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Introduction: The prevalence of urinary incontinence is increasing. Two major risk factors are overweight and age. We present objective and subjective cure rates of elderly and overweight patients treated with an adjustable single-incision sling system (AJUST™, C.R. BARD, Inc.)., Materials and Methods: Between 04/2009 and 02/2012 we treated 100 female patients with the single incision sling. Patients were retrospectively evaluated by Stamey degree of incontinence, cough test, pad use, and overall satisfaction. The primary outcomes of the study were objective and subjective cure rates, secondary outcomes were the safety profile of the sling and complications., Results: The overall success rate in this population was 84.6% with a mean follow-up of 9.3 months. The average usage of pads per day decreased from 4.9 to 1.6 and was significantly lower in patients with a BMI <30 (p=0.004). Postoperative residual SUI was also lower in patients with a BMI <30 (p=0.006). Postoperative satisfaction was better in patients with a lower BMI, but this difference did not reach a level of significance (p=0.055). There were no complications such as bleeding, bladder injury, or tape infection., Conclusions: In elderly and obese patients a considerable success rate is achievable with this quick and minimal invasive procedure. However, the success rate shows a clear trend in favor of a lower body-mass-index. The cut-off point has been identified at a BMI of 30. The AJUST™ system can be regarded as safe and beneficial for elderly and obese patients., (Copyright® by the International Brazilian Journal of Urology.)

Purpose: Placement of ureteral stents (DJ-stents) may lead to complications. Inappropriate friction properties of the implant are, inter alia, made responsible for primary injuries, injury-related inflammation and a cascade of consecutive side effects. Hydrophilicity is considered to be related to low friction. The question arises, whether the various products on the market show their respective maximum hydrophilicity directly after unwrapping or a pre-use moistening, as already routinely done with the guide wire, is necessary., Methods: The surface wettability of commercial and experimental DJ-stents was determined by water contact angle (WCA) measurements using the sessile drop method. One reference surface and 11 different stent surface types were tested. In order to determine the influence of moistening on the stents' surface wettability, WCAs were measured twice, with dry, and soaked (30 min, 0.9%-NaCl) specimens. Each sample of a surface type was tested at three different positions to avoid effects of surface heterogeneities. Up to six samples of the same surface type were examined., Results: Mean WCAs on fresh and soaked stent surfaces ranged from 75°-103° and 71°-99°. In every case the WCAs on soaked surfaces were lower. On average the WCAs decrease by 7%, the individual decreases differ considerably, from 2 to 16%. For 7/12 of the examined surface types, the decrease in contact angle is statistically significant with p ≤ 0.01., Conclusions: DJ-stents freshly unwrapped show less hydrophilic properties compared to DJ-stents soaked in saline. To obtain maximum hydrophilicity at stent placement, DJ-stents should be soaked. The results may advocate a similar approach for other urological equipment.

Background: The prevalence of urolithiasis in Germany is 4.7%; its incidence has trebled in the last three decades. The risk of recurrence is 50-80%, depending on the type of stone, unless secondary prevention is instituted. Risk-adapted secondary prevention lowers this risk to 10-15%., Methods: This review is based on publications retrieved by a selective search in PubMed using the key words "urolithiasis," "urinary stones," "epidemiology," "lithogenesis," "biominerals," "risk factors," and "diagnosis, therapy, metaphylaxis." These publications were evaluated with the aid of the urolithiasis guideline of the European Association of Urology., Results: Acute renal colic can usually be diagnosed without sophisticated equipment. Stones can be dealt with by a variety of techniques depending on their size and location, including extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy, ureterorenoscopy, percutaneous nephrolitholapaxy, and open surgery. Most ureteric stones of diameter up to 5 mm pass spontaneously. 75% of patients have no complications. The basic evaluation needed for secondary prevention can be carried out by any physician on an ambulatory basis. In the 25% of patients who have complications, a more extensive interdisciplinary evaluation of metabolic parameters should be performed in a clinical center for urinary stones., Conclusion: Urolithiasis has many causes and can be treated in many different ways. An extensive metabolic work-up is often necessary for secondary prevention. The various treatment options must be considered for their suitability in each individual patient. Robust data are now available on surgical and interventional methods, but there are as yet no high-quality trials of secondary prevention. Further research should concentrate on the etiology and pathogenesis of urolithiasis.

