Objective: Development and validation of a simple and standardized self-reporting questionnaire for acute uncomplicated cystitis (AUC) assessing typical and differential symptoms, quality of life and possible changes after therapy in female patients with AUC. Materials and Methods: Literature research, development and evaluation of the Acute Cystitis Symptom Score (ACSS), an 18-item self-reporting questionnaire including (a) six questions about ‘typical' symptoms of AUC, (b) four questions regarding differential diagnoses, (c) three questions on quality of life and (d) five questions on additional conditions which may affect therapy. The ACSS was evaluated in 286 women (mean age 32.3 ± 12.3 years) in the Russian and Uzbek language. Measurements of reliability, validity, predictive ability and responsiveness were performed. Results: Cronbach's alpha for the ACSS was 0.89, split-half reliability was 0.92 and correlation between halves was 0.85. Mann-Whitney test revealed significant difference scores of the ‘typical' domain between patients and controls (10.75 vs. 2.02, p < 0.001). The optimal threshold score was 6 points, with a 94% sensitivity and 90% specificity to predict AUC. The symptom score decreased significantly when comparing before and after therapy (10.7 vs. 2.1, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The new validated ACSS is accurate enough and can be recommended for clinical studies and practice for initial diagnosis and monitoring treatment of AUC. Evaluation in other languages is in progress. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel

Objectives: The Acute Cystitis Symptom Score (ACSS) was developed as a self-reporting questionnaire for clinical diagnosis of acute uncomplicated cystitis (AUC) and symptomatic changes in female patients. The aim of the present study was to assess the utility of the different domains of ACSS including the ‘dynamics' domain after therapy. The applicability of these domains in assessing changes in symptoms, as a function of time, in this population was investigated. Materials and Methods: During the validation process of the ACSS in Uzbek and Russian languages, a subgroup of patients (n = 63) returned after therapy and filled in part B of ACSS. Descriptive statistics were used, where suitable. Results: The reduction of typical symptoms and quality of life (QoL) assessment between first and follow-up visit correlated significantly with answers in the ‘dynamics' domain. Success/cure and non-success/failure could be clearly differentiated by the scores obtained in ‘typical' and ‘QoL' domains. Conclusion: The ACSS has proven to be a useful instrument to clinically diagnose AUC in women. It is also a suitable instrument for patient-reported outcome assessment, with applicability in both daily practice and in clinical studies. Slight modifications in the ‘dynamics' domain will even increase the applicability.

The objective was to reveal predictors for fertility recovery after varicocelectomy in subfertile men. This retrospective study recruited 93 men with clinical varicocele and pathozoospermia who underwent microsurgical varicocelectomy. Stepwise discriminant analysis was performed to identify predictors of spontaneous pregnancy (SP) after surgery. ‘Clinically significant improvement’ (CSI) following varicocelectomy was defined as an increase in total progressively motile sperm count (TPMSC) by at least 12.5 million (calculated from WHO‐2010 reference values). 52% of patients showed CSI, and 28% reported SP after surgery. Patients who reported SP (group II), compared to that remained infertile (group I), were younger (27.3 ± 2.9 versus 30.2 ± 4.2 years; p < .01), had less infertility period (24.1 ± 14.0 versus 44.4 ± 32.9 months; p < .05) and had initially higher TPMSC (median (25% −75%) = 34 (11–67) versus 9.5 (0–33) mln; p < .05). The stepwise discriminant analysis showed that male age (coefficient value = −0.157), total sperm motility (0.024) and postoperative increase in TPMSC (0.010) were the significant predictors of SP. The predictive ability, sensitivity and specificity of the discriminant function were 84%, 87%, 76% respectively. This algorithm can be recommended after varicocelectomy in decision‐making on natural conception or the ART protocols usage.

Purpose: The aim was to assess the results of balloon dilation in patients with bladder neck contracture (BNC) after endoscopic surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Materials and Methods: The study involved 120 patients with recurrent BNC after transurethral interventions for BPH. All patients underwent transurethral resection (TUR) of the bladder neck and were divided into two groups: Group A (n = 45) included men who, after TUR, additionally underwent repeated balloon dilation, whereas the control group B (n = 75) included men who were treated with alpha-blockers alone. Results: In 9 months after TUR and 3 months after the 4th balloon dilation procedure in Group A, the mean international prostate symptom score (IPSS) decreased from 20.1 ± 8.4 to 17.2 ± 7.4, and the IPSS-quality of life was 4.2 ± 1.2 (P > 0.05). In Group B, they were 21.7 ± 7.7 and 4.7 ± 1.1 (P > 0.05), respectively. In addition, the mean flow rate in Group A was 13.2 ± 5.4 ml/s, whereas in Group B, it was 8.7 ± 4.9 ml/s (P < 0.05). There was a significant decrease in the postvoid residual urine volume from 76.2 ± 96.1 ml to 37.6 ± 55.1 ml in Group A, whereas, in Group B, it increased from 63.0 ± 36.9 ml to 79.4 ± 71.6 ml (P > 0.05). Furthermore, 28.0% of patients of Group B and 13.3% of patients of Group A underwent repeated TUR of the bladder neck in 9 months follow-up period (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Balloon dilation is a safe less invasive procedure and can reduce the possibility of BNC recurrence and thus the rate of repeated transurethral interventions.

Bladder neck contracture (BNC) is one of the most common complications of surgical treatment of prostate diseases. The rate of postoperative BNC varies depending on the type of surgical treatment used. The options for treatment techniques for BNC can vary from endoscopic interventions to complex (abdominal) surgical interventions. This review evaluates various alternative surgical methods of BNC treatment. The search and analysis of publications in the databases PubMed (MEDLINE), Scopus, Cochrane Library, according to the keywords, “bladder neck sclerosis,” “benign prostatic hyperplasia,” “BNC,” “bladder neck stenosis,” “balloon dilation,” “treatment.” As a result, 71 publications were selected and included in this review. In addition to the standard treatment methods in the form of transurethral resection and incision of the bladder neck using electricity and laser energy, the urologist also has alternative methods of treatment, such as balloon dilation, placement of urethral stents, instillation of the bladder or intraoperative injection of cytostatic drugs, hormones, hyaluronic acid derivatives, and biomedical cell products into the bladder neck area. Although transurethral resection is currently the main treatment option for BNC, the recurrence rate after this procedure can reach up to 38%. According to the literature, balloon dilation can be a promising and minimally invasive method of treatment for recurrent BNC. This method can be used as the first stage in the treatment of recurrent contracture deformity. Furthermore, intravesical instillation of various anti-inflammatory drugs and cytostatics can be promising directions in the treatment and prevention of BNC.