ABSTRACT
The objective of this study was to assess the importance of strain and sex and their interaction effect on broiler chickens performance and susceptibility to ascites. Chicks from three strains [Ross 308, Cobb 500 and Arian, labeled as A, B and C respectively] were obtained from the same age breeder and sexed when one-day-old. Each crosses' sex was assigned to four pens of 60 broilers each. Body weight gain [BWG] feed intake, feed conversion ratio [FCR] and ascites mortality were determined. At the age of 28 and 49 d haematocrit values, arterial pressure index [API = right ventricular/total ventricular weight ratio] the values of plasma thyroid hormone concentration [thyroxin, T4 and triiodothyronine, T3] and metabolic lung weight [lung weight/body weight [0.75]] were determined. Strain B had the highest BWG but an equal incidence of ascites as strain A, which had low BWG and ascites mortality. Ascites mortality was not correlated with BWG and FCR. A significant strain interaction by sex on feed conversion [P<0.01] and final weight [P<0.05] was found. The sex effect was significant only in strain C on feed conversion and final weight. Strains B and C had lower thyroid hormones and reduced metabolic lung weights compared with strain A. The sex effect was not significant on the parameters associated with ascites syndrome and its incidence
ABSTRACT
To determine a cut-off point of tPSA and PSAD to prevent unnecessary invasive cancer-diagnosing tests in the community. This study was performed on 688 consecutive patients referred to our center due to prostatism, suspicious lesions on digital rectal examination and/or elevated serum PSA levels. All patients underwent transrectal ultrasound guided biopsies and obtained PSAD. Serum levels of tPSA and fPSA were measured by chemiluminescence. Comparisons were done using tests of accuracy [AUC-ROC]. Prostate cancer was detected in 334 patients, whereas the other 354 patients were suffering from benign prostate diseases. The mean tPSA in case and control groups were 28.32 +/- 63.62 ng/ml and 7.14 +/- 10.04 ng/ml; the mean f/tPSA ratios were 0.13 +/- 0.21 and 0.26 +/- 0.24 in PCa and benign prostate disease groups; the mean PSAD rates were 0.69 +/- 2.24, 0.12 +/- 0.11, respectively. Statistically significant differences were found [P<0.05]. Using ROC curve analysis, it was revealed that AUC was 0.78 for tPSA and 0.80 for f/tPSA. Sensitivity was 71% for the cut-off value of 7.85ng/ml. For f/tPSA ratio, the optimal cut-off value was 0.13 which produced the sensitivity of 81.4% and for PSAD, it was15%. As this trial is different from the European and American values, we should be more cautious in dealing with the prostate cancer upon the obtained sensitivity and specificity for PCa diagnosis [7.85ng/mL fortPSA, 15% for PSAD and 0.13 for f/tPSA ratio]