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“The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and HIV-associated tuberculosis (TB-HIV) epidemics remain uncontrolled in many resource-limited regions, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The scale of these epidemics requires the consideration of innovative bold interventions and ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking. To this end, a symposium entitled ‘Controversies in HIV’ was held at the 40th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Cancun, Mexico, in December 2009. The first topic debated, entitled ‘Annual HIV testing and immediate start of antiretroviral therapy for all HIV-infected persons’, received much attention at international

conferences and in the literature in 2009. The second topic forms the subject of this article. The rationale for GW3965 Smoothened Agonist supplier the use of empirical TB treatment is premised on the hypothesis that in settings worst affected by the TB-HIV epidemic, a subset of HIV-infected patients have such a high risk of undiagnosed TB and of associated mortality that their prognosis may be improved by immediate initiation of empirical TB treatment used in conjunction with antiretroviral therapy. In addition to morbidity and mortality reduction, additional benefits may include prevention of nosocomial TB transmission and TB preventive effect. Potential adverse consequences, however, may include failure to consider other non-TB

diagnoses, drug co-toxicity, compromised treatment adherence, and logistical and resource challenges. There may also be general reluctance among national TB programmes to endorse such a strategy. Following fruitful debate, the conclusion that this strategy

should be carefully evaluated in randomised controlled trials was strongly supported. This paper provides an in-depth consideration of this proposed intervention.”
“Objective. Male stress incontinence is mainly caused by sphincter lesions, representing the majority of incontinent patients after retropubic radical prostatectomy (RRP). Reflecting GSK126 chemical structure the sphincter activity, the urethral pressure profile (UPP) was used to evaluate 65 consecutive patients 6 months after retropubic RRP to identify patients with persistent sphincteric incontinence. Material and methods. According to the history of continence, patients were divided into a continent group and three incontinent subgroups. Six months postoperatively, spontaneous flow and two cystometries were performed with a filling rate of 60 ml/min, immediately followed by pressure flow and two UPPs, flow rate 1 ml with a pulling rate of 2 mm/s, focusing on functional length (FL) and maximal urethral closure pressure (MUCP). At 6 and 12 months’ follow-up, questionnaires were filled in concerning the present state of continence. Results. After RRP, two-thirds were continent after 6 months, whereas one-third still suffered from incontinence. MUCP and FL in the stress incontinent group had decreased significantly compared with the continent group (66.226.