Objective To improve the success of the urethral stricture repair in males. Methods Chose 101 males of urethral stricture,their median age was 9 years old (range 3 to 57 years old). Of the patients,61 patients had anterior urethral stricture and the posterior urethral stricture occurred in 40 patients. The length of the stricture varied from 0.5 to 2.0 cm. All patients were repaired with the only genital flap suturing the strictural urethra. Results All repairs were completed in 1 stage, follow-up was from 12 to 18 months, excepted for patients with 3 fistula and 3 urethral stricture, 95 patients were voiding a straight stream, the other 6 patients need another surgery. Conclusion It is a good technique to treat urethral stricture with genital flap ff there is short urethral stricture with sufficient genital skin.

Objective To determine whether an increased number of transrectal biopsy cores improves the accuracy of biopsy Gleason score. Methods This study reviewed a total of 86 patients who were diagnosed as prostate cancer by transrectal needle biopsy and subsequently underwent radical prostatectomy (RP) without neoadjuvant therapy.The rate of grading concordance between biopsy and RP specimens was analyzed by dividing these patients into 2 groups according to the biopsy cores:group A,46 patients who underwent transrectai biopsy sampling of 6 cores,and group B,40 patients who underwent biopsy sampling of 13 cores. Results The concordance between prostate biopsy and radical prostatectomy Gleason score was 65.0%and 34.8% for 13 core and 6 core biopsy,respectirely (P＜0.05).Furthermore,these findings tended to be more prominent as the biopsy Gleason score was lower.Multivariate analysis identified the number of biopsy cores and percent of positive biopsy cores as independent predictors of accurate Gleason grading regardless of other parameters examined in this study. Conclusion Extended needle biopsy may increases the accuracy of biopsy Gleason score for assessing final prostate cancer grade.

Objective To study the protective effect of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)activation by curcumin against lead-induced toxicity and apoptosis in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells and its impact on expression of apoptosis-related proteins.Methods After the cells were treated with 0,0.5,1,5,or 10 μmol/L curcumin for 24 hours,nucleoprotein was extracted and electrophoretic mobility shift assay was used to measure Nrf2-antioxidant responsive element (ARE) binding capacity.The optimal concentration of curcumin was figured out for treating cells.After pretreatment with 5 μmol/L curcumin for 24 hours,cells were exposed to lead acetate at different concentrations (0,5,25,and 125 μmol/L for control,low-dose,mediumdose,and high-dose groups).The 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay,flow cytometry,and Western blot were used to evaluate cell viability,apoptosis,and expression of apoptosisrelated proteins,respectively.Results Curcumin of 5 μmol/L caused significantly increased cell viability in low-,medium-,and high-dose groups exposed to lead acetate for 12 hours(98.42％±1.12％ vs 92.92％±0.14％,P＜0.05;95.30％±1.17％ vs 91.15％±0.67％,P＜0.05;94.50％±1.45％ vs 85.98％±0.45％,P＜0.05).Curcumin of 5 μmol/L also caused significantly increased cell viability in medium-and high-dose groups exposed to lead acetate for 24 hours (93.10％±1.63％ vs 88.40％±4.13％,P＜0.05;90.13％±2.03％ vs 83.63％±3.42％,P＜0.05).The high-dose group had a significantly higher apoptotic rate than the control group 6.17％ ±1.31％ vs 3.30％±0.53％,P＜0.05).Curcumin of 5.0 μmol/L significantly reduced the apoptotic rate in the high-dose group (2.97％±0.15％ vs 6.17％±1.31％,P＜0.05).Exposure to lead acetate elevated the expression of Bax,cytochrome C,and caspase-3 and reduced Bcl-2 expression.Curcumin of 5.0 μmol/L significantly reduced the expression of Bax,cytochrome C,and caspase-3 in the high-dose group (P＜0.05).Conclusion Nrf2 activation by curcumin has a protective effect against lead-induced toxicity and apoptosis in SH-SY5Y cells.The protective effect of Nrf2 against apoptosis may be associated with the regulation of apoptosis-related proteins.

