PurposeThis study aimed to compare the safety and efficacy of tamsulosin and tadalafil as medical expulsive therapy for distal ureteral stones.Materials and MethodsThis prospective randomized study was conducted at the Department of Urology of Bir Hospital over a period of 12 months in patients with distal ureteral stones sized 5 to 10 mm. Patients were randomly divided into 2 groups: group A received tamsulosin 0.4 mg and group B received tadalafil 10 mg at bedtime for 2 weeks. Stone expulsion rate, number of ureteric colic episodes and pain score, analgesic requirements, and adverse drug effects were noted in both groups. Statistical analyses were performed by using Student t-test and chi-square test.ResultsAltogether 85 patients, 41 in group A and 44 in group B, were enrolled in the study. The patients' average age was 31.72±12.63 years, and the male-to-female ratio was 1.5:1. Demographic profiles, stone size, and baseline investigations were comparable between the 2 groups. The stone expulsion rate was significantly higher in the tadalafil group than in the tamsulosin group (84.1% vs. 61.0%, p=0.017). Although the occurrence of side effects was higher with tadalafil, this difference was not significant (p=0.099). There were no serious adverse effects.ConclusionsTadalafil has a significantly higher stone expulsion rate than tamsulosin when used as a medical expulsive therapy for distal ureteral stones sized 5–10 mm. Both drugs are safe, effective, and well tolerated with minor side effects.

A dwarfing gene (allele) sd1-d has been intensively utilized to develop short-culm indica varieties in southeast Asia up to now. Before the first sd1-d-carrying variety IR8 was released, rice researchers had recognized the general tendency that culm length is higher in indica varieties than in temperate-japonica ones. Inter-subspecific difference of the tall (wild-type) allele SD1 at the sd1 locus was examined on the common genetic background, using five isogenic lines developed by substituting sd1-d of the recurrent parent IR36 by SD1s of two indica varieties, two temperate-japonica varieties and one tropical-japonica variety. The two indica -donor isogenic lines had longer culms than the three japonica-donor isogenic lines consistently in two different environmental conditions. Moreover, nonsynonymous single-nucleotide polymorphism between the two subspecies was detected at two sites in Exon 1 and Exon 3 of the sd1 locus. It is demonstrated that the inter-subspecific differentiation of SD1 contributes height difference between indica and japonica. The indica-originating and japonica-originating alleles at the sd1 locus were designated as SD1-in(t) and SD1-ja(t), respectively.

Norin-PL8 (ÔPL8Õ) is an extremely cool-tolerant line of rice in Japan that contains genes for cool tolerance originating from a javanica landrace. It was investigated to see whether the dwarfing gene d18-k (kotaketamanishiki dwarf) exerts its pleiotropic effect on enhancing the cool tolerance at the booting stage in the genetic background of PL8. The d18-k isogenic line of the recurrent parent PL8 (D8), PL8, and two commercial cultivars ÔHayayukiÕ and ÔKirara 397Õ were used. For each line/cultivar, the 12°C-5-day treatment was conducted at various times during the booting stage. In addition to spikelet fertility, the ratio (%) of the fertilized-spikelet number of each treated panicle to the varietal mean of fertilized-spikelet number per panicle in the control (FS-T/C) was adopted to estimate cool temperature damage. For FS-T/C, the lines-cultivars ranked in the order of D8 > PL8 > ÔHayayukiÕ ‡ ÔKirara 397Õ, reflecting their cool tolerances. D8 exceeded PL8 in both pollen grain number per anther in the control and as an indicator of pollen fertility after the treatment, as a result of the effects of d18-k. Consequently, d18-k can be used to develop super-highly cool-tolerant cultivars for cool-weather areas.

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