OB GYN News articles from March 2001

OB GYN News archives from March 2001

Urologists, Gyns. Vie for Pelvic Turf.
March 1, 2001... The proposed joint urology-gynecology subspecialty of pelvic floor medicine and reconstructive surgery continues to expand despite concerns by some ob.gyns. that this is but one example of urologists trying to take more business from their...

FDA Panel Backs Endometrial Ablation Device.
March 1, 2001... Final approval depends on lowering of cryotherapy unit's high malfunction rate. GAITHERSBURG, MD. -- A Food and Drug Administration expert panel has recommended that an endometrial ablation device that uses cryotherapy to destroy tissue be...

Prolonged Resolution of Dystocia Is Well Tolerated.
March 1, 2001... Moderate delays not tied to fetal acidemia. HOT SPRINGS, VA. -- A moderate delay in childbirth for the sake of resolving shoulder dystocia is not associated with clinically significant increases in umbilical artery acidemia, Dr. Shawn P....

Gonorrhea Rates on the Rise After Declining for 2 Decades.
March 1, 2001... MILWAUKEE -- The rate of gonorrhea in the United States increased 9% between 1997 and 1999 after 20 years of steady decline, according to a new report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were 119 gonorrhea cases...

Know Your Bottom Line.
March 1, 2001... Young physicians about to enter practice tend to go to work for established organizations so they will not have to learn the details of running a private practice. Many of them think that working for someone else means they don't have to be...

LETTERS.
March 1, 2001... Changing the Rules As a rural practitioner, I would like to throw in my 2 cents worth on the discussion of cesarean sections ("Elective C-Sections Stir Up Controversy," October 2000, p. 1). Having finished residency in 1977, I...

Evening Primrose Oil a Mixed Bag for Mastalgia.
March 1, 2001... CHICAGO -- Evening primrose oil has shown some benefit for women whose most prominent symptom of premenstrual syndrome is mastalgia. Chaste tree berry extract may help women whose periods are irregular or too frequent, Dr. Victoria E. Rand said...

Epilepsy Raises Risk for Premature Ovarian Failure.
March 1, 2001... Los ANGELES -- Results from the first study of its kind suggest that women with localization-related epilepsy have an increased risk for developing premature ovarian failure, according to Dr. Adriana Serje. This finding should be considered...

One Puncture Of Ovaries as Effective as 10.
March 1, 2001... ORLANDO, FLA. -- The fewer ovarian punctures the better when it comes to ovarian drilling for infertility in women who fail to respond to medical ovulation induction. That was the conclusion of a study presented by Dr. Osama Shawki at the...

MRI, Ultrasound Spot Ca in Those at High Risk.
March 1, 2001... CHICAGO -- Women who are at high risk for developing breast cancer can benefit from undergoing regular magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound of their breasts in addition to mammography. At the annual meeting of the Radiological Society...

Goserelin a Good Alternative to Chemotherapy.
March 1, 2001... SAN ANTONIO -- Goserelin is an attractive alternative to adjunctive chemotherapy in many women with early breast cancer, Dr. Walter Jonat said at a breast cancer symposium sponsored by the San Antonio Cancer Institute. Monotherapy with the...

Tamoxifen Cuts Risk of Contralateral Breast Cancer.
March 1, 2001... Tamoxifen treatment for up to 4 years appeared to cut the risk of contralateral breast cancer in women with a mutation in their BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes and a history of the disease, a recent study suggests. The study, a retrospective,...

Skepticism Mounts Over Embolization Procedure.
March 1, 2001... KAMUELA, HAWAII -- Aggressive pain management is key to making uterine artery embolization an outpatient procedure, Dr. Martin L. Schwartz said at the annual meeting of the Pacific Coast Obstetrical and Gynecological Society He reported on...

Outpatient Laparoscopic Hysterectomy Called Safe, Effective.
March 1, 2001... ORLANDO, FLA. -- The benefits of laparoscopic hysterectomy in an outpatient setting were lauded in several presentations at the annual meeting of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists. In one study, outpatient laparoscopic...

Ipriflavone May Prevent Postmenopausal Bone Loss.
March 1, 2001... CHICAGO -- Ipriflavone, a synthetic isoflavone, can prevent postmenopausal bone loss and may be particularly beneficial in combination with hormone replacement therapy, Dr. Eric J. Bieber said at a conference on alternative and complementary...

