Objective
To explore the relationship between subjective severity of symptoms of detrusor instability (DI) on presentation, outcome after treatment for DI and initial diagnostic urodynamic variables, with the aim of identifying a urodynamic variable which might, by predicting a favourable outcome from treatment, classify the severity of DI.
Patients and methods
Women with a urodynamically proven diagnosis of DI were recruited prospectively for the study. Data on disease symptoms and variables from their diagnostic cystometrogram were collected. All women were then treated and their outcome at 6 weeks after treatment compared with the initial urodynamic variables. Data on severity of symptoms were compared with initial urodynamic variables to explore any differences in these variables attributable to symptom severity.
Results
Of 300 women studied (mean age 54 years, sd 16), 290 were treated with oxybutynin and bladder retraining. At 6 weeks, 82 women had their treatment outcome classified as worse/no change; 218 women had improved. When good or poor outcome was compared with the urodynamic results, there was no significant difference between the groups. Likewise, the severity of symptoms did not relate to the values of urodynamic variables.
Conclusions
There was no statistically significant relationship between reported severity of symptoms and urodynamic variables, and no relationship between the urodynamic variables used and response to treatment. Therefore, using these values it is not possible to predict a favourable outcome from treatment or to use them to classify disease severity.
We report a preliminary investigation of spatial inhomogeneities in an InGaN epilayer using scanning confocal microscopy as the investigative tool. The Daresbury confocal microscope SYCLOPS provides simultaneous high quality reflection and fluorescence images of InGaN sample areas up to 500 μm square, even at room temperature. Sample cooling increases the brightness and quality of the fluorescence image, as expected. Spectral selection using interference filters permits identification of features close to sample edges resulting from the nitridation of indium droplets. The unexpected non‐coincidence of fluorescence and reflection features below 10 μm in size is tentatively attributed to the differing absorption strengths of different crystallites.
/ Implementation of environmental management in Russia is undergoing rapid changes. Federal responsibility rests with the Russian Federation State Committee for Environmental Protection (RFSCEP) and is delegated at regional level to local State Committees for Environmental Protection (SCEPs). This paper focuses on the functioning of the SCEP for Tomsk oblast' (region) in Siberia, which is strongly committed to forging constructive links with regional government, academia, industry, and environmental NGOs. Considerable difficulties exist for SCEPs in Russia, however, and prominent among these are (1) a rigidly vertical civil service structure, with separate organs having responsibility for different natural resources, persisting from Soviet times, which hinders effective intergrated and holistic environmental management; and (2) a lack of open access to environmental information from military and quasi-military sites.
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