Acute, Subchronic, and Chronic Complications of Radical Prostatectomy Versus Radiotherapy With Hormone Therapy in Older Adults With High-Risk Prostate Adenocarcinoma.

Purpose: To compare acute, subchronic, and chronic complications between older patients with high-risk localized prostate cancer (HR-LPC) receiving radical prostatectomy (RP) and high-dose intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) combined with long-term hormone therapy (HT). Patients and Methods: We recruited older patients (≥80 years) with HR-LPC from the Taiwan Cancer Registry database. After propensity score matching, logistic regression analysis was used to compare the acute, subchronic, and chronic complication rates between patients who underwent RP (the RP group) and high-dose IMRT combined with long-term HT (the IMRT+HT group). Results: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) symptoms and urinary incontinence (UI) were the most common complications over 5 years (BPH symptoms: RP, 17.69%; IMRT+HT, 29.58%; UI: RP, 10.47%; IMRT+HT, 5.50%). Compared with the RP group, the IMRT+HT group had higher odds of BPH symptoms and lower odds of UI and hernia after the 5-year follow-up period. The impotence rates were significantly higher in the IMRT+HT group than in the RP group at 3 months and 1 year after treatment and became nonsignificant after 2 years. At 5 years after treatment, the IMRT+HT group had lower risks of UI (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.28-0.88) and hernia (aOR, 0.21; 95% CI, 0.11-0.82) and a higher risk of BPH symptoms (aOR, 4.15; 95% CI, 2.82-7.37) than the RP group. Conclusion: IMRT+HT was associated with lower UI and hernia risks than RP. By contrast, RP was associated with fewer complications of BPH over the follow-up period and less impotence during the first year after treatment. Our findings provide important and valuable references for shared decision-making for optimal therapy selection among older men with HR-LPC.

Sympathetic enhancement in futsal players but not in football players after repeated sprint ability test.

BACKGROUND: Heart rate variability (HRV) can disclose the specific adaptation of sympathovagal modulation to exercise. This study investigated the change in HRV measures after anaerobic and aerobic intermittent exercises in university football and futsal players. METHOD: 36 male university students with physically active lifestyle (n=14), football (n=12), and futsal (n=10) participated in this study. The participants completed the repeated sprint ability (RSA) test and Yo-Yo (YY) intermittent recovery test level 1 in randomised order. ECG signals of the participants were recorded in supine position 15 min before and 30 min after exercises. Before exercise, and 5 and 30 min after exercise, the blood pressures were also taken. RESULTS: In the RSA protocol, the percentage changes in normalised high-frequency power (nHFP) were significantly decreased, while the percentage changes in the very low/high frequency power ratio (VLHR) and low/high frequency power ratio (LHR) were significantly increased in futsal players after exercise, as compared with the controls. No significant changes in all HRV indices were found in the YY protocol, except the respiratory frequency. CONCLUSIONS: After exercise, the percent decrease in vagal modulation in futsal players was significantly reduced, while the percentage increase in sympathetic modulation in futsal players was significantly enhanced in the RSA test, but not in the YY test, as compared with the control group. The increase in sympathetic activity and the decrease in vagal activity in the futsal players were greater than the corresponding increase and decrease in the football players in the RSA test.

Identification and phylogenetic analysis of orf virus from goats in Taiwan.

An outbreak of contagious ecthyma in goats in central Taiwan was investigated. The disease was diagnosed by physical and histopathologic examinations, and the etiology of the disease was identified as orf virus by electron microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequence of major envelope protein (B2L) gene. The entire protein-coding region of B2L gene were cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis of B2L amino acid sequences showed that the orf virus identified in this outbreak was closer to the Indian ORFV-Mukteswar 59/05 isolate. This is the first report on the molecular characterization of orf virus in Taiwan.