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Exactly what painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis is, how many people have it, what the risk factors are, what its causes are, what its natural history is, and how it differs from other types of voiding dysfunction in men are questions still looking for answers.

The lack of standardization and agreement [about what to call interstitial cystitis] are major impediments to the progress we all hope to see.

Growth factors may play a role in the micro-recanalization that can occur after vasectomy.

With 183 drugs tied to painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis and none hitting a home run, what should clinicians do?

Urinary incontinence patients' personal goals and expectations are more closely tied to their quality of life than is any objective measure of the disease, suggesting that treatment outcomes should be assessed in a more patient-focused manner.

Assessment of a set of four apoptosis markers in patients with urothelial-cell carcinoma of the bladder appears helpful for predicting which patients are at elevated risk for disease recurrence and disease-specific mortality after radical cystectomy and bilateral lymphadenectomy.

Bethesda, MD-Concepts of what interstitial cystitis is, what causes it, and how to treat it are changing. That was apparent with the tremendous infusion of new ideas from many specialties here at the 2006 International Symposium: Frontiers in Painful Bladder Syndrome and Interstitial Cystitis, sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Whether those concepts can change without changing the name of the disease, however, was a hotly debated question.

Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY) has proposed federal legislation to create an Office of Men’s Health that would promote research of male-specific medical issues and educate men on how to improve their health. If passed, the new office would be housed in the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has named Anthony J. Schaeffer, MD, as one of seven new members of its advisory council.

Men with prostate cancer screenings that result in false-positive results are approximately three times as likely to indicate some degree of concern about developing prostate cancer, and are nearly twice as likely to experience impaired sexual function, compared with men with normal results, new research from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, shows.

Spending time in hot tubs and even hot baths may lead to male infertility, according to new research from the University of California, San Francisco. However, researchers said halting such exposure may reverse the effects.

An antibody known as J591 may precisely target the blood supply of various urologic and other tumors while avoiding healthy tissues, according to research from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York.

For men with prostate cancer, radiation seed implants may yield a better short-term side effect profile than surgery, but surgery may offer slightly better long-term outcomes, new research from French radiation oncologists indicates.

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Las Vegas-Researchers don't agree on how to measure erectile function and dysfunction, making it difficult to determine the effects of prostate cancer treatment on patients' sex lives, said Johns Hopkins researchers who presented a review of 592 articles at the Sexual Medicine Society of North America fall meeting here.

Las Vegas- In their first experiences with xenografts for Peyronie's disease, surgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL, decided that Surgisis (Cook Biotech Incorporated, West Lafayette, IN) worked better than Tutoplast (IOP, Inc., Costa Mesa, CA), but the surgeons said they still prefer autologous grafts.

Sample discharge letter

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San Francisco-AUA's recommendation that PSA screening for prostate cancer be avoided in men with an anticipated life expectancy of less than 10 years appears to be a guideline more honored in the breach, according to a study from the San Francisco VA Medical Center published in JAMA (2006; 296:2336-42).

Las Vegas-The best way to treat premature ejaculation (PE) is through a combination of sex therapy and pharmaceutical management, Michael A. Perelman, PhD, argued at the Sexual Medicine Society of North America fall meeting here.

PSA doubling time is an accepted tool to determine the probability that prostate cancer will or will not be clinically significant following primary treatment. However, the definition and proper use of PSA doubling time in clinical practice has become controversial. In this interview, W. Scott McDougal, MD, discusses where the controversy lies and explains when and how this measurement can (and cannot) be used to guide treatment decisions. Dr. McDougal is chief of the department of urology at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of urology at Harvard Medical School, Boston. He was interviewed by former Urology Times Editorial Consultant Robert C. Flanigan, MD, who is professor and chairman of the department of urology, Loyola University, Maywood, IL.

Las Vegas-Researchers don't agree on how to measure erectile function and dysfunction, making it difficult to determine the effects of prostate cancer treatment on patients' sex lives, said Johns Hopkins researchers who presented a review of 592 articles at the Sexual Medicine Society of North America fall meeting here.

For clinicians, serious conundrums accompany the 80-year-old patient who arrives in the waiting room with an elevated PSA. This is the man who puts urologists and family practitioners dead center in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation.

Calling it quits in any relationship is a source of discomfort, but when it's the physician-patient relationship, it must be handled precisely and with caution. You want to avoid angering patients or leaving them without the urologic care they need. By the same token, if you or your patient are disgruntled with the relationship, there may come a point when you need to fire the patient. Here is some advice to help you through it.

Quality improvement, pay for performance, and better patient outcomes have been major themes in health care during the past few years. However, many physicians don't fully understand how to introduce quality programs into their practices. Those who do have programs in place often don't know how to objectively measure quality health care.

La Jolla, CA-EMR Experts, Inc. has released the free, downloadable, 48-page Electronic Medical Records eBook, designed to educate health care organizations about electronic medical records and to teach them how to plan for purchasing an EMR system, including a tutorial for conducting return on investment and cost-benefit analyses studies; selecting the right hardware for the project; and implementing a quality network.

Five-year recurrence and disease-free survival rates for laparoscopic cryoablation are equivalent to those of standard open surgical techniques.

New Orleans-When retrieving sperm from men with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) and associated varicocele, go for the testis on the right side. That's the bottom line advice of University of California, San Francisco investigators who evaluated whether side matters in retrieving sperm for ICSI.