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Present a review of the book `The Russian Revolution 1899-1919,' by Richard Pipes. Pipes argues the case for the prosecution against the Russian revolution, with the socialist intelligentsia singled out as bearing prime responsibility for both the revolution and its Bolshevik outcome. A section-by-section analysis; Russia's radical and socialist intelligentsia; More.

Introduction: Vertebral compression fractures (VCF) are the most common low-energy fractures in older people and are associated with increased mortality. To assess mortality risk in patients suffering from VCF, we conducted a retrospective observational long-term cohort study., Patients and Methods: The study included 270 patients. 221 patients were treated conservatively, and 49 were treated with vertebroplasty. The study group was compared to a control group of 1641 random individuals age and sex-matched. Electronic healthcare data extracted included monthly chronic medications taken regularly 3 months before hospitalisation, analgesics excluded, and date of death., Results: Patients who suffer from VCF tend to consume more chronic medications. The mean count of chronic medication prescriptions in the 3 months before hospitalisation was 16.41 (±9.11) in the VCF group and 11.52 (± 7.17) in the control cohort ( P < .0001). In univariate analysis, patients with VCF showed decreased long-term survival ( P < .00). However, when controlled for age, sex, and chronic medications uptake, no significant difference was observed between the groups in a multivariate model ( P = .12)., Conclusions: The study demonstrates that VCF as an independent variable has a marginal effect on mortality. The higher mortality prevalent in these patients is due to the deteriorated health status of the patients before fracture., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2023.)

Background: This study aims to prospectively evaluate the ability of Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte ratio (NLR) to forecast recurrence in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). This is a continuation of our two previous retrospective studies that indicated the NLR > 2.5 criterion as a predictor of recurrence in patients with NMIBC., Methods: Since December 2013, all patients admitted to our department for TUR-BT and agreed to participate, had a blood drawn for cell count and differential 24 h prior to surgery. Patients with pathological NMIBC were followed prospectively for disease recurrence. The end-point of the follow up was either a cancer recurrence or the termination of the study. Univariate and multivariate Cox regressions were performed to assess the NLR > 2.5 predictive capability for recurrence, versus and in conjunction to the pathologically based EORTC score, among additional statistical analyses., Results: The study cohort included 96 men and 17 women with a median age of 72 years. Sixty-four patients (56.6%) have had a recurrence during the study occurring at the median time of 9 months (IQR 6, 13), while the median follow-up time for patients without recurrence was 18 months (IQR 10, 29). Univariate Cox regressions for recurrence demonstrated significance for NLR > 2.5 for the whole cohort (p = 0.011, HR 2.015, CI 1.175-3.454) and for the BCG sub-group (p = 0.023, HR 3.7, CI 1.2-11.9), while the EORTC score demonstrated significance for the 'No Treatment' subgroup (p = 0.024, HR 1.278, CI 1.03-1.58). When analyzed together as a multivariate Cox model, the NLR > 2.5 and EORTC score retained their significance for the aforementioned groups, while also improving the EORTC score significance for the whole cohort., Conclusion: NLR > 2.5 was found to be a significant predictor of disease recurrence and demonstrated high hazard ratio and worse recurrence-free survival in patients with NMIBC, especially in those treated with BCG. Additionally, our data demonstrated statistical evidence that NLR > 2.5 might have an improving effect on the EORTC score's prediction when analyzed together.

Objective: To present our long-term functional and oncological outcomes in open nephron-sparing surgery for complex renal masses., Patients and Methods: We enrolled 584 patients who underwent open partial nephrectomy between January 1995 and May 2014 at our institution; 108 (18.4%) patients had hilar or completely intraparenchymal tumors or both. We compared change in renal function, perioperative complications, and survival outcomes between complex and noncomplex renal masses., Results: Mean tumor diameter was 4.3 and 3.5cm in patients with hilar and completely intraparenchymal lesions, respectively. R.E.N.A.L. nephrometry scores were significantly higher in patients with complex tumors as compared with patients with exophytic tumors. There was no significant difference between mean estimated glomerular filtration rate at last follow-up compared with preoperative mean estimated glomerular filtration rate in any of the groups. The incidence of perioperative complications was similar across all patients groups. Estimated 10-year cancer-specific survival probabilities were 100% in patients with hilar and intraparenchymal tumors. The 10-year recurrence-free survival probabilities were 96% and 95% in patients with hilar and intraparenchymal tumors, respectively. The main limitations include retrospective design and the lack of kidney-specific functional scan., Conclusion: Open nephron-sparing surgery should be considered for complex renal masses yielding excellent functional and oncological outcomes without higher incidence of complications., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)