Rates of Positive Abdominal Computed Tomography and Bone Scan Findings Among Men with Cambridge Prognostic Group 4 or 5 prostate cancer: A Nationwide Registry Study.

European and American guidelines recommend abdominal computed tomography (CT) and bone scans for staging of high-risk prostate cancer (PC). To improve clinical risk stratification of nonmetastatic PC a new, five-tier risk classification system has been developed, the Cambridge Prognostic Groups (CPG), in which "high-risk" PC is divided into favourable CPG 4 and unfavourable CPG 5. We used the National Prostate Cancer Register of Sweden (NPCR) to define the rates of positive CT and bone scan findings among men with CPG 4 or 5 cancer. Among men with CPG 4 and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) <50 ng/ml, only 3.6% (95% confidence interval 2.9-4.5%) of the CT scans showed regional lymph-node metastasis (N1M0), while 6.2% (95% confidence interval 5.4-7.0%) of the bone scans were positive. Rates for both were higher in the subgroups with PSA 50-99 ng/ml (10% and 15%) and with CPG 5 disease. The low positivity rate questions routine use of CT for men with CPG 4 cancer and PSA <50 ng/ml, particularly considering the poor sensitivity and specificity for detection of lymph node metastasis. The positivity rate was higher for bone scans, and as current clinical practice relies on trials using bone scans for staging (eg, to define low- versus high-volume metastatic disease), continued routine use of bone scans seems justified. Patient summary: Our analysis of data from the National Prostate Cancer Register of Sweden showed that for men with favourable high-risk prostate cancer (Cambridge Prognostic Group 4), the rate of positive computed tomography (CT) scans was low. This result suggests that CT scans may not be necessary for detecting cancer spread in men with Cambridge Prognostic Group 4 prostate cancer .

Blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier dysfunction in patients with bipolar disorder in relation to antipsychotic treatment.

Blood-cerebrospinal barrier (BCB) dysfunction has previously been shown in subjects with schizophrenia and depressed patients with attempted suicide. Bipolar disorder (BPD) shares clinical features with both these disorders, but it is unknown if the integrity of the BCB is altered also in BPD. To assess if BCB function in BPD we surveyed 134 mood-stabilized BPD patients and 86 healthy controls. Serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were collected and analyzed for albumin concentration by immunonephelometry. CSF/serum albumin ratio, an established measure of BCB function, was significantly elevated in BPD patients as compared to controls. After stratifying patients according to diagnostic subtype, BPD I patients had the highest CSF/serum albumin ratios. Moreover, BPD patients on antipsychotic treatment had higher CSF/serum albumin ratio than BPD patients on other treatments. When excluding BPD patients on antipsychotic treatment the difference in CSF/serum albumin ratio between the BPD and control groups disappeared. In conclusion, antipsychotic treatment in BPD is associated with elevated CSF/serum albumin ratio, tentatively as a sign of impaired BCB function. Whether this elevation is caused by antipsychotic treatment or is associated with a certain subtype of BPD, requiring antipsychotic treatment, remains to be determined.