Objective To study the protective effect of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)activation by curcumin against lead-induced toxicity and apoptosis in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells and its impact on expression of apoptosis-related proteins.Methods After the cells were treated with 0,0.5,1,5,or 10 μmol/L curcumin for 24 hours,nucleoprotein was extracted and electrophoretic mobility shift assay was used to measure Nrf2-antioxidant responsive element (ARE) binding capacity.The optimal concentration of curcumin was figured out for treating cells.After pretreatment with 5 μmol/L curcumin for 24 hours,cells were exposed to lead acetate at different concentrations (0,5,25,and 125 μmol/L for control,low-dose,mediumdose,and high-dose groups).The 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay,flow cytometry,and Western blot were used to evaluate cell viability,apoptosis,and expression of apoptosisrelated proteins,respectively.Results Curcumin of 5 μmol/L caused significantly increased cell viability in low-,medium-,and high-dose groups exposed to lead acetate for 12 hours(98.42％±1.12％ vs 92.92％±0.14％,P＜0.05;95.30％±1.17％ vs 91.15％±0.67％,P＜0.05;94.50％±1.45％ vs 85.98％±0.45％,P＜0.05).Curcumin of 5 μmol/L also caused significantly increased cell viability in medium-and high-dose groups exposed to lead acetate for 24 hours (93.10％±1.63％ vs 88.40％±4.13％,P＜0.05;90.13％±2.03％ vs 83.63％±3.42％,P＜0.05).The high-dose group had a significantly higher apoptotic rate than the control group 6.17％ ±1.31％ vs 3.30％±0.53％,P＜0.05).Curcumin of 5.0 μmol/L significantly reduced the apoptotic rate in the high-dose group (2.97％±0.15％ vs 6.17％±1.31％,P＜0.05).Exposure to lead acetate elevated the expression of Bax,cytochrome C,and caspase-3 and reduced Bcl-2 expression.Curcumin of 5.0 μmol/L significantly reduced the expression of Bax,cytochrome C,and caspase-3 in the high-dose group (P＜0.05).Conclusion Nrf2 activation by curcumin has a protective effect against lead-induced toxicity and apoptosis in SH-SY5Y cells.The protective effect of Nrf2 against apoptosis may be associated with the regulation of apoptosis-related proteins.

Objective To analyze the effect of antibiotic treatment on prostate specific antigen (PSA) derivations in patients with and without prostate cancer and to further determine if the changes of PSA values after antibiotic treatment could help to exclude inflammation in the differential diagnosis of an abnormal PSA.MethodsA total of 100 patients with lower urinary tract symptoms,a PSA level of 4 to 10 μg/L,free PSA/total PSA (fPSA/tPSA) ratio ＜ 0.25,and a negative digital rectal examination and transrectal ultrasonography were enrolled in this study.All patients received 500 mg of ciprofloxacin twice a day for 3 weeks.Free and total PSA values were measured before and after antibiotic treatment.All the patients were then scheduled for 12-core prostate biopsy.Results The mean tPSA value was (6.5 ± 1.2) and (5.1 ± 1.2) μg/L respectively before and after antibiotic treatment ( P ＜ 0.01 ).Ninety-one patients (91.0％) showed tPSA reduction after antibiotic therapy,of which 13 ( 14.3％ ) had prostate cancer on biopsy.In 17 cases (18.7％) post-treatment tPSA was less than 4 μg/L.Three of the 17 cases (17.6％)had prostate cancer on biopsy.In 6 of the 100 men post-treatment tPSA was between 4 and 10 μg/L and the fPSA/tPSA ratio was above 0.25.One of these cases had prostate cancer on biopsy.Seven cases had a ＞50％ reduction in PSA levels with no positive biopsy results.Although mean total PSA and PSAD decreased after treatment in both groups,the reductions within these parameters were not significantly different between patients with and without prostate cancer (P ＞ 0.05).Furthermore,no differences emerged in terms of the changes of other PSA derivations including fPSA and fPSA/tPSA ( P ＞ 0.05 ).ConclusionsThe PSA levels may change with long-term antibiotic treatment in patients with elevated PSA values.A decrease in PSA after antibiotic treatment does not rule out the presence of prostate cancer even if PSA decreases to a normal level.But a ＞ 50％ reduction in PSA levels may be associated with a decreasing risk of prostate cancer,which may allow a postponement of prostate biopsy in selected patients.