ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the clinical value of resistance index(RI)of prostatic capsular artery in predicting or screening of prostate cancer(PCa)by comparing prostatic capsular artery RI with the serum total prostatic specific antigen(TPSA),fPSA/tPSA ratio and prostatic specific antigen dernsity(PSAD).Methods RI of prostate capsular artery,serum TPSA,of fPSA/tPSA ratio and PSAD were measured with colour Doppler ultrasonography in this subset of 203 patients who had undergone transrectal ultrasound guided prostate puncture biopsy.The patients were divided into two groups [PCa and benign prostatic hyperplasia(BPH)group] for comparative study.Results Of them,the level of TPSA were between 4 and 10 ng/ml(grey area)in 34 cases,accounts for 16.75%of the total subjects.All the others were outside the grey area.ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve(AUC)of RI of the capsular artery was 0.77,which was close to 0.84 and 0.86 of TPSA and PSAD.It indicated a similar value in predicting or screening PCa; while the AUC of fPSA/tPSA ratio was only 0.49,which had little clinical value.The fPSA/tPSA ratio and the mean value of PSAD in the grey area had significant differences(t=2.78,3.94,P＜0.02)between the two groups.However,the fPSA/tPSA ratio had no statistical significance in the high value area outside the grey area(t=0.873,P ＞ 0.05).And the mean value of RI of prostatic capsular artery had significant differences between the two groups both in the grey area and in the high value area outside the grey area(t=4.56,5.10,P ＜ 0.001).Conclusions RI of prostatic capsular artery can be steadily used to predict or screen PCa.It is not affected by the gray area of TPSA and is of great value in clinical practice.
ABSTRACT
This paper reports a study regarding the verity of the hypocholestero-lemic effect of konjac-polysaccharide. The konnyaku powder (KP) used in this study was prepared and refined from the tubers of Amorphophallus ko-njac K. Koch and contained 84.8% of glucomannan. Male and female Spra-ue-Dawley rats aged 5 weeks were divided into 5 groups and fed on normal basal diet, hypercholesterolemic diet (control diet) and 3 test diets (i.e. KP was added to the control diet at a dosage of 2.5%, 5% or 10%) respe- ctively, for 12 weeks.The results obtained from this study showed that KP could markedly lower the level of the cholesterol in sera and livers of rats feeding hyper-cholesterolemic diets. At the end of the 4th week of the feeding experiment, the serum cholesterol level of the 5% and the 10% KP groups, and the liver cholesterol level of the 10% KP group were shown to be significantly lower than those of the control group. At the end of the 12th week, serum cholesterol levels of all the 3 KP groups were found to be lowered to the level of the normal group and so did the liver cholesterol level of the 10% KP group. The lipotropic (anticholesteatosis) effect of KP was also confirmed by the hepatic histopathological examination. Besides the hypocholest-eroletmic eftect, KP diets can also increase the bulk of stool. Finally, there were not any harmful effects on the absorption and utilization of Ca, Fe, Zn and Cu being found.