Nocturia is usually considered to be just one of the symptoms included with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and is treated with therapy based on LUTS. Recent research suggests, however, that nocturia is not merely a simple symptom of LUTS but is a multifactorial condition with many contributing etiological factors. The causes of nocturia can be classified into bladder storage problems, increased urine output, sleep disturbance problems, and other potential diseases. The frequency-volume chart (FVC) is very important in evaluating and diagnosing nocturia. Patients usually record the volume and timing of voids for a period of 1 to 3 days on the FVC. The FVC data can provide information on voiding patterns and clues about the etiology and treatment of nocturia. It is doubtful that alpha-blockers will have clinical significance for treatment because the difference in nocturia episodes between treatment with alpha-blockers and placebo is too small. Antimuscarinics also exert no effect on nocturnal polyuria, and the evidence supporting the efficacy of antimuscarinics for the treatment of nocturia is limited. However, several randomized placebo-controlled trials have shown the efficacy of oral desmopressin in the treatment of adults with nocturia. Short-acting hypnotics may be helpful for patients with sleep disturbances. Although surgical or interventional therapy is not indicated for nocturia, transurethral resection of the prostate appears to confer a greater improvement in benign prostatic hyperplasia symptoms including nocturia. The management of nocturia may require a team approach by making optimal use of multidisciplinary expertise.
Adult ; Deamino Arginine Vasopressin ; Humans ; Hypnotics and Sedatives ; Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms ; Muscarinic Antagonists ; Nocturia ; Polyuria ; Prostate ; Prostatic Hyperplasia ; Urinary Bladder

Both "caowu", the root of Aconitum kusnezoffii, "chuanwu", the main root of Aconitum carmichaeli are believed to possess anti-inflammatory, analgesics and cardiotonic effects. They have been used to treat conditions such as rheumatism, arthritis, bruises, fractures, hemiplegia. They contain the highly toxic C19 diterpenoid alkaloids of aconitine, mesaconitine and hypaconitine. After ingestion, patients may present with neurological, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal sign and symptoms. A case of thirty six-year-olds healthy women with aconitine poisoning due to caowu that is described presented as transient tetraplegia, arrhythmia and hypocalcemia.
Aconitine* ; Aconitum ; Alkaloids ; Analgesics ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Arthritis ; Contusions ; Eating ; Female ; Hemiplegia ; Humans ; Hypocalcemia* ; Poisoning* ; Quadriplegia* ; Rheumatic Diseases

Reactive airways dysfunction syndrome (RADS) is a syndrome as a persistent bronchial hyperreactivity with asthmatic dyspnea which occurs after one or more inhalation exposures to a high concentration of irritant gasses, smokes or vapors in subjects who had preciously had no respiratory disease. We report a case of a 34 years old female worker suffering from reactive airways dysfunction syndrome who had been taking charge of guest room cleaning at a condominium. 7 months before, she inhaled high concentration of chlorine gas in confined and poor ventilated working space of bathroom at the condominium. As she was washing a bathroom with a bleaching agent (6 % sodium hypochlorite) without dilution, dyspnea, dizziness, headache, nausea, and coughing developed after work. She still suffer from dyspnea and coughing. All functional tests were normal except for methacholine challenge test which reveals bronchial hyperreactivity. She has some symptoms of dyspnea and coughing when exposed to perfume, cold air, and heavy work.
Adult ; Bronchial Hyperreactivity ; Chlorine* ; Cough ; Dizziness ; Dyspnea ; Female ; Headache ; Humans ; Inhalation Exposure ; Methacholine Chloride ; Nausea ; Perfume ; Smoke ; Sodium

