[Staging Based Strategies and Practice for Prostate Cancer].

Authors raised that staging based strategies and practice of integrative medicine (IM) by combining syndrome typing and disease identification, and choosing suitable measures in accordance with different persons and seasonal conditions after more than ten years' clinical practice and researches. Radical operation as prior (as evil eliminating) and strengthening vital qi in perioerative period are best strategy for promoting rapid rehabilitation of early stage prostate cancer patients. Strengthening body resistance to eliminate evil was used in treating advanced prostate cancer patients. For example, a comprehensive treatment program for hormone-dependent patients was combined with endocrinotherapy and Chinese herbs for synergisic efficacy-enhancing actions. In this way, these patients' quality of life (QOL) were improved and time to castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) was delayed, even some patients were clinically cured. There are lack of effective medicines and methods for CRPC patients. Greatly tonifying original qi is mainly used for improving their clinical symptoms and prolonging survivals. Practice has proved staging based strategies and practice of IM has favorable advantages in treating prostate cancer, especially showing prospect in prolonging survival and postponing progression of advanced prostate cancer patients. Besides, it also could provide beneficial considerations and inspiration for combination of syndrome typing and disease identification.

Doppler Characteristics of Cavernosal-Spongiosal Communications in Patients with Erectile Dysfunction.

The goal of this work was to characterize the blood flow in cavernosal-spongiosal communications (CSCs) in patients with erectile dysfunction using color Doppler ultrasound. Peak systolic velocity was measured in the CSCs, cavernosal artery and urethral artery in 72 erectile dysfunction patients of the Han ethnic group in southern China. Blood in the CSCs was observed to flow from the cavernosal artery to the urethral artery in all except 5 patients with arteriogenic insufficiency whose blood flow was bidirectional. Peak systolic velocity in erectile dysfunction patients with normal vascular function or veno-occlusive dysfunction was significantly lower in the CSCs than in the cavernosal artery (p < 0.01), but significantly higher than in the urethral artery (p < 0.05). Peak systolic velocities in CSCs in patients with arteriogenic insufficiency were significantly lower than those in the cavernosal (p < 0.01) and urethral (p < 0.01) arteries. The direction of blood flow in the CSCs is determined by the pressure gradient between the cavernosal and urethral arteries.