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BACKGROUND@#Due to the different treatments for low-volume metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) as well as high-volume ones, evaluation of bone metastatic status is clinically significant. In this study, we evaluated the correlation between pre-treatment plasma fibrinogen and the burden of bone metastasis in newly diagnosed PCa patients.@*METHODS@#A single-center retrospective analysis, focusing on prostate biopsies of newly diagnosed PCa patients, was performed. A total of 261 patients were enrolled in this study in a 4-year period. All subjects were submitted to single-photon emission computerized tomography-computed tomography to confirm the status of bone metastasis and, if present, the number of metastatic lesions would then be calculated. Clinical information such as age, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), fibrinogen, clinical T stage, and Gleason score were collected. Patients were divided into three groups: (i) a non-metastatic group, (ii) a high volume disease (HVD) group (>3 metastases with at least one lesion outside the spine), and (iii) a low volume disease (LVD) group (metastatic patients excluding HVD ones). The main statistical methods included non-parametric Mann-Whitney test, Spearman correlation, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and logistic regression.@*RESULTS@#Fibrinogen positively correlated with Gleason score (r = 0.180, P = 0.003), PSA levels (r = 0.216, P 7 (86.8%). Both univariate (odds ratio [OR] = 2.16, 95% confidential interval [CI]: 1.536-3.038, P < 0.001) and multivariate (OR = 1.726, 95% CI: 1.206-2.472, P = 0.003) logistic regressions showed that fibrinogen was independently associated with HVD. The ROC curve suggested that fibrinogen acts as a predictor of HVD patients, yielding a cut-off of 3.08 g/L, with a sensitivity of 0.684 and a specificity of 0.760 (area under the curve = 0.739, 95% CI: 0.644-0.833, P < 0.001).@*CONCLUSIONS@#Pre-treatment plasma fibrinogen is positively associated with bone metastatic burden in PCa patients. Our results indicate that fibrinogen might be a potential predictor of HVD.
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Background@#Due to the different treatments for low-volume metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) as well as high-volume ones, evaluation of bone metastatic status is clinically significant. In this study, we evaluated the correlation between pre-treatment plasma fibrinogen and the burden of bone metastasis in newly diagnosed PCa patients.@*Methods@#A single-center retrospective analysis, focusing on prostate biopsies of newly diagnosed PCa patients, was performed. A total of 261 patients were enrolled in this study in a 4-year period. All subjects were submitted to single-photon emission computerized tomography-computed tomography to confirm the status of bone metastasis and, if present, the number of metastatic lesions would then be calculated. Clinical information such as age, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), fibrinogen, clinical T stage, and Gleason score were collected. Patients were divided into three groups: (i) a non-metastatic group, (ii) a high volume disease (HVD) group (>3 metastases with at least one lesion outside the spine), and (iii) a low volume disease (LVD) group (metastatic patients excluding HVD ones). The main statistical methods included non-parametric Mann-Whitney test, Spearman correlation, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and logistic regression.@*Results@#Fibrinogen positively correlated with Gleason score (r = 0.180, P = 0.003), PSA levels (r = 0.216, P < 0.001), and number of metastatic lesions (r = 0.296, P < 0.001). Compared with the non-metastatic and LVD groups, the HVD group showed the highest PSA (104.98 ng/mL, median) and fibrinogen levels (3.39 g/L, median), as well as the largest proportion of Gleason score >7 (86.8%). Both univariate (odds ratio [OR] = 2.16, 95% confidential interval [CI]: 1.536-3.038, P < 0.001) and multivariate (OR = 1.726, 95% CI: 1.206-2.472, P = 0.003) logistic regressions showed that fibrinogen was independently associated with HVD. The ROC curve suggested that fibrinogen acts as a predictor of HVD patients, yielding a cut-off of 3.08 g/L, with a sensitivity of 0.684 and a specificity of 0.760 (area under the curve = 0.739, 95% CI: 0.644-0.833, P < 0.001).@*Conclusions@#Pre-treatment plasma fibrinogen is positively associated with bone metastatic burden in PCa patients. Our results indicate that fibrinogen might be a potential predictor of HVD.
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<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the influence of varicocele on the volume discrepancy of bilateral testes, and the relationship between testicular volume discrepancy and semen parameters.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>This study included 181 varicocele patients and 102 normal fertile men without varicocele. We retrospectively analyzed their clinical data, including the grades and locations of varicocele, testis volume and semen parameters.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Bilateral testicular volume discrepancy was found in 132 (72.9%) of the varicocele patients (including 117 cases of left testicular hypotrophy [88.6%]), and 35 (34.3%) of the non-varicocele fertile men. The rates of bilateral testicular volume discrepancy were 61.3%, 3.5%, 20.9% and 14.3% in the grade-III, grade-II, grade-I and non-varicocele groups, respectively (P < 0.05), with statistically significant differences among different age groups (P < 0.05). The percentage of morphologically normal sperm and sperm motility were reduced differently with different degrees of testicular volume discrepancy (P <0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Testicular volume discrepancy is more common in men with left varicocele, and its prevalence and degree are correlated with the grade of varicocele. Semen quality decreases with the increase of testicular volume discrepancy.</p>