Piper nigrum L. (Piperaceae), which is a well-known food seasoning, has been used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea and anorexia in Korea, China and Japan. Methanol extract from the fruit of P. nigrum was successively partitioned as n-hexane, methylene chloride, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and H₂O soluble fractions. Among those fractions the ethyl acetate soluble fraction showed the most potent DPPH radical scavenging activity, and piperine was isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction. To know the antioxidant activity of piperine, we tested the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase together with oxidative stress tolerance and intracellular ROS level in Caenorhabditis elegans. To investigate whether piperine-mediated increased stress tolerance was due to regulation of stress-response gene, we quantified SOD-3 expression using transgenic strain including CF1553. Consequently, piperine enhanced SOD and catalase activities of C. elegans, and reduced intracellular ROS accumulation in a dose–dependent manner. Moreover, piperine-treated CF1553 worms exhibited significantly higher SOD-3::GFP intensity.
1-Butanol ; Abdominal Pain ; Anorexia ; Caenorhabditis elegans ; Caenorhabditis ; Catalase ; China ; Diarrhea ; Fruit ; Japan ; Korea ; Medicine, Traditional ; Methanol ; Methylene Chloride ; Oxidative Stress ; Piper nigrum ; Piper ; Seasons ; Superoxide Dismutase ; Vomiting

OBJECTIVES: This study measures serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in tire-manufacturing workers, and attempts to find occupational or non-occupational factors that related to their PSA levels. METHODS: A total of 1,958 healthy male workers (1,699 were production workers and 259 were office workers) took PSA measurement for analysis. RESULTS: After adjusting for age, body mass index, hypertension, regular exercise, alcohol drinking and smoking, which were significantly related to serum PSA levels or known related factors of serum PSA levels, the geometric mean PSA levels were significantly high in the office workers (p = 0.017), the older age group (p < 0.001), the group with hypertension (p = 0.046) and the group of individuals that do not exercise regularly (p = 0.015) and the office workers were more likely to have a serum PSA level of > or =4.0 (OR 7.73, 95% CI: 2.78-21.46) or 2.5 ng/mL (OR 2.74, 95% CI: 1.49-5.08). After stratifying by age and adjusting aforementioned covariates, office workers 50 years of age and older had the significantly higher geometric mean PSA levels (p = 0.017) and were more likely to have a serum PSA level of > or =4.0 ng/mL (OR 12.90, 95% CI: 3.65-45.64) or 2.5 ng/mL (OR 3.90, 95% CI: 1.64-9.25) than production workers 50 years of age and older. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that serum PSA levels were significantly higher among the group with hypertension or the group of individuals that did not exercise regularly or group of office workers who were considered to have lesser physical activities.
Alcohol Drinking ; Body Mass Index ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Male ; Motor Activity ; Occupations ; Prostate-Specific Antigen* ; Sedentary Lifestyle ; Smoke ; Smoking

A primary signet ring cell carcinoma (PSRCC) of the urinary bladder is a rare variant of a mucin-producing adenocarcinoma. The prognosis of a PSRCC is poor, as silent progression in a linitis platica fashion leads to delayed diagnosis. Herein, the case of a PSRCC of the bladder, which extended to the prostate, which was treated with a cystoprostatectomy, is reported.
Adenocarcinoma ; Carcinoma, Signet Ring Cell* ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Prognosis ; Prostate* ; Urinary Bladder*

BACKGROUND: The burden of cardiac complications during endoscopy are growing due to increasing proportion of elderly in the endoscopy target population. This study was conducted to examine the blood pressure changes before and after the endoscopy and to seek better pre-treatments in minimizing cardiac complications. METHODS: One hundred subjects were chosen by consecutive sampling who visited a general hospital for physical examination. Basal, pre-endoscopic, immediate post-endoscopic blood pressure and blood pressure after 10 and 30 minutes were measured utilizing manual BP cuffs and recorded. RESULTS: The subjects included 34 hypertensive patients. Twelve subjects were on anti hypertensive medication. In 5 consecutive measurements, significant variations on blood pressure was noted (P<0.01). Blood pressure kept increasing until immediately after the procedure, followed by a gradual reduction. These changes were observed in both the normotensive and the hypertensive group, but the degree of changes were more pronounced in the hypertrensive group than the normotensive group (P<0.01). The difference between basal and after procedure was 17.6 mmHg for systolic, 13.5 mmHg for diastolic in the normotensive group. However in the hypertensive group, the difference was 21.4 mmHg for systolic, 14.8 mmHg for diastolic. In comparison of medicated and non-medicated group in the hypertensive patients, the degree of changes were marginally, but significantly lower in the treatment group than in the non-treatment group (systolic P=0.056, diastolic P=0.049). CONCLUSION: The stress during endoscopy resulted in blood pressure changes, and the degree of changes was higher in the hypertensive group than the normotensive group. In the hypertensive group, the degree of changes was lower in patients treated with anti hypertensives than the non-treated patients. This sample size, however, was small.
Aged ; Antihypertensive Agents ; Blood Pressure* ; Endoscopy* ; Health Services Needs and Demand ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Physical Examination ; Sample Size

