Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical (STM) information, has announced that 45 French-language medical journals from Elsevier Masson will be available on ScienceDirect beginning January 3, 2008.The titles, including Feuillets de Radiologie, Journal de Chirurgie and La Press Médicale, represent a wide range of high-quality journals and complement the 27 Éditions Scientifique et Médicales Elsevier (ESME) titles already hosted on the platform. [click link for full article]

A new sedative drug has been shown to improve the sleep quality and comfort levels of intensive care patients, compared to the most commonly-used medication, according to research published in the journal JAMA. [click link for full article]

A study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers may have found a key mechanism underlying idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a usually fatal lung disease for which transplantation is the only successful treatment. The investigators found that a specific molecular pathway appears responsible for key aspects of the scarring of lung tissue that characterizes IPF, the cause of which is currently unknown. [click link for full article]

Investigators at the University of Rochester Medical Center have uncovered a promising drug therapy that offers a ray of hope for children with Batten disease - a rare neurodegenerative disease that strikes seemingly healthy kids, progressively robs them of their abilities to see, reason and move, and ultimately kills them in their young twenties. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com- This article published in International Journal of Cancer identifies the high-risk occupations for the development of bladder cancer in New Zealand workers. Using a case-control format 213 incident cases of bladder cancer (age 25-70 years) notified to the New Zealand Cancer Registry during 2003 and 2004. 471 population controls were interviewed face-to-face. The questionnaire collected demographic information and a full occupational history. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com- This article published in the journal Cancer, details the complete response rate, disease-specific, and overall survival of patients with cT2-cT4 transitional cell carcinoma to combined transurethral tumor resection, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com- The dilemma of treating the distal ureteral cuff during laparoscopic nephroureterectomy continues. In this article, 12 patients undergoing laparoscopic nephroureterectomy with stapling of the distal cuff of bladder were compared to 12 patients undergoing open nephroureterectomy; of importance, all patients had only a primary upper tract renal transitional cell cancer and no history of lower tract transitional cell cancer. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com - Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been available for many years and exert their anti-inflammatory effects primarily through inhibition of the cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com- Proper assessment of post traumatic posterior urethral distraction defects is crucial for the selection of the correct surgical procedure and to aid in the ease of operative repair. Factors which affect the complexity of the procedure are length of urethral defect, degree of prostatic displacement, extent of scar tissue, and the presence of paraurethral bladder base fistula or false passage. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com- The creation of a neophallus has been a difficult reconstructive challenge and the search for the perfect donor site and surgical procedure continues. Recently, Sava Perovic and colleagues from Belgrade Serbia, describe their experience with total phalloplasty using a musculocutaneous latissimus dorsi flap (MLD). The manuscript is published in the October 2007 issue of BJU International. [click link for full article]