Introduction: MicroRNAs play an important role in many human malignancies; so far, their expression remains to be studied in upper urinary tract urothelial cancer (UUTUC)., Materials and Methods: The expression of eleven microRNAs (miR-10a, miR-21, miR-96, miR-135, miR-141, miR-182, miR-200b, miR-205, miR-429, miR-520b, miR-1244) formerly shown to be upregulated in urothelial bladder cancer were studied in corresponding normal and cancerous tissue samples of patients undergoing nephroureterectomy for UUTUC. Upregulated microRNAs were then measured in serum samples of patients with UUTUC and patients with non-malignant urological diseases to evaluate their potential as non-invasive biomarkers for UUTUC., Results: MicroRNA expression allowed differentiation of normal and cancerous tissue: miR-21, miR-96, miR-135, miR-141, miR-182, miR-205, miR-429 and miR-520b were significantly overexpressed. Furthermore, miR-205 was upregulated in poorly differentiated UUTUC. The analysis of circulating RNA in serum demonstrated an increase of miR-141 in patients with UUTUC; receiver operator characteristic analysis demonstrated an area under the curve of 0.726 for miR-141 as a diagnostic biomarker. Furthermore, we observed lower levels of miR-10a and miR-135 in UUTUC patients., Conclusions: MicroRNA expression is altered in UUTUC. The analysis of circulating miR-141 may be useful to identify patients with UUTUC.

Androgen deprivation is a common treatment option in patients with locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer. No case of long term treatment with an intermittent approach with only low dose bicalutamide (50 mg daily) has been described yet. We report a 60-year-old patient, initially presenting with a PSA elevation of 19.2 ng/mL in 1996. After diagnosis of well to moderately differentiated prostate cancer by transrectal biopsy, the patient underwent an open radical prostatectomy. Final diagnosis was adenocarcinoma of the prostate, classified as pT3a, pR1, pV0, and pL1. Adjuvant intermittent androgen deprivation therapy with flutamide 250 mg was applied, which was changed to bicalutamide 50 mg once daily when it became available in 2001. Six on-phases were performed and PSA values never exceeded 20 ng/mL. The patient did not experience any serious side effects. To date, there are no clinical or radiological signs of progression. Current PSA value is 3.5 ng/mL.

Crystal formation reflects the entire composition of the surrounding solution. In case of urolithiasis, induced crystal formation in native urine has led to the development of the Bonn-Risk-Index (BRI), a valuable tool to quantify an individual's risk of calcium oxalate urolithiasis. If the progression of a disease is associated with characteristic changes in the activities of urinary components, this leads to an altered urinary crystallisation capacity. Therefore, the results of induced urinary crystal formation can be used to detect and monitor any disease linked to the altered urinary composition. Since crystal formation inherently takes into account the entire urinary composition, the influence of the disease on individual urinary parameters does not have to be known in order to monitor the consequent pathologic alterations. In this paper, we review the background of urinary crystal formation analysis and describe its established application in urolithiasis monitoring as well as potential further fields of clinical application.

A giant tumor of the urinary bladder in a 73 year old female patient consisting of mesenchymal and epithelial parts turned out to be the first case of a Malignant Mixed Muellerian tumor of the urinary bladder.

Aggressive angiomyxoma (AAM) is a locally invasive soft tissue tumor with a high risk of local recurrence but without metastatic spread. The mesenchymal tumor is relatively site-specific and has a peak incidence in females in their 2nd or 4th decade. Only few cases in males have been reported in the literature. We describe what we think is the first case of an aggressive angiomyxoma arising in the prostate presenting with classical symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia.