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Background: Open pyeloplasty has been historically described as the gold standard for the surgical treatment of ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO), even if new techniques have recently gained a prominent role in this field. Laparoscopic pyeloplasty (LP) is not widely prevelant because of the technically challenging nature and it represents the gold standard for UPJO only in expert hands. To overcome some difficulties and technical challenges encountered during pure laparoscopic pyeloplasty, we designed a set of new instruments and assessed them using porcine model., Methods: According to the ideas from the surgeons, our medical engineer designed three new instruments, including the right angle laparoscopy scissors, the petal-shape ureter dilator and the guide tube. Four experienced laparoscopic experts were involved in a no survival porcine study to assess the help of these new instruments. Four experiments were conducted on live pigs that weighed 22 to 25 kg at the same time. After general anesthesia was administered, transperitoneal ureteroureterostomy was performed using standard laparoscopic instruments, including placing the double J stent anterograde. Then, the opposite lateral was done by the same surgeon plus these new devices for side-by-side comparative analysis. All experts were interviewed to assess these new instruments by the questionnaire based on the visual analog scale (VAS) from 1 (none) to 10 (very much)., Results: The procedures were all technically successful. The right angle laparoscopy scissors and the guide tube were accepted by all participants and the Help Score were 6.75 and 4.25 respectively, at the same time the New Difficulty Score 1.25 and 1.75. However, the petal-shape ureter dilator got 1.5 Help Score and 6.5 New Difficulty Score. These surgeons made a negative comment and one of surgeons recommended the stone basket was more suitable., Conclusion: The right angle laparoscopy scissors and the guide tube may be helpful to minimize some difficulties in pure laparoscopic pyeloplasty.

Background: Although the introduction of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) measurements into clinical practice has revolutionized the care of patients with prostate cancer, there are well-recognized limitations of PSA, and there is a critical need to identify additional prostate cancer biomarkers to assist in early detection and prognosis. In this regard, high resolution proteomic technology has the unexceptionable superiority to find those high abundance biomarkers. The purpose of this study was to search new tumor markers by proteomic technology., Methods: The proteins in conditioned medium (CM) of BPH-1 and LNCaP cells were profiled by two-dimensional electrophoresis and identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). The corresponding mRNA levels of some identified proteins were analyzed by RT-PCR., Results: Totally 11 differentially expressed proteins (6 up-regulated including creatine kinase, brain (CKB), triosephosphate isomerase 1 (TPI1), isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 (IDH2) and 5 down-regulated including glutathione S-transferase pi (GST-pi)) in the CM were identified using MALDI-TOF-MS and database search. The expression pattern between mRNA and CM protein levels of CKB, IDH2, TPI1 and GST-pi in BPH-1 and LNCaP was similar., Conclusion: We proved a feasible and effective way to search new tumor markers by a proteomics-based strategy and identified 11 potentially useful proteins in CM of BPH-1 and LNCaP cells to distinguish prostate cancer from benign prostatic hypertrophy.

In 75 patients with subacute fulminant hepatitis B (SAFH), HDAg positive liver cells were observed in 14 cases (18.67%) by direct enzyme labelled method. It was found further that HDV (delta factor) infection was an important cause in producing massive necrosis of liver cells and superinfection of HDV with hepatitis B was identified as one of the causes of SAFH. This experiment also showed that the number of HDAg positive cells was in direct proportion to the area of liver necrosis. No obvious lymphocytic infiltrations and cytotoxic phenomena around the necrotic foci and HDAg positive cells could be found, while the cytoplasmic type HDAg positive cells showed distinct degeneration or even atrophy. Hence it was suggested that HDV could be a direct pathogenesis. No obvious characteristic changes in morphology of HDV infection could be found.