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Biomedical subjects

W L Gerber

Publications and source records attributed to W L Gerber.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Vasectomy and coronary disease in men less than 50 years old: absence of association.

Because recent experiments in primates suggest a relationship between vasectomy, and the development and promotion of atherosclerosis a case control study was performed to explore this possibility in humans. The prevalence of prior vasectomy was determined in 55 men less than 50 years old with onset of documented coronary disease and in a matched control group of close relatives (45 brothers and 10 first cousins) free of coronary disease. The prevalence was the same in each group, 25.5 per cent (14 of 55), and there was no significant difference between study groups in the mean interval since vasectomy. Thus, within the limitations of this study no association of coronary disease with prior vasectomy was found. Further work is needed to evaluate whether the animal findings pertain to humans.

Coronary Disease↗

Percutaneous nephrostomy with immediate dilation.

Percutaneous nephrostomy may serve as an alternative to an open operation for urinary diversion. Difficulties with poor drainage and premature catheter dislodgement have prompted the development of a technique for dilation of the needle tract and placement of a large, self-retaining catheter at the time of the initial puncture.

Adolescent↗

Penile prostheses for the treatment of impotence.

Eighty-nine patients were treated for impotence with penile prostheses. The Small-Carrion prosthesis was used in 56 patients, the inflatable prosthesis in 27 and Pearman's prosthesis in 6 patients. The overall functional results with the Small-Carrion and inflatable prostheses were comparable.

Adult↗

Xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis masquerading as occult malignancy.

Xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis (XGP) can present with weight loss, anemia, leukemoid reaction, and generalized debility; there may be no signs or symptoms referable to the urinary tract. Confusion between XGP and renal adenocarcinoma is well recognized, but other malignancies can also be simulated. Case histories of patients with proved XGP whose clinical presentations suggested occult malignancies are recorded. Proteus urinary tract infection, calculi, and a nonvisualizing kidney on intravenous pyelogram should suggest the correct diagnosis. The pathology, bacteriology, diagnosis, and treatment are reviewed.

Adenocarcinoma↗

Human sperm motion analysis by automatic (Hamilton-Thorn Motility Analyzer) and manual (Image-80) digitization systems.

Two systems allowing quantitative, objective analysis of sperm movement were compared: 1) the Hamilton-Thorn Motility Analyzer (HTM), in which sperm images are digitized automatically, and 2) the Image-80, a modified image-analysis system in which sperm movement is digitized manually by hand tracing from videotape (Tessler and Olds-Clarke, 1985). Videotapes were made of human spermatozoa obtained by a swim-up procedure. The same videotape frames were analyzed by both systems. The mean percentage of motile spermatozoa was similar as judged by eye with either the HTM or Image-80 monitors and as reported by the HTM. For every motile spermatozoon, two motility parameters were calculated: linearity (a measure of track shape) and curvilinear velocity at 30 frames/second (a measure of track speed). When samples from five donors were averaged, there were no significant differences in mean linearity between automatic and manual systems. Also, linearity as reported by the HTM and Image-80 systems for the same track was significantly correlated (r = 0.72; N = 80). Whereas the absolute values for curvilinear velocity were slightly but significantly higher for the Image-80 system than for the HTM system, their correlation was also significant (r = 0.91). Since the two systems provide comparable data on percentage of motile sperm as well as speed and path shape parameters, this suggests that the HTM automatic digitization is accurate for images of human spermatozoa.

Adult↗