Urology Flashcards
Abdominal pain with blood and leucocytes on dipstick?
look for renal stones
Define recurrent urinary tract infections?
- Defined as two proven episodes within six months or three within a year
Approach in clinic when patient with recurrent urinary tract infections?
- Ask about risk factors for UTI
- Check for haematuria
- Check no systemic symptoms
- Physical examination – general exam to rule out systemic conditions, abdominal exam to check for any palpable masses or palpable bladder, pelvic exam to look for atrophic vaginitis, vaginal prolapse and cystocele
- Urine dipstick for leucocytes, nitrites and haematuria
- Should do an ultrasound of the urinary tract to check no abnormalities
- Flexible cystoscopy should be done to check for stenosis, bladder stones and tumours
Management of patient with recurrent urinary tract infections?
- If underlying cause obviously treat this
- Post-menopausal women to try vaginal oestrogens first
- Then long term, low dose, prophylactic antibiotics
- 4 antibiotics that are used are trimethoprim, nitrofurantoin, amoxicillin and cefalexin, these are used one at a time for 3 months and you rotate every 3 months to stop resistance
4 antibiotics that can be used for prophylaxis of recurrent urinary tract infections?
trimethoprim, nitrofurantoin, amoxicillin, cefalexin
Pathology of bladder cancer?
90% are transitional cell carcinoma, 9% squamous, 1% everything else
technically transitional cell can occur anywhere in the tract but bladder most common
Risk factors for bladder cancer?
- Risk increases with age
- Strong association with cigarette smoking
- Exposure to industrial carcinogens e.g. beta-naphthylamine and benzidine
- Exposure to certain drugs e.g. cyclophosphamide (used in some cancer and auto-immune disease treatment)
- Squamous cell carcinomas arise from metaplastic change due to chronic inflammation e.g. recurrent UTIs and renal stones or schistosomiasis
- In areas where schistosomiasis is endemic there is high incidence of squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder because the parasites lay eggs in the bladder causing inflammation
Presentation of bladder cancer?
- Most common presentation is painless haematuria
- Pain however can occur however if clot retention
- Symptoms may be suggestive of a UTI i.e. urinary frequency, dysuria, nocturia but significant bacteruria is absent
- Presenting symptoms may be pain from local nerve involvement or metastases
- Flank pain if lesion causes ureteric obstruction
Investigations for bladder cancer?
- Urine cytology for malignant cells
- Cystoscopy (camera lens into urethra)
- Urinary tumour markers
- CT or MRI of pelvis
- Excretory urography
Management of bladder cancer?
Depends on staging and grading:
- In superficial disease - transurethral resection or local diathermy
- If muscle invaded – radical cystectomy or radiotherapy, may do chemo
- In metastatic disease – chemo
- If reason to preserve bladder but invaded muscle – can do systemic chemo and then resection of tumour
What is multiple myeloma?
- Malignant disease of bone marrow plasma cells
- The cancer isn’t circulating but in the bone marrow (not sure it’s true but it’s helpful for me to think that there is this abnormal signal coming from somewhere causing all the bone marrow to become abnormally full of these monoclonal cells)
- There is clonal expansion of abnormal, proliferating plasma cells producing a monoclonal paraprotein mainly IgG (55%) or IgA (20%)
- Note: it’s called multiple myeloma because very occasionally you can get a solitary plasma cell tumour
Who tends to get multiple myeloma?
- Disease of the elderly – median age at presentation is over 60, it is rare in under 40s
- More common in males
- More common in Black Africans but less common in Asians
Clinical features of multiple myeloma? Direct tumour cells effects and paraprotein mediated effects?
Direct Tumour Cell Effects
- Bone lesions (lytic)
- Hypercalcaemia
- Bone pain
- Replacement of normal marrow causing marrow failure
Paraprotein Mediated Effects:
- Renal failure
- Immunosuppression (reduction in normal antibodies)
- Hyperviscosity (due to increase in the amount of protein in the serum)
- Amyloid
Explain lytic bone disease in myeloma?
- This involves a vicious cycle
- Malignant plasma cells produce cytokines that interact with osteoblasts and osteoclasts
- These cytokines cause an upregulation of osteoclasts but a down regulation of osteoblasts (so more bone is being destroyed but there are less osteoblasts to rebuild it)
- Activated osteoclasts in turn produce other cytokines that in turn encourage myeloma cells to divide and multiply
- Cause bone pain and commonly backache due to vertebral involvement
- Can get spinal cord compression if lesions cause compression fractures
- Skull XR may show many punched out lesions, sometimes referred to as pepper pot skull
Explain hypercalcaemia in multiple myeloma and symptoms?
Bone destruction causes hypercalcaemia
Symptoms:
- Bones > pain, osteoporosis and pathological fractures
- Stones > renal colic from stones, polydipsia, polyuria
- Abdominal groans > abdominal pain
- Psychiatric moans > chronic hypercalcaemia can cause depression but acute hypercalcaemia can cause confusion
Explain what happens in myeloma kidney?
- Light chain cast nephropathy – due to low molecular weight, light chains can pass through glomerular filtrate and cause damage to the epithelial cells as the protein precipitates as casts
- Hypercalcaemia can also damage the kidneys
Hypercalcaemia, back pain and AKI?
multiple myeloma
Investigations for myeloma?
- FBC – Hb, WBC and platelet count are normal or low
- ESR is often high
- U and E – evidence of kidney injury
- Serum calcium may be raised
- Serum electrophoresis and immunofixation
- Skeletal survey showing lytic lesions
- Check urine for Bence Jones protein (light chains)
- Rouleaux formation can be seen on blood film this is when there are stacks or aggregations of RBCs that form (although rouleaux formation can also be seen in other conditions)
Management of myeloma?
- Myeloma is incurable and relapses are inevitable, survival is now 5-10 years for younger patients
Combination chemotherapy is the mainstay:
- Corticosteroids – dexamethasone
- Alkylating agents – cyclophosphamide, melphalan
- Novel agents – thalidomide, bortezomib and lenalidomide
- Monoclonal antibodies – daratumumab
- High dose chemo and autologous stem cell transplant can be done in fit patients where stem cells are taken out before chemo and put back in after chemo (so the patient isn’t at such high risk of infection and anaemia complications after chemo)
Symptom control:
- Treat kidney disease supportively
- Opiates for pain (avoid NSAIDs because they are not as good for the kidneys)
- Local radiotherapy – good for pain relief or spinal cord compression
- Bisphosphonates – correct hypercalcaemia and bone pain
- Vertebroplasty – inject sterile cement into fractured bone to stabalise it
Most LUTS in men are _____
- Most of these are going to be due to benign prostatic hyperplasia, storage symptoms by themselves are generally not caused by BPH, but if part of a mixed picture will be
- Storage symptoms by themselves more likely to be overactive bladder, carcinoma, stones or UTI so needs investigation
LUTS initial history?
- Establish if symptoms are mainly voiding symptoms, storage symptoms or mixed
- Voiding symptoms (outflow obstruction) and storage symptoms (frequency and urgency)
- Voiding symptoms involve poor flow, intermittent stream, hesitancy and post void dribbling
- Storage symptoms involve frequency, urgency, nocturia and incontinence
- Rule out red flags: visible haematuria, sudden onset LUTS in absence of UTI, persistent dipstick haematuria, abnormal DRE, suspected retention of urine, non resolving storage symptoms
Investigations for LUTS?
- Urine dipstick
- Renal function tests
- PSA
- Post void bladder scan to check for retention
- IPSS questionnaire
Management of voiding or mixed symptoms?
- If mild symptoms simply give lifestyle advice (this should be given to everyone)
- If moderate also try an alpha blocker e.g. tamsulosin (alpha blocker relaxes prostate and bladder smooth muscle) , review in 6 weeks if not settled add finasteride (reduces size of prostate)
- If severe symptoms may consider surgery
- In those with severe symptoms from the beginning e.g. long term chronic high pressure retention then may need to go straight to surgical intervention, if this is not suitable long term or intermittent self catheterisation
Management of storage symptoms?
- Anticholinergics – however need to rule out chronic retention in these people
Describe prostate cancer?
- Most common malignancy affecting men in the UK
- There is a long natural history with an indolent course, many patients die with their cancer not of it
- The majority of cancers are multifocal adenocarcinomas
Risk factors for prostate cancer?
- Increasing age (by 80, 80% of men have malignant foci)
- Family history
- Hormonal factors
- Race: Common in the black population in the USA but rare in China and Japan
Presentation of prostate cancer?
- Majority are asymptomatic and picked up by PSA tests or abnormal DRE findings
- The patient may have lower urinary tract symptoms similar to those of BPH e.g. nocturia, hesitancy, reduced stream, post void dribbling
- May also present with haematuria or haematospermia
- If the cancer has metastasized the patient may have bone, pain, anorexia and/ or weight loss
Describe DRE in prostate cancer?
- 75-80% of prostate cancers arise in the peripheral zone which is at the back of the prostate
- This is why DRE is helpful as it is the peripheral zone that will be felt when performing this exam
- On DRE a doctor would be looking for asymmetry, nodules or a fixed craggy (uneven) mass
Describe sensitivity and specificity of PSA testing?
- Sensitivity of PSA in detecting prostate cancer is very high at 90% (the test correctly identifies those with prostate cancer)
- However, specificity of the test is very low at 40% (the test picks up a lot of people who don’t have prostate cancer)
What things other than prostate cancer can elevate PSA?
- There are other conditions that can elevate PSA: benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostatitis, UTIs, retention, catheterisation and having a DRE recently performed, ejaculation in last 48 hrs, vigorous exercise
Indications for trans-rectal USS guided prostate biopsy?
- Indications: men with abnormal DRE, elevated PSA, previous biopsies showing PIN (prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia) and ASAP (atypical small acinar proliferation), rising PSA trend despite previous normal biopsies
Pathology of prostate cancer?
- Most are adenocarcinomas
- The cancers can extend locally through the prostatic capsule to the urethra, bladder and seminal vesicles with perineural invasion along autonomic nerves
- The most common sites for metastatic deposits= pelvic lymph nodes and skeleton (sclerotic lesions)
- Gleason system is used and has grades 2-10 and indicates degree of differentiation from grade 2 which is well differentiation to grade 10 which is an aggressive cancer with poor prognosis
Prostate cancer management organ confined disease?
- Watchful waiting – conservative approach, when tumour progresses can do palliative care
- Active surveillance – close surveillance until at thresholds, designed to be curative
- Radical surgery – radical prostatectomy, this would hopefully be curative however there is the risk of complications such as erectile dysfunction, incontinence and bladder neck stenosis
- Radical radiotherapy – this can also be curative but come with the side effects of radiotherapy
Prostate cancer management locally advanced disease?
- Radiotherapy with neo adjuvant hormonal therapy
- Watchful waiting – done in those with well differentiated tumours and life expectancy < 10 years or patients who do not accept the treatment related complications
- Hormonal therapy – done in symptomatic patients who need palliation of symptoms but are unfit for curative surgery
Prostate cancer management metastatic disease?
Androgen deprivation therapy: growth of prostate cancer cells is under influence of testosterone, if prostate cells are deprived of androgenic stimulation they undergo apoptosis
- Hormonal therapy with LHRH analogues or anti-androgens
- Bilateral subcapsular orchidectomy (removing the testis removes testosterone)
- Maximal androgen blockade
Hormonal therapy will come with expected side effects e.g. loss of libido, hot flushes and sweats, weight gain, gynaecomastia, osteoporosis, anaemia, cognitive changes
- Diethylstibesterol which blocks testosterone synthesis is another treatment option (this is a synthetic oestrogen so will also cause hormonal side effects)
- Cytotoxic chemotherapy can also be used
What is the most common type of testicular cancer?
germ cell tumours - seminomas or teratomas
- Seminomas arise from the germinal epithelium of the seminiferous tubules
- Teratomas arise from totipotent germ cells capable of differentiating into derivatives of ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm
Risk factors/ who gets testicular cancer?
- Largely a disease of young and middle aged men (most common malignancy in young men)
- Cryptorchidism (undescended testes)
- Previous testicular malignancy
- Family history
- Congenital abnormalities e.g. hypospadias, inguinal hernias
- Infections e.g. mumps causing orchitis
Classic presentation of a testicular cancer
- Testicular cancers usually present as a painless, insensitive testicular swelling – a hard stony mass
Investigations for a testicular cancer?
- 95% sensitivity and specificity on ultrasound
- If a patient has a hard testicular lump they should receive an ultrasound that day
- Tumour markers: AFP, HCG and LDH
Management of testicular cancer?
- Radical orchidectomy is usually performed for treatment
- Orchidectomy is usually done as first step in all testicular cancers, may then do radiotherapy, chemotherapy etc.
Where do renal stones most commonly form?
- Most commonly form in the kidneys themselves but can form in ureters, bladder or urethra
Most common type of kidney stone?
calcium oxalate stones
Why is hydration important in preventing renal stones?
low urine volume predisposes to stones
Risk factors for calcium oxalate stones?
- Risk factors include hypercalcaemia (hyperparathyroidism etc), hypercalciuria (impaired renal tubular reabsorption) and hyperoxaluria (can be genetic defect, defect in liver metabolism or high dietary intake)
Give an example of an infection which can cause stones?
proteus
UTI stones are composed of?
ammonium, magnesium and phosphate
Presentation of renal stones?
- Can be asymptomatic
- May present with pain
- May be a dull, achy flank pain or renal colic which is sharper flank pain that may radiate to the groin
- Can also present with haematuria
- UTI
- Urinary tract obstruction (difficulty urinating, hydronephrosis, pain)