Background: Early and accurate diagnosis of endometriosis is crucial for the management of this benign, yet debilitating pathology. Despite the advances of modern medicine, there is no common ground regarding the pathophysiology of this disease as it continues to affect the quality of life of millions of women of reproductive age. The lack of specific symptoms often determines a belated diagnosis. The gold standard remains invasive, surgery followed by a histopathological exam. A biomarker or a panel of biomarkers is easy to measure, usually noninvasive, and could benefit the clinician in both diagnosing and monitoring the treatment response. Several studies have advanced the idea of biomarkers for endometriosis, thereby circumventing unnecessary invasive techniques. Our paper aims at harmonizing the results of these studies in the search of promising perspectives on early diagnosis. Methods: We selected the papers from Google Academic, PubMed, and CrossRef and reviewed recent articles from the literature, aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of various putative serum and urinary biomarkers for endometriosis. Results: The majority of studies focused on a panel of biomarkers, rather than a single biomarker and were unable to identify a single biomolecule or a panel of biomarkers with sufficient specificity and sensitivity in endometriosis. Conclusion: Noninvasive biomarkers, proteomics, genomics, and miRNA microarray may aid the diagnosis, but further research on larger datasets along with a better understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanisms are needed.

Botulinum toxins (BoNTs) are produced by several anaerobic species of the genus Clostridium and, although they were originally considered lethal toxins, today they find their usefulness in the treatment of a wide range of pathologies in various medical specialties. Botulinum neurotoxin has been identified in seven different isoforms (BoNT-A, BoNT-B, BoNT-C, BoNT-D, BoNT-E, BoNT-F, and BoNT-G). Neurotoxigenic Clostridia can produce more than 40 different BoNT subtypes and, recently, a new BoNT serotype (BoNT-X) has been reported in some studies. BoNT-X has not been shown to actually be an active neurotoxin despite its catalytically active LC, so it should be described as a putative eighth serotype. The mechanism of action of the serotypes is similar: they inhibit the release of acetylcholine from the nerve endings but their therapeutically potency varies. Botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) is the most studied serotype for therapeutic purposes. Regarding the gynecological pathology, a series of studies based on the efficiency of its use in the treatment of refractory myofascial pelvic pain, vaginism, dyspareunia, vulvodynia and overactive bladder or urinary incontinence have been reported. The current study is a review of the literature regarding the efficiency of BoNT-A in the gynecological pathology and on the long and short-term effects of its administration.

Objective: Prospective analysis of the prevalence of symptoms, tolerability and complications associated with ureteral stents and their impact on quality of life based on the Flanagan Quality of Life Scale and a not-validated questionnaire from our clinic.Methods: A total of 2200 adult patient participated to this study in a period of 10 years (2003-2012). Those patients were asked to complete the QOLS and a not-validated questionnaire from our clinic, before ureteral indwelling, 7 day after ureteral indwelling and 14 days after removal of the stent.Results: Total 1520 patient aged between 18 and 84 years completed the study. The analysis of data showed that the unpleasant symptoms caused by stent were encountered more frequently at 7 days after stent insertion, in terms of urinary frequency, dysuria, urgency and macroscopic haematuria, this difference being statistically significant (p<0.05). After analysis the responses to QOLS questionnaire, at 7 days after stent placement, mean scores show a clear reduction in the QoL of those patients, in all cases the standard deviation being at a great value, indicating a high variability of responses, but at 14 days after its suppression of stent the average scores are somewhat closer to the baseline.Conclusions: Our study brings many elements that shows a statistically significant increase in the incidence of numerous side effects and impaired quality of life. It contributes to existing data from the literature as regards the knowledge of the pathology determined by the presence of foreign body in the urinary tract and in providing patient counseling.doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.313.6759How to cite this:Scarneciu I, Lupu S, Pricop C, Scarneciu C. Morbidity and impact on quality of life in patients with indwelling ureteral stents: A 10-year clinical experience. Pak J Med Sci 2015;31(3):522-526.

Uric acid (UA), a key purine metabolite associated with metabolic, cardiovascular, and renal disorders, has been extensively investigated using electrochemical sensors. Increasing efforts now focus on translating these technologies into commercial point-of-care (POC) platforms for rapid, decentralized detection. Commercial screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) are widely employed as substrates for such platforms, typically after surface modification with nanomaterials or recognition elements; however, their inherent, unmodified analytical capabilities remain largely uncharacterized. This gap is significant, as the baseline performance of the underlying electrode ultimately constrains or enables the benefits of any subsequent modification. Here, we systematically compare two commercially available SPEs, DRP-110 and DRP-150, for UA detection using differential pulse voltammetry under standardized conditions. Both electrodes exhibited two distinct UA oxidation peaks. The first peak gave linear calibration over 0.02–0.5 µM (R² = 0.9863 DRP-110, 0.9928 DRP-150), with validated LOD/LOQ of 0.076/0.230 µM (DRP-110) and 0.055/0.166 µM (DRP-150); the second peak extended the linear working range to 1–1000 µM (DRP-110, R² = 0.9833) and 1–2000 µM (DRP-150, R² = 0.9928), with LOD/LOQ of 3.37/10.20 µM and 2.23/6.77 µM, respectively, derived from its low-concentration segment. DRP-150 demonstrated superior sensitivity at both peaks. However, both electrodes showed low selectivity toward ascorbic acid. Spike recovery testing in modified artificial urine gave recoveries of 68.0–98.49%, supporting preliminary feasibility in a defined urine-like matrix.