PURPOSE: In patients with erectile dysfunction, it is important to differentiate psychogenic from organic causes. Penile Doppler ultrasonography is a relatively inexpensive and minimally invasive tool for this purpose. This study was conducted to evaluate the causes of erectile dysfunction in an adult male population, using penile Doppler ultrasonography. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in a single center. All patients who presented with complaints of erectile dysfunction and underwent penile Doppler ultrasonography between July 2014 and June 2016 were included in this study. All examinations were performed using GE Voluson S6 and GE Logiq P5 devices. Following baseline scans, an intracavernosal injection of 20 µg of prostaglandin E1 was given. Peak systolic and end diastolic velocities were measured in each cavernosal artery. Patients with a peak systolic velocity of <25 cm/s were considered to have arterial insufficiency, while an end diastolic velocity of >5 cm/s was considered to indicate venous incompetence. RESULTS: Out of 97 patients (mean age, 37.09±11.59 years; range, 19~69 years), 50 patients (51.5%) had normal findings, 24 patients (24.7%) had arterial insufficiency, 15 patients (15.5%) had a venous leak, and 8 patients (8.2%) patients had arterial insufficiency with a venous leak. Psychogenic erectile dysfunction was significantly higher among patients aged ≤40 years, while arterial insufficiency with or without a venous leak was significantly higher among patients aged >40 years (p=0.022). CONCLUSIONS: A majority of the studied individuals demonstrated no organic cause of erectile dysfunction, thus confirming a high prevalence of the psychogenic etiology, particularly in relatively young individuals.
Adult ; Alprostadil ; Arteries ; Erectile Dysfunction* ; Female ; Humans ; Impotence, Vasculogenic ; Male ; Pakistan* ; Prevalence ; Retrospective Studies ; Ultrasonography ; Ultrasonography, Doppler*

Cerebral vascular malformations constitute one of the key abnormalities in children with PHACE syndrome, which is characterized by Plaque like cutaneous hemangiomas, Posterior fossa abnormalities, arterial Cerebrovascular and Eye abnormalities, with or without Sternal clefts (PHACES when sternal clefts are present), and associated midline anomalies. Both moyamoya arteriopathy and intracranial aneurysms have been reported in children with this syndrome. Herein, we report the successful treatment of a growing left posterior-communicating artery aneurysm arising from an aberrant left internal carotid artery (LICA) with balloon assisted coiling (BAC) in a child with PHACE syndrome. We circumvented the limitations posed by the narrow caliber of the proximal LICA, by successfully navigating a coiling microcatheter from the basilar artery into the LICA via a persistent trigeminal artery. BAC was then achieved using a Scepter Mini balloon microcatheter for aneurysm neck remodelling.

Cerebral vascular malformations constitute one of the key abnormalities in children with PHACE syndrome, which is characterized by Plaque like cutaneous hemangiomas, Posterior fossa abnormalities, arterial Cerebrovascular and Eye abnormalities, with or without Sternal clefts (PHACES when sternal clefts are present), and associated midline anomalies. Both moyamoya arteriopathy and intracranial aneurysms have been reported in children with this syndrome. Herein, we report the successful treatment of a growing left posterior-communicating artery aneurysm arising from an aberrant left internal carotid artery (LICA) with balloon assisted coiling (BAC) in a child with PHACE syndrome. We circumvented the limitations posed by the narrow caliber of the proximal LICA, by successfully navigating a coiling microcatheter from the basilar artery into the LICA via a persistent trigeminal artery. BAC was then achieved using a Scepter Mini balloon microcatheter for aneurysm neck remodelling.

Background/Aims: Ulcerative colitis (UC), along with Crohn’s disease, is one of the main types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). On the other hand, deregulated autophagy is involved in many chronic diseases, including IBD. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of Atg5 and microRNA-181a (miR-181a) in the pathophysiology of UC. Methods: Colon biopsy, stool, and blood samples of 6 men and 9 women were confirmed for UC. Also, 13 men and 17 women were selected as healthy control (HC). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunohistochemistry were used to measure the Atg-5 content of the colon biopsies. Besides, the serum and stool levels of Atg5 were measured using ELISA. Moreover, the total RNA of blood cells was extracted and evaluated for the expression of miR-181a. Results: We found 1.2 ng/mL versus 0.46 ng/mL, 0.34 ng/mL versus 0.24 ng/mL, and 0.082 ng/mL versus 0.062 ng/mL of Atg5 in stool, intestinal tissue, and serum of UC and HCs, respectively. There was no significant difference in the expression of miR-181a in the blood samples of UC and HCs. Immunohistochemistry showed high positivity without any significant difference between the 2 groups in the quantitative analysis. Conclusions The significant difference observed between the stool Atg5 content of the HCs and UC patients may provide new insight into using this protein as a diagnostic biomarker, however, considering the small size of our studied population further studies are needed.