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Background/aims: To determine whether female smokers are more or less susceptible to the detrimental pulmonary-function effects of smoking when compared to male smokers among patients with lung cancer., Methods: Pack-years and pulmonary function indices were compared between 1,594 men and women with lung cancer who were smokers or had a history of smoking. Differences in individual susceptibility to smoking were estimated using a susceptibility index formula., Results: Of the patients, 959 (92.8%) men and 74 (7.2%) women were current smokers. Common histological types of lung cancer were squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and small cell carcinoma, among others. Women had a lower number of pack-years, forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1), liters), forced vital capacity (FVC, liters), and total lung capacity (TLC, liters) compared to those of men (25.0 ± 19.2 vs. 42.9 ± 21.7 for pack-years; 1.4 ± 0.5 vs. 2.0 ± 0.6 for FEV(1); 3.0 ± 0.7 vs. 2.0 ± 0.6 for FVC; 4.5 ± 0.8 vs. 5.7 ± 1.0 for TLC; all p < 0.001). The susceptibility index for women was significantly higher compared to that of men (1.1 ± 4.1 vs. 0.7 ± 1.1; p = 0.001). A significant inverse association was shown between the susceptibility index and TLC and FVC (r = -0.200 for TLC, -0.273 for FVC; all p < 0.001)., Conclusions: The results suggest that the detrimental effects of smoking on pulmonary function are greater in women, as compared to those in men, among patients with lung cancer.

Purpose: To determine whether transrectal ultrasonography (US) with intrarectal water instillation can improve the depiction and accuracy of US in local staging of rectal tumors., Materials and Methods: Between October 1999 and February 2002, 63 patients (mean age, 56 years; age range, 23-91 years) with 63 rectal tumors were evaluated with transrectal US before and after intrarectal water instillation. Transrectal US examinations were performed with a 7-10-MHz radial transducer. Immediately after the first transrectal US examination, the rectal lumen was filled with 50-150 mL of degassed water, and a second US examination was performed. All patients underwent surgery within 1 month after transrectal US. Depiction of the tumor was compared between the two methods. The McNemar test was used to compare the accuracy between the two techniques in local staging of the tumor by using pathologic findings in the resected specimen as the standard., Results: The tumors ranged from 0.5 to 8.0 cm (mean, 2.8 cm) as measured at pathologic evaluation. All 63 tumors were clearly depicted at transrectal US after water instillation, while only 42 (67%) of the tumors were depicted at transrectal US before water instillation. In the 42 tumors clearly depicted at transrectal US examinations both before and after water instillation, the accuracy of transrectal US in local tumor staging was significantly higher after water instillation (85.7% [36 of 42]) than before water instillation (57.1% [24 of 42]; P <.001)., Conclusion: Water instillation during transrectal US examination of rectal tumors improves the depiction and local staging of the tumors., (Copyright RSNA, 2004)