls (n = 292) were recruited from departments of general surgery, orthopedics, ENT, and general medicine and were frequency matched by sex and age (+/-5 yr) to the cases. Exposure characteristics were obtained by interviewing study subjects. A self-administered food-frequency questionnaire was used. After careful control for several smoking variables, we found a protective effect for high consumption of carrots (odds ratio [OR] = 0.67, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.42-1.05), tomatoes (OR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.34-1.03), white meat (OR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.42-1.02), exclusive use of olive oil (OR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.45-0.99), and regular consumption of sage (OR = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.29-0.65). In a multivariate model, considering all food items simultaneously, the protective effect of exclusive olive oil use and sage remained statistically significant. Our results indicate that some food items typical of the Mediterranean diet are associated with decreased lung cancer risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]