Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Urology for March 2011. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.
Online Health Records Less Used by Minorities, Poor
WEDNESDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- Online personal health records (PHRs) are less frequently used by racial or ethnic minorities and patients with low annual income, according to a study published in the March 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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PSA Screening Predicted by Age, Life Expectancy
TUESDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) -- Age and life expectancy are strong predictors of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, which appears to be administered excessively to older men with limited life expectancy, according to research published online March 28 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Room Cleaning Linked to Lower Drug-Resistant Infections
TUESDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) -- Enhanced intensive care unit (ICU) cleaning may reduce methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) transmission, according to a study published in the March 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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Citalopram, Finasteride Potentially Mislabeled
MONDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) -- Lots of citalopram, an antidepressant, and finasteride, used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, are being recalled by Greenstone LLC due to possible mislabeling of the bottles, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced.
Hormone Therapy Improves Prostate Cancer Survival
FRIDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- In men with locally advanced prostate cancer, six months of hormone therapy combined with radiation significantly reduces prostate-cancer-specific and all-cause mortality compared with radiotherapy alone, according to a study published online March 25 in The Lancet Oncology.
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Reduced Hours for Trainees Has Had Little Effect in U.S.
THURSDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- Reducing work hours for doctors in training to less than 80 per week has had little impact on patient outcomes or postgraduate training in the United States, according to a literature review published online March 22 in BMJ.
Taiwanese With Diabetes at Higher Risk of Prostate Cancer
MONDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of prostate cancer among men in Taiwan is increasing, and men with diabetes are at an increased risk of prostate cancer, according to research published in the March issue of Diabetes Care.
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Prostatectomy Rates Higher in Hospitals With Surgical Robots
FRIDAY, March 18 (HealthDay News) -- The acquisition of surgical robots is associated with increases in the performance of radical prostatectomies (RPs) at both the hospital and regional levels, according to research published in the April issue of Medical Care.
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CDC: HIV Transmitted Through Living Kidney Donation
THURSDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Despite HIV screening of the donor, using serologic testing, HIV was transmitted from a living kidney donor to the transplant recipient recently in New York City, according to a report in the March 18 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
5α-Reductase Inhibitors Tied to Adverse Male Sexual Health
THURSDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- 5α-reductase inhibitors (5α-RIs), used to treat symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and hair loss in men, may cause persistent erectile dysfunction, depression, and loss of libido, even after discontinuing the medication, according to a review published in the March issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
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Professional Values of U.S. and U.K. Doctors Examined
THURSDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- A core of professional values exists among doctors in the United States and the United Kingdom, though significant differences exist in how these values are expressed and prioritized, according to a study published online March 7 in BMJ Quality & Safety.
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Short Nurse Staffing Linked to Higher Patient Mortality
WEDNESDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- Patient mortality appears to be higher when nurse staffing falls eight or more hours below target level and during nursing shifts when patient turnover is high, according to research published in the March 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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U.S. Death Rate Reaches All-Time Low
WEDNESDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- The age-adjusted death rate for the United States has fallen for 10 straight years and has reached an all-time low of 741 per 100,000, or 2,436,682 deaths, in 2009, down 2.3 percent from 2008, according to a new report issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
Number of Cancer Survivors in U.S. Reaches 11.7 Million
THURSDAY, March 10 (HealthDay News) -- The number of cancer survivors in the United States had increased to nearly 12 million by 2007, according to a report in the March 11 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
MicroRNA Expression Tied to Prostate Cancer Recurrence
THURSDAY, March 10 (HealthDay News) -- Biochemical recurrence of localized prostate cancer in patients treated with radical prostatectomy is linked to high levels of microRNAs (miRNAs), according to a study published in the March issue of The Journal of Urology.
HealthGrades Finds Rates of Patient Safety Events Vary
WEDNESDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Patients treated at hospitals rated with a HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award have, on average, a 46 percent lower risk of experiencing a patient safety incident compared to those treated at the lowest-ranked hospitals, according to the eighth annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study published online March 9.
Ethnic Differences Seen in Academic Measures for U.K. Docs
WEDNESDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- United Kingdom-trained physicians and medical students with ethnic minority backgrounds tend to underperform academically compared to their white peers, according to a meta-analysis published online March 8 in BMJ.
Cyclophosphamide Treatment Tied to Urinary Tract Cancer
WEDNESDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with systemic necrotizing vasculitides (SNV) treated with cyclophosphamide (CYC) have a five-fold higher risk of developing urinary tract cancer (UTC), according to a study published online Feb. 17 in Arthritis & Rheumatism.
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Pharmacological Meta-Analyses Rarely Report Disclosures
TUESDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) -- Meta-analyses of pharmacological treatments rarely include information addressing primary study funding and conflicts of interest (COIs) of the authors for the included randomized control trials (RCTs), according to a study published in the March 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Tissue-Engineered Urethral Graft in Boys Effective
TUESDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) -- Tubularized urethras engineered from boys' own cells appear to be functional and viable for up to six years, according to research published online March 8 in The Lancet.
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Sexual Behavior in U.S. Adults Little Changed Since 2002
THURSDAY, March 3 (HealthDay News) -- Most adults in the United States have experienced vaginal sex, but the number of younger adults reporting no sexual contact has increased since 2002, according to the March issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health Statistics Report.
HPV Incidence, Clearance in Men Linked to Sexual Behavior
TUESDAY, March 1 (HealthDay News) -- Incidence and clearance of genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in men are strongly associated with sexual behavior, according to a study published online March 1 in The Lancet.
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