introduction: to compare outcomes of retrograde intrarenal surgery (rirs) with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (eswl) as treatment of choice. methods: a total number of 46 patients with renal pelvic stones 10-20 mm and body mass index (bmi) >30 randomized in two groups underwent rirs and eswl from 2011 to 2014 and followed for 3 months. results: the patients mean ± sd age was 36.1 ± 13.1 ...

silicon dioxide or silica is the earth’s most abundant mineral. the primary pulmonary illness attributable to silica exposure is silicosis, which is observed in three forms: classic, accelerated and acute. a case of silicosis is presented in this article who has been working in a stone-cutting plant. he had suffered from symptoms of silicosis one year after employment in this plant (acute form)...

A stepping-stone connection has always been assumed as an intrusion since the first research on stepping-stone connections twenty years ago. However, not all stepping-stone connections are malicious. This paper proposes an enhanced stepping-stone detection (SSD) technique which is capable to identify legitimate connections from stepping-stone connections. Stepping-stone connections are identifi...

BACKGROUND Hope has therapeutic value because it enables people to cope with uncertainty about their future health. Indeed, hope, or therapeutic optimism (TO), is seen as an essential aspect of the provision and experience of medical care. The role of TO in clinical research has been briefly discussed, but the concept, and whether it can be transferred from care to research and from patients to...

CONTEXT The role of protein components of pancreatic secretions has been controversial in pancreatic stone formation. OBJECTIVE To study the lithogenic role of pancreatic stone protein and lactoferrin in stone formation in chronic pancreatitis. PATIENTS Pancreatic stones were collected from 13 patients with alcoholic (n=6) and nonalcoholic (n=7) chronic calcified pancreatitis. MAIN OUTCOM...

BACKGROUND It remains controversial as to whether active stone removal should be performed in patients with poor performance status because of their short life expectancy and perioperative risks. Our objectives were to evaluate treatment outcomes of active stone removal in patients with poor performance status and to compare life prognosis with those managed conservatively. METHODS We retrosp...

PURPOSE Several factors determine the success of extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) for kidney stones: stone size, stone location within the collecting system, stone type, and the SWL machine used. It has been suggested that stone radiodensity, as determined either by plain radiography or computed tomography attenuation values, may be an independent predictor of SWL success. We examined...

Long-term results of hepatic resection for hepatolithiasis in 34 patients having intrahepatic biliary strictures were studied. The left lateral and the right posterior segmental ducts were commonly and often simultaneously involved. Fourteen patients had multiple segmental involvement. Hepatic resection included left sided resection (n = 27), right sided resection (n = 6), and repeated bilatera...