Normal Ultrasound Tied to Lower Aneuploidy Risk.
March 1, 2001... CHICAGO -- Normal ultrasound findings in fetuses considered to be at high risk for chromosomal abnormalities are associated with a two- to threefold decrease in aneuploidy risk. But the presence of any major abnormality on ultrasound or...

Fetal Abdominal Circumference And Macrosomia.
March 1, 2001... A fetal abdominal circumference measuring at least 38 cm is associated with a 37% chance of having a baby who will weigh at least 4,500 g, said Dr. Jennifer R. Gilby and her colleagues at the University of South Florida, Tampa. Though...

Multiple Courses of Steroids Can Produce Cognitive Delays.
March 1, 2001... BEAVER CREEK, COLO. -- The University of Utah's experience appears to confirm that multiple courses of steroids given prenatally to hasten fetal lung development in cases of threatened early labor do affect fetal brain development. In a...

Folic Acid Antagonists Raise the Risk of a Variety of Birth Defects.
March 1, 2001... Medications that are folic acid antagonists raise the risk not only of neural tube defects but also of cardiovascular, urinary tract, and orofacial defects, according to Dr. Sonia Hernandez-Diaz of Boston University and her associates. One...

Limitations of Pregnancy Risk Categories.
March 1, 2001... Clinicians are frequently caught between a teratologic rock and a clinical hard place when it comes to the use of psychiatric medications during pregnancy Unfortunately the Food and Drug Administration's current classification system, which...

Test for Thrombophilia in Cases of Late Fetal Loss.
March 1, 2001... BEAVER CREEK, COLO. -- Only a small percentage of obstetric situations calls for testing a patient for a heritable thrombophilia, Dr. Robert M. Silver said at a perinatal conference sponsored by the University of California, Irvine. One of...

PROM Mortality Rates Drop Over Last 10 Years.
March 1, 2001... BEAVER CREEK, COLO. -- Perinatal mortality in infants born following premature rupture of the membranes before 28 weeks' gestation has declined significantly over the past decade, from a rate of 41% in the early 1990s to 19% between 1998 and...

Monitor, Adjust Neuroleptic Use During Pregnancy.
March 1, 2001... TORONTO -- Pharmacologic treatment of schizophrenia must be adjusted during and immediately following pregnancy Dr. Mary Seeman said at a conference on schizophrenia sponsored by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Pregnancy among...

Repeat Elective Cesarean Favored Over VBAC for Obese Patients.
March 1, 2001... HOT SPRINGS, VA. -- Maternal outcomes are better when obese women undergo elective repeat cesarean section instead of a trial of labor, results of a retrospective study suggest. The odds of having a failed trial of labor--and the risks...

Transvaginal Ultrasound Safest for Mother, Fetus.
March 1, 2001... MARINA DEL REY, CALIF. -- In emergency obstetric situations threatening both the mother and fetus in the third trimester, transvaginal sonography is the best method to evaluate the placenta, the cervix, and their relationship to each other, Dr....

Advanced Cervical Change: Cerclage Beats Bed Rest.
March 1, 2001... KAMUELA, HAWAII -- Patients who received cerclage for advanced cervical effacement and/or dilation delivered their babies nearly 5 weeks closer to term than those treated with bed rest in an historical cohort analysis at Oregon Health Sciences...

Cases of Perinatal HIV Transmission Down 10-Fold Since 1994.
March 1, 2001... CHICAGO -- Perinatal HIV transmission has decreased 10-fold in the United States since 1994, Dr. Lynne M. Mofenson reported at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The number of HIV-infected infants has dropped from...

No Difference in Morbidity in Twins Born at 37, 38 Weeks.
March 1, 2001... BEAVER CREEK, COLO. -- Twins delivered at 37 weeks' gestation fare as well as those delivered at 38 weeks, according to a study of 173 sets of twins. Delivery sometime between 37 and 38 weeks appears optimal with twin gestations, Dr. David...

Outcomes of Pregnancies Resulting From ssisted Reproductive Technology ycles, 1998 [*].
March 1, 2001... Outcomes of Pregnancies Resulting From Assisted Reproductive Technology Cycles, 1998 [*] Singleton births 50.9% Multiple-infant births 30.9% Miscarriages 16.1% Induced abortions 1.6%...

Wine May Cut Colon Ca Risk.
March 1, 2001... Wine drinkers have significantly less cola-rectal pathology than either those who drink beer or liquor or those who do not drink at all, Catherine R. Messina, Ph.D., reported at the annual meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in...

Healing Heartburn.
March 1, 2001... Proton pump inhibitors excel over hista[mine.sub.2]-receptor blockers when it comes to rapid and long-lasting symptomatic relief of gastroesophageal reflux disease. The findings of a major new metaanalysis, sponsored by Abbott...

Coronary Fatalities in Diabetics.
March 1, 2001... Diabetic women without known coronary disease are at the same high risk for a fatal coronary event as are nondiabetic women who have had a prior MI, Dr. Elizabeth L. Barrett-Conner reported at the annual scientific sessions of the American...

Extra Fiber Lowers Glucose.
March 1, 2001... Double the recommended fiber intake, and you'll lower daily plasma glucose levels by 10% in patients with type 2 diabetes, reported Dr. Manisha Chandalia of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, and associates. The...

Makeup and Eyelid Dermatitis.
March 1, 2001... Cosmetic choices can cure a woman's recurrent eyelid dermatitis, Dr. Zoe Draelos said at a meeting on cosmetic dermatology sponsored by the Skin Disease Education Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz. The least-irritating eye-shadow colors are...

Tx for Relapsing Dermatitis.
March 1, 2001... Intermittent application of topical fluticasone significantly reduced the risk of relapse in moderate to severe atopic dermatitis in a study presented at the ninth Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology in Geneva. ...

Doctor-Patient E-Mail Raises New Liability Issues.
March 1, 2001... DALLAS -- Think twice before clicking the "send" button when replying to an email from a patient, Todd Dicus warned at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Incomplete or incomprehensible e-mail messages can have...

Size Up Difficult Patients and Manage Accordingly.
March 1, 2001... BEAVER CREEK, COLO. -- Physicians will be better able to deal with difficult patients when they recognize the feelings that such patients provoke in themselves, Dr. Peter T. Watson said at a perinatal conference sponsored by the University of...

HEALTH CARE RULES POSTPONED.
March 1, 2001... Several rules that were issued in the final days of the Clinton administration are among those that will be postponed for review because of a directive from President George W. Bush. The directive postpones the effective date of rules already...

ASRM OPPOSES HUMAN CLONING.
March 1, 2001... The American Society for Reproductive Medicine hastily issued a statement following news reports of a fertility specialist who said he and a team of researchers were planning to clone a human being in an effort to help infertile couples. "ASRM...

RULE 'LACKS COMPASSION'.
March 1, 2001... President George W. Bush's denial of United States funds to overseas family planning clinics "lacks compassion and understanding," Dr. Ralph W. Hale, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, says in a statement....

PATIENT PRIVACY ISSUES.
March 1, 2001... Patients should have the right to access and add material to their own medical records and give consent for such information to be shared. Those were the recommendations of a consensus report released by the Ethical Force Program, an initiative...

MEDICARE DRUG COVERAGE.
March 1, 2001... Medicare could save $1.6 billion per year if the program reimbursed for the 24 drugs it paid the most for in 1999 at the amount that the Department of Veterans Affairs pays for them, an Office of the Inspector General's report says. The OIG...

Don't Ignore Colleagues' Psychiatric Disorders.
March 1, 2001... PHILADELPHIA -- Colleagues of physicians often ignore signs of psychiatric disorders among their peers if the behavior is not disruptive to their practice, Daniel P. Chapman, Ph.D., said in a poster presentation at the American Psychiatric...

Nuchal Fold Test Flags Fetal Defects.
March 15, 2001... RENO, NEV. -- First-trimester nuchal translucency measurement proved to be a "reasonably sensitive" means of identifying aneuploidy in high-risk patients in a metaanalysis presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal...

Estrogen Did Not Reduce Strokes in Women at Risk.
March 15, 2001... It may have boosted the early risk of stroke and aggravated nonfatal strokes. FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. -- Estrogen replacement therapy did not cut the incidence of strokes in postmenopausal women with a history of cerebrovascular disease. ...

High-Dose Magnesium Raises Hemorrhage Risk.
March 15, 2001... Use of 'very low doses' advocated. RENO, NEV. -- Increased maternal magnesium levels were associated with neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage among 90 women whose pregnancies were complicated by preterm labor. Magnesium is the most...

States With Highest and Lowest Chlamydia Rates, 1999.
March 15, 2001... DATA WATCH States With Highest and Lowest Chlamydia Rates, 1999 Rate per 100,000 Population Highest South Carolina 482.3...

No Axillary Disease Recurrences After Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy.
March 15, 2001... SAN ANTONIO -- Intermediate-term follow-up of breast cancer patients managed via sentinel lymph node biopsy showed an encouraging absence of axillary disease recurrences in a large patient series. This finding strongly suggests that breast...

Two Studies Offer Conflicting Findings on Utility of Cerclage for Cervical Shortening.
March 15, 2001... RENO, NEV. -- There's no clear answer yet to the question of whether cerclage improves neonatal outcome when cervical shortening is identified on second-trimester ultrasonography, Dr. Orion Rust said in the final session of the annual meeting...

Soy No Better Than Placebo For Hot Flashes?
March 15, 2001... SAN ANTONIO -- The good news for fans of complementary and alternative medicine is that soy phytoestrogens have consistently achieved a moderate reduction in hot flashes in women with breast cancer in 13 clinical trials. Now for the bad...

Follow the '1% Rule' for VBACs.
March 15, 2001... We treat labor in patients undergoing vaginal birth after cesarean section too much like normal labor. Induction takes place in 20%-40% of labors, and that probably goes for VBAC labors as well. The American College of Obstetricians...

PRO & CON.
March 15, 2001... Should planned cesarean section be standard for all singleton breech babies? YES Planned cesarean section should be standard for all singleton breech babies at term. The Term Breech Trial, in which I served as an investigator, clearly...

BV Therapy During Pregnancy Won't Prevent STDs.
March 15, 2001... RENO, NEV. -- Treatment of asymptomatic bacterial vaginosis with metronidazole did not significantly decrease the rates of acquisition of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia during pregnancy in a study that was presented at the annual meeting of...

VTE More Common After Birth Than During Pregnancy.
March 15, 2001... The rate of venous thromboembolism in a London population was more frequent postnatally than prenatally and increased in the presence of several risk factors, reported Dr. E.L. Simpson and associates at Postgraduate Medical School in Surrey,...

Uterine Size, Shape Impact Reproductive Outcome.
March 15, 2001... HOT SPRINGS, VA. -- Women with large uteri or T-shaped cavities may be more prone to poor reproductive outcomes than those with smaller, more arcuate-shaped uteri, Dr. G. Ward Adcock III said at the annual meeting of the South Atlantic...

Circumcision May Prevent Recurrent UTIs.
March 15, 2001... Hospitalized premature male infants who had not been circumcised had an increased incidence of recurrent urinary tract infections, reported Dr. Dana L. Cason and her associates at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta. Premature infants...

Keep Up With Shifting VBAC Standards of Care.
March 15, 2001... SAN JUAN, P. R. -- Duck! The pendulum is swinging back. In fact; when it comes to vaginal deliveries after a prior cesarean section, there are several swinging pendulums that obstetricians must keep an eye on to avoid being hit, Dr. Steven...

Delayed Pushing Okay in Nulliparous Women.
March 15, 2001... BEAVER CREEK, COLO. -- Nulliparous women in labor can be allowed to delay pushing with a relative degree of safety, Dr. Michael P. Nageotte said at a perinatal conference sponsored by the University of California, Irvine. Although the...

Does Long-Term Use of Tamoxifen Up Ca Risk?
March 15, 2001... SAN ANTONIO -- Sharply divergent views regarding the merits of using tamoxifen to reduce breast cancer risk were evident during a breast cancer symposium sponsored by the San Antonio Cancer Institute. One camp urged caution. They pointed...

Pathologists Often Wrong About Estrogen Receptor Status.
March 15, 2001... SAN ANTONIO -- Misdiagnoses of breast cancer patients' estrogen receptor status have increased sharply since pathology laboratories' near-universal shift from ligand-binding assay to immunohistochemistry, according to Dr. D. Craig Allred. ...

Saline and Silicone Breast Implant Removals 1995-1999.
March 15, 2001... Saline and Silicone Breast Implant Removals 1995-1999 Saline Silicone 1995 828 1,060 1996 837 1,184 1997 1,042 1,207 1998 1,634 1,220 1999 1,932 1,171 Note:...

MRI Pays Off in Obstructive Mullerian Anomalies.
March 15, 2001... HOT SPRINGS, VA. -- Magnetic resonance imaging is expensive, but it's worth it in the evaluation of obstructive mullerian anomalies such as cervical atresia and transverse and longitudinal vaginal septa, Dr. Judith Burgis said at the annual...

Sexual Functioning Improves in 52% Of Depressed Women on Fluoxetine.
March 15, 2001... PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. -- Improvement in sexual function resulting from the antidepressant effects of fluoxetine appears to be more common than drug-associated deterioration in sexual function, Dr. John Plewes II reported during the annual...

Low-Risk, Young Women May Not Need Pap Test.
March 15, 2001... MILWAUKEE -- Routine annual Pap smears in low-risk women under the age of 25 may be unnecessary, according to a study of nearly 1,700 young women. In the study, which assessed women reporting for military service, only a history of four or...

Combine Cystocele Repair With Sling Surgery.
March 15, 2001... ST. Louis -- Early experience using cadaveric fascia lata for a combined sling procedure and cystocele repair shows promising results, Dr. Gary E. Leach said at an international conference on pelvic reconstructive and vaginal surgery. ...

Sharp Increase in Consults for Pelvic Floor Disorders Expected.
March 15, 2001... KAMUELA, HAWAII -- Expect a million women a year to be seeking care for pelvic floor disorders by the year 2030. That's just a conservative estimate of the number of consultations for urinary incontinence, intrinsic sphincteric deficiency,...

In-Office HIV Testing.
March 15, 2001... Private physicians will be able to use a rapid in-office test for HIV within the coming year, Dr. John C. Bartlett of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, predicted. The test will require only a saliva specimen--no invasive sampling, no...

AMA Kit on Food-Borne Illness.
March 15, 2001... The American Medical Association and three federal agencies have launched an initiative aimed at getting physicians to make food-borne illness a priority. The AMA has released a novel "primer" for physicians to aid in the diagnosis and...

Atrial Fibrillation in Women.
March 15, 2001... Atrial fibrillation is a powerful predictor of future congestive heart failure. The risk of heart failure is significantly greater in women than in men with the common arrhythmia, Dr. Simon Stewart said at the annual scientific sessions of...

Meditation Cuts Atherosclerosis.
March 15, 2001... Participation in a 6- to 9-month program of transcendental meditation led to significant decreases in carotid intima-media thickness--an established surrogate measure of coronary atherosderosis--in African American patients with hypertension....

Untreated Anxiety Disorders.
March 15, 2001... Anxiety disorders are often unrecognized and untreated by primary care physicians, Risa Weisberg, Ph.D., reported in a poster session at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy. Preliminary results of a...

Folic Acid and Prozac.
March 15, 2001... Folic acid supplements increased the proportion of severely depressed female patients who responded to fluoxetine (Prozac), reported Dr. Alec Coppen and Dr. John Bailey of West Park Hospital in Surrey, England. Ninety-four percent of the...

PEG-Intron.
March 15, 2001... (peginterferon alfa-2b, Schering-Plough Corp.) A long-acting formulation of Intron A (interferon alfa-2b) for once-weekly monotherapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C who were not previously treated with alpha-interferon, have...

Cancidas.
March 15, 2001... (caspofungin acetate, Merck) An antifungal for treating invasive aspergillosis in people who don't respond to or can't tolerate other antifungal treatments, including amphotericin B. This is the first agent in a new class of antifungals,...

DRUG SAFETY IN WOMEN.
March 15, 2001... A majority of the drugs removed from the market by the United States Food and Drug Administration or by drug manufacturers since 1997 posed greater health risks for women than for men, according to a report by the United States General...

PLATEAU IN ABORTION CLINIC VIOLENCE.
March 15, 2001... Fifty-percent fewer physicians and abortion clinic staffers quit their jobs in 2000 than in 1999 as a result of antiabortion violence. Resignations were much higher in 1999 following the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian in late 1998. This was one...

REPORT ON ABORTION RIGHTS.
March 15, 2001... According to a 2001 state-by-state review of abortion and reproductive rights conducted by the National Abortion Rights Action League, states have enacted 262 antiabortion measures over the past 6 years, making women's reproductive rights more...

HEART SCREENING FOR WOMEN.
March 15, 2001... Legislation that would provide uninsured and low-income women with screening services for cardiovascular disease and other preventable diseases such as osteoporosis has been introduced in the United States Senate. The bill would build upon the...

PATIENTS' RIGHTS.
March 15, 2001... A bipartisan bill to ensure protection for private health insurance holders would require timely access to a number of services, including direct access to ob.gyns. and pediatricians, emergency health care, specialty care, nonformulary drugs,...

TUBAL LIGATION.
March 15, 2001... Although laparoscopic sterilization techniques have become quite popular, many women still request traditional postpartum tubal ligation via minilaparotomy. Most gynecologists learn this fairly simple procedure early in their training, and most...