Background/Aims: Endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder drainage (ETGBD) is useful for the treatment of acute cholecystitis; however, the technique is difficult to perform. When intraductal ultrasonography (IDUS) is combined with ETGBD, the orifice of the cystic duct in the common bile duct may be more easily detected in the cannulation procedure. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of ETGBD with IDUS compared with that of ETGBD alone. Methods: A total of 100 consecutive patients with acute cholecystitis requiring ETGBD were retrospectively recruited. The first 50 consecutive patients were treated using ETGBD without IDUS, and the next 50 patients were treated using ETGBD with IDUS. Through propensity score matching analysis, we compared the clinical outcomes between the groups. The primary outcome was the technical success rate. Results: The technical success rate of ETGBD with IDUS was significantly higher than that of ETGBD without IDUS (92.0% vs. 76.0%, p=0.044). There was no significant difference in procedure length between the two groups (74.0 min vs. 66.7 min, p=0.310). The complication rate of ETGBD with IDUS was significantly higher than that of ETGBD without IDUS (6.0% vs. 0%, p<0.001); however, only one case showed an IDUS technique-related complication (pancreatitis). Conclusions The assistance of IDUS may be useful in ETGBD.

AIMTo investigate the associations of autosomal and X-chromosome homologs of the RNA-binding-motif (RNA-binding-motif on the Y chromosome, RBMY) gene with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA), as genetic factors for NOA may map to chromosomes other than the Y chromosome.

METHODSGenomic DNA was extracted using a salting-out procedure after treatment of peripheral blood leukocytes with proteinase K from Japanese patients with NOA (n=67) and normal fertile volunteers (n=105). The DNA were analyzed for RBMX by expressed sequence tag (EST) deletion and for the like sequence on chromosome 9 (RBMXL9) by microsatellite polymorphism.

RESULTSWe examined six ESTs in and around RBMX and found a deletion of SHGC31764 in one patient with NOA and a deletion of DXS7491 in one other patient with NOA. No deletions were detected in control subjects. The association study with nine microsatellite markers near RBMXL9 revealed that D9S319 was less prevalent in patients than in control subjects, whereas D9S1853 was detected more frequently in patients than that in control subjects.

CONCLUSIONWe provide evidence that deletions in or around RBMX may be involved in NOA. In addition, analyses of markers in the vicinity of RBMXL9 on chromosome 9 suggest the possibility that variants of this gene may be associated with NOA. Although further studies are necessary, this is the first report of the association between RBMX and RBMXL9 with NOA.

Adult ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9 ; genetics ; Chromosomes, Human, X ; genetics ; Expressed Sequence Tags ; Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoproteins ; genetics ; Humans ; Male ; Microsatellite Repeats ; genetics ; Nuclear Proteins ; genetics ; Oligospermia ; genetics ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; RNA-Binding Proteins ; genetics