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Sexual difficulties in women appear to be widespread in society; the relationship between female sexual function and obesity is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between body weight, the distribution of body fat and sexual function in women. Fifty-two, otherwise healthy women with abnormal values of female sexual function index (FSFI) score (p23) were compared with 66 control women (FSFI 423), matched for age and menopausal status. All women were free from diseases known to affect sexual function. FSFI strongly correlated with body mass index (BMI) (r ¼ -0.72, P ¼ 0.0001), but not with waist-to-hip ratio (r ¼ -0.09, P ¼ 0.48), in women with sexual dysfunction. Of the six sexual function parameters, desire and pain did not correlate with BMI, while arousal (r ¼ -0.75), lubrication (r ¼ -0.66), orgasm (r ¼ -0.56) and satisfaction (r ¼ -0.56, all Po0.001) did. FSFI score was significantly lower in overweight women as compared with normal weight women, while cholesterol and triglyceride levels were higher. On multivariate analysis, both age and BMI explained about 68% of FSFI variance, with a primacy of BMI over age (ratio 4:1). In conclusion, obesity affects several aspects of sexuality in otherwise healthy women with sexual dysfunction.

Objectives: To analyze the early and late complications of indwelling ureteral stents in a series of 146 patients with nephroureteral lithiasis. Materials and Methods: 146 patients with obstructing nephrolitiasis were treated for urinary diversion with double pigtail ureteral stent before extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy (ESWL) and following ureterorenoscopic treatment of lithiasis. All patients were scheduled for stent removal or replacement at specific 3-month intervals until stone-free status was achieved. Results: Early complications during the first 4 weeks after stent insertion were stent discomfort (37.6%), irritative bladder symptoms (18.8%), hematuria (18.1%), bacteriuria (15.2%), fever >104F (12.3%) and flank pain (25.3%); late complications included hydronephrosis (5.7%), and stent migration (9.5%), encrustation (21.6%), fragmentation (1.9%) and breakage (1.3%). Conclusions: Ureteral stents have proven to be an invaluable tool for endourologists. Morbidity is minimal for up to three months but longer indwelling times are associated with an increasing frequency of incrustation, infections, secondary stone formation and obstruction of the stented tract.

BACKGROUND:The efficacy of intravesical gemcitabine was evaluated compared with repeated administration of bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) after BCG failure in high-risk, non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (BC). METHODS: In this multicenter, prospective, randomized, phase 2 trial, eligible patients were those with high-risk non-muscle-invasive BC, failing 1 course of BCG therapy. All patients were randomly allocated to Group A, receiving intravesical gemcitabine (at a dose of 2000 mg/50 mL) twice weekly for 6 consecutive weeks and then weekly for 3 consecutive weeks at 3, 6, and 12 months, or Group B, receiving intravesical BCG (Connaught strain, 81 mg/50 mL) over a 6-week induction course and each week for 3 weeks at 3, 6, and 12 months. Outcome measures were recurrence rate, time to first recurrence, and progression rate. Treatment-related complications were also evaluated. RESULTS: Eighty participants were enrolled, 40 for each group 52.5% in Group A developed disease recurrence versus 87.5% of those in Group B (P ¼ .002). There was no statistically significant difference in mean time to the first recurrence (Group A, 3.9 months; Group B, 3.1 months; P ¼ .09). Kaplan-Meier analysis of 2-year recurrence-free survival showed significant differences between Group A and B (19% and 3%, respectively, P < .008). Seven of 21 (33%) patients in Group A and 13 of 35 (37.5%) patients in Group B had disease progression and underwent radical cystectomy (P ¼ .12). Both intravesical administrations were generally well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS: Gemcitabine might represent a second-line treatment option after BCG failure in high-risk non-muscle-invasive BC patients. Cancer 2010;116:1893-900.

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Introduction Ureterorenoscopy (URS) is a popular and growing option for management of ureteric and renal stones. The CROES URS Global Study was set up to assess the outcomes of URS in a large worldwide cohort of patients involving multiple centres. In this paper, we analysed the database for intra-operative and post-operative complications associated with ureterorenoscopy. MethodsThe CROES database was established via collaboration between 114 centres in 32 countries worldwide, and information on both intra-operative and post-operative complications was collected electronically between January 2010 and October 2012.ResultOn analysis of a total of 11,885 patients, the overall complication and stone-free rates were found to be 7.4 and 85.6 %, respectively. The intra-operative and post-operative complication rates were 4.2 and 2.6 %, respectively, and in total 5 deaths were reported in the study period. Taking into account different world economies, there were no differences in the complication rates between the developing and developed nations or between different centres from different continents.ConclusionUreterorenoscopy is a safe and effective procedure for treatment of stones, the outcomes of which are broadly comparable in different parts of the world for similar patient and stone demographics.

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Men with the metabolic syndrome demonstrate an increased prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED). In the present study, we tested the effect of a Mediterranean-style diet on ED in men with the metabolic syndrome. Men were identified in our database of subjects participating in controlled trials evaluating the effect of lifestyle changes and were included if they had a diagnosis of ED associated with a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, complete follow-up in the study trial, and intervention focused mainly on dietary changes. Sixty-five men with the metabolic syndrome met the inclusion/exclusion criteria; 35 out of them were assigned to the Mediterranean-style diet and 30 to the control diet. After 2 years, men on the Mediterranean diet consumed more fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grain, and olive oil as compared with men on the control diet. Endothelial function score and inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein) improved in the intervention group, but remained stable in the control group. There were 13 men in the intervention group and two in the control group (P ¼ 0.015) that reported an IIEF score of 22 or higher. Mediterranean-style diet rich in whole grain, fruits, vegetables, legumes, walnut, and olive oil might be effective per se in reducing the prevalence of ED in men with the metabolic syndrome.