Pediatrics

You can accurately test for Neisseria gonorrheae (NG) and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) using the same liquid Pap specimens collected for cervical cytology, researchers from University of Oklahoma college of Medicine in Tulsa have concluded.

Pregnant patients with severe nausea and vomiting should probably not be managed with a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC), suggests a relatively small trial presented at this year's American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists meeting.

Three immunizations with a bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV)-16/18 L1 virus-like particle AS04 vaccine safely induces sustained high levels of antibodies that provide long-term protection against HPV-16 and -18 infection and associated cervical lesions and possibly against HPV 45 and HPV 31-the third and fourth most common HPV types associated with cervical cancer-for up to 4.5 years.

What right does a teenager have to confidential health care? What influence does HIPAA have on that right? How you apply the answers in your practice could determine whether an adolescent seeks health services-or forgoes necessary care.

It seems laser conization is associated with a slightly lower riskof adverse pregnancy outcomes than cold knife conization or largeloop excision of the transformation zone (LLETZ), and laserablation entails the lowest risk of all-findings that couldprove very important to the many women of reproductive agereceiving treatment for intraepithelial or early invasive cervicallesions.

Pregnant patients are more likely than ever to ask about stem cells and umbilical cord blood banking. In this article, an expert provides an update on the pros and cons of cord blood banking, and the controversy over private versus public banks, to help you counsel appropriately.

Yes, says a new cost comparison of immediate colposcopy, HPV DNA testing, and conservative management in nearly 3,500 women over a 2-year period. The data are from ALTS?atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance [ASCUS] and low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion [LSIL] Triage Study.

Risk management in obstetrics and gynecology

In light of the FDA's black box warning about potential bone loss in teenagers, how do you counsel teenagers about this highly effective birth control method? Recommendations from the World Health Organization provide a practical, evidence-based approach to weighing the risks.

If there's really been such a sea change in how and when to screen for cervical cancer, when are clinicians going to take the plunge and start applying new recommendations? An expert comes to the rescue by sifting through the new ACS and ACOG guidelines, to help you put them into practice.

Apparently not. In a FASTER-related study, researchers from seven centers who studied more than 10,000 patients concluded that the association between subclinical hypothyroidism and lower pediatric IQ does not appear to result from obstetric factors. The finding is of special note given controversy on this question raised by recent studies.

Is fetal pulse oximetry a waste of time? Riveting results from an important trial presented at the 26th annual SMFM meeting in Miami in February suggest just that?and seemingly shatter the whole premise behind fetal pulse oximetry: that it might either improve perinatal outcome or lower cesarean delivery rates.

Simple information can save millions of newborns?and superstitions can kill just as many.

A cholesterol-lowering diet during pregnancy may do more than just modify maternal lipid levels; it may significantly reduce the rate of preterm birth among low-risk women, according to researchers from Norway.

No issue is more central to global well-being than the health of mothers and their babies. Every individual, every family, every community at some point or another is intimately involved with pregnancy and the success of childbirth. And yet every day, 1,600 women and more than 10,000 newborns die due to complications that could have been prevented.

Counseling patients on screening for Down syndrome has long been a challenge. Findings from the FASTER trial provide solid evidence upon which to base recommendations for first- or second-trimester testing, or a combination of both.

Researchers from Scotland have created a model to accurately predict for how long a woman treated with ovarian radiation can still become pregnant.

Abiding by the old rules and waiting for a severely preeclamptic patient's diastolic blood pressure (BP) to reach or rise above 110 mm Hg before beginning to treat hypertension can invite a deadly stroke, warned a leading Jackson, Miss. maternal-fetal medicine researcher. Instead, consider treating as a hypertensive emergency a pregnant patient's sudden severe systolic BP reading of 155 to 160 mm Hg or more, regardless of the diastolic reading, said James N. Martin, Jr., MD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine.

A cholesterol-lowering diet during pregnancy may do more than just modify maternal lipid levels; it may significantly reduce the rate of preterm birth among low-risk women, according to researchers from Norway.

It seems that making emergency contraception (EC) available over-the-counter (OTC) changes nothing except where such contraception is obtained.

Because there is no increased incidence of infant resuscitