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Benign prostatic hyperplasia, in which the prostate gland becomes enlarged, is a major cause of lower urinary tract symptoms in ageing men. This PrimeView highlights the available treatment options for this condition.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia, which causes lower urinary tract symptoms, is a common diagnosis among ageing men that is associated with many risks factors, including metabolic syndrome. In this Primer, these risk factors are described, as well diagnostic work-up and treatment options.
10–20% of adults will develop gallstones in their lifetime, and >20% of those will develop symptoms or complications. This PrimeView focuses on the most common risk factors, which include genetics, ethnicity, sex, age, drugs, parasites, overnutrition and pregnancy.
Gallstones are masses in the gallbladder or biliary tract. This Primer by Lammert et al. focuses on the formation of gallstones, summarizes the current principles of treatment of the stones and their potential complications and envisions future approaches for this widespread disease.
This PrimeView highlights the interplay between genetic mutations, signalling pathway aberrations, microenvironmental disturbances and metabolic reprogramming that underlie the development of pancreatic cancer.
In 2015, an estimated 367,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer were diagnosed worldwide; this disease is aggressive and patients face a dismal overall prognosis. In this Primer, the current understanding of pathophysiological, molecular, translational and clinical aspects of pancreatic cancer are described.
Common risk factors for developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) include cirrhosis, excessive alcohol consumption and viral hepatitis. This PrimeView highlights the management of HCC, for which there is only one systemic therapy and front-line treatment remains liver transplantation.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common form of primary liver cancer and has well-known risk factors, including cirrhosis and viral hepatitis. Here, Llovet and colleagues discuss the challenges and recent advances in HCC molecular characterization, diagnosis and management.
Clostridium difficile infection is an increasingly common infective healthcare-associated diarrhoea. This PrimeView highlights how the bacterium causes disease, which typically emerges after antibiotic-mediated dysbiosis of the gut.
This Primer describes the mechanisms underlying the serious effects of Clostridium difficile infection, which is the leading cause of health-care-associated infective diarrhoea. Strategies for diagnosis, prevention and management are also described, illustrating the burden that C. difficile infection places on patients and society.
Atrial fibrillation results from the disorganized propagation of electrical impulses in the heart. The subsequent ineffective pumping of blood increases the risk of coagulation and thrombosis, and stroke prevention is therefore the most important management priority for these patients.
Atrial fibrillation occurs when cardiac electrical impulses become disordered, leading to a rapid and irregular heartbeat. Lip and colleagues discuss the mechanisms that underlie this common arrhythmia and outline current strategies and potential future developments for its diagnosis and management.
Irritable bowel syndrome is a gastrointestinal disorder that can be mild in some patients, but debilitating in others. This PrimeView focuses on the complex aetiology and current understanding of the molecular pathophysiology, involving intestinal permeability, microbiota, inflammation and visceral sensitivity, among other factors.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disease with a high prevalence. Enck et al. describe the association between IBS and other gastrointestinal, somatic and psychiatric conditions, as well as the current view on the pathophysiology, and diagnostic and management options.
One-third of people with diabetes develop diabetic retinopathy (DR). This PrimeView focuses on the pathophysiology of the different stages of DR, ranging from mild to severe non-proliferative DR and proliferative DR, with or without diabetic macular oedema.
Diabetic retinopathy is a common microvascular complication of diabetes and is a major cause of vision loss in middle-aged and elderly people. In this Primer, Wong et al. discuss the epidemiology, underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, classification and diagnosis and treatment options of this condition.
Acute myeloid leukaemia is a malignant disorder that leads to an expansion of immature myeloid precursors at the expense of their differentiated counterparts. This PrimeView highlights how the disease can occur at all ages, but predominantly affects the elderly (>60 years of age).