PURPOSE: To assess the long-term outcomes of tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) with intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD) and to identify influencing factors for failure in these cases. METHODS: A total of 136 women who underwent TVT procedures with minimum follow-up duration of 3 years were included in the study. Patients were divided into two groups (non-ISD and ISD groups) based on preoperative urodynamic studies. Patient outcomes were assessed from retrospective chart review and telephone research. Cure was defined as the subjective resolution of SUI in any circumstances. Improvement was defined as the subjective improvement of SUI without complete resolution. Failure was defined as the subjective lack of improvement of SUI. Patients in ISD group were subdivided into two subgroups (cure and non-cure groups) and were compared to identify influencing factors for TVT procedure failure. RESULTS: Eighty-nine patients were in non-ISD group, and 47 in ISD group. The mean follow-up durations were 50.3+/-9.2 and 49.7+/-9.7 months, respectively. Subjective cure rate was 75.3% for non-ISD group, and 76.7% for ISD group (P>0.05). Improvement rate was 6.7% for non-ISD group, and 2.1% for ISD group (P>0.05). Satisfaction scores was 3.8+/-1.2 points in the non-ISD group, and 3.5+/-1.2 points in ISD group (P>0.05). In ISD subgroups, VLPP was 41.9+/-12.0 cmH2O for non-cure group, and 50.5+/-8.6 cmH2O for cure group, and was the only factor that showed significant statistical difference between the two subgroups (P=0.011). CONCLUSIONS: With our long-term results, TVT is an effective treatment even in women with ISD. However, ISD patients with low VLPP should be counseled carefully about TVT outcome.
Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Suburethral Slings ; Telephone ; Urinary Incontinence ; Urodynamics

PURPOSE: To report a case of isolated choroidal cystic lesion in the macula with no interval change for two years. CASE SUMMARY: A 29-year-old woman who had suspicious maculopathy was referred to our clinic. Her best corrected visual acuity was 20/20 in the affected right eye, which showed a choroidal cystic lesion on a fundus exam, fluorescein angiography, USG and OCT. The multifocal ERG showed reduced amplitudes of the cystic area in the right eye, and SLO microperimetry revealed reduced retinal sensitivity in the cystic lesion as well as a stable fixation and spared foveal function. There was no evidence of underlying ocular disease in clinical assessment, and the lesion had not undergone interval change for the past two years.
Adult ; Choroid ; Eye ; Female ; Fluorescein Angiography ; Humans ; Retinaldehyde ; Visual Acuity

PURPOSE: The objective of this study is to report our initial experience about the feasibility, effectiveness, and safety of transobturator tension-free vaginal mesh (Prolift(TM)) and concomitant tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) as a treatment of female anterior vaginal wall prolapse associated with stress urinary incontinence (SUI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the charts of patients who underwent Prolift(TM) and TVT between April 2009 and March 2010. All patients had a physical examination and staging of cystocele. According to the International Continence Society system 2, 5 and 3 women had stage grade II, III and IV respectively. All the patients underwent pelvic examination 1, 3, 6 month and 1 year after operation and anatomical and functional outcomes were recorded. An anatomic cure after intervention was defined as stage 0 and an improvement was defined as stage I. Anatomic failures were defined as stage II or higher on the last physical examination. RESULTS: The mean follow-up was 7.1 (1-11) months. Overall success rate of cystocele repair was 90%. The anatomical cure rate of cystocele was 50%. The cystocele repair improved 4 patients, but failed in 1. SUI was cured in all patients. No significant complications including bladder or vessel injury and mesh related erosion occurred. The postoperative complication was transient voiding difficulty (2 cases). CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results suggest that Prolift(TM) and TVT offer a safe and effective treatment for female anterior vaginal wall prolapse and SUI. However, a long-term follow up is necessary in order to support the good result maintenance.
Cystocele ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Glycosaminoglycans ; Gynecological Examination ; Humans ; Physical Examination ; Postoperative Complications ; Prolapse ; Suburethral Slings ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Incontinence