Nation-wide analysis of the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on daily urology practice in Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: To present a nation-wide analysis of the workload of urology departments in Turkey week-by-week during Covid-19 pandemic. METHODOLOGY: The centres participating in the study were divided into three groups as tertiary referral centres, state hospitals and private practice hospitals. The number of outpatients, inpatients, daily interventions and urological surgeries were recorded prospectively between 9-March-2020 and 31-May-2020. All these variables were recorded for the same time interval of 2019 as well. The weekly change of the workload of urology during pandemic period was evaluated, also the workload of urology and the distributions of certain urological surgeries were compared between the pandemic period and the same time interval of the year 2019. RESULTS: A total of 51 centres participated in the study. The number of outpatients, inpatients, urological surgeries and daily interventions were found to be dramatically decreased by the 3rd week of pandemics in state hospitals and tertiary referral centres; however, the daily urological practice were similar in private practice hospitals throughout the pandemic period. When the workload of urology in pandemic period and the same time interval of the year 2019 were compared, a huge decrease was observed in all variables during pandemic period. However, temporary measures like ureteral stenting, nephrostomy placement and percutaneous cystostomy have been found to increase during Covid-19 pandemic compared with normal life. CONCLUSIONS: Covid-19 pandemic significantly affected the routine daily urological practice likewise other subspecialties and priority was given to emergent and non-deferrable surgeries by urologists in concordance with published clinical guidelines.

Assessment of PSA-Age volume score in predicting positive prostate biopsy findings in Turkey.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate PSA-age volume (AV) scores in predicting positive prostate biopsy findings in Turkey. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PSA-AV was calculated by multiplying the patient's age by the prostate volume and dividing it by the PSA level. Sensitivities and specificities of the PSA-AV were assessed by retrospective analysis of findings from 4,717 prostate biopsies. RESULTS: The population's average age was 63.71±7.63 years, the mean PSA level was 9.73±17.01ng/mL, the mean prostate volume was 44.46±23.88 cm3. Of the 4,717 prostate biopsies, 1,171 biopsy specimens (24.8%) were positive for prostate cancer. A PSA-AV score of 700 had a sensitivity and specificity of 95% and 15%, respectively. These values were similar to the sensitivity and specificity for a PSA cut-off of 4ng/mL (94% and 13%, respectively). Although the sensitivity of a PSA-AV cut-off of 700 in patients over 60 years was similar to the PSA cut-off of 4ng/mL and the age-adjusted PSA, in patients < 60 years, its sensitivity was higher. While the sensitivities of a PSA-AV cut-off of 700 in patients with low prostate volume was higher than a PSA cut-off of 4ng/mL, the sensitivities of both methods with moderate prostate volumes were similar. CONCLUSIONS: Considering all the biopsies, the sensitivity and specificity of a PSA-AV of 700 for predicting positive biopsy findings were similar to a PSA of 4ng/mL. We suggest the PSA-AV cut-off of 700 should only be used in patients younger than 60 with low prostate volumes (< 20cm3).

Selenium, nickel, and calcium levels in cancerous and non-cancerous prostate tissue samples and their relation with some parameters.

In the present study, tissue samples of patients with cancerous and non-cancerous prostate were analyzed for their Se, Ni, and Ca contents. Possible relationship between Se, Ni, and Ca concentrations and some parameters including preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, histopathological neurovascular invasion, extra-capsular extension, seminal vesicle invasion, positive surgical margins, PSA relapse after radical prostatectomy, and total Gleason scores were obtained. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) optical emission spectrometry and ICP-mass spectrometry instruments were used for the determination of analytes interested. All the system parameters in digestion and measurement steps were optimized to obtain efficient digestion and sensitive measurements. There was no statistically meaningful difference observed in the concentration of selenium in cancerous and benign prostatic tissues (p = 0.347) while nickel levels in cancerous tissues were observed as significantly lower than benign tissues (p < 0.001). In addition, calcium concentration in cancerous tissue samples were found to be statistically lower than those in benign tissues (p < 0.001) with mean values of 657 and 1,431 mg/kg, respectively.