European urology focus
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European urology focus · Jan 2019
Management of Urethritis: Is It Still the Time for Empirical Antibiotic Treatments?
Urethritis prevalence in Europe changed in the last years due to both the increase of migratory streams from North Africa and the more frequent exposition of males to relevant risk factors. Owing to these reasons, urethritis treatment should be optimized by accurate microbiological investigations to avoid the risk of persistence, recurrence, or reinfection. ⋯ Urethritis is a sexually transmitted disease generally characterized by urethral discharge or other symptoms such as itching, tingling, and apparent difficulties in having a regular urinary flow. Microbiological investigations are mandatory to obtain satisfactory results from the treatment. Multiple antibiotic treatments are often necessary due to the high risk of multiple pathogens responsible for the disease. Similarly, sexual partners should be investigated and treated in the same way. Several risk factors such as immunodeficiency, multiple sexual partners, homo- and bisexuality, and alcohol abuse may be related to the disease. In these cases, the use of condom is strongly recommended.
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European urology focus · Jan 2019
Detection of Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Bladder Cancer using Maximum Standardised Uptake Value and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography: Results from a High-volume Centre Including Long-term Follow-up.
Preoperative staging with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) combined with computed tomography (CT) is used for the evaluation of metastatic disease in patients with invasive bladder cancer. The use of quantification with maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of regional lymph nodes (LNs) has been suggested to increase the diagnostic ability for detection of malignancy. ⋯ In this report, we establish that it is possible to identify disease from bladder cancer in the lymphatic tissue surrounding the bladder using a scan analysis. This assists in the selection of treatment for patients with bladder cancer and may spare patients from unnecessary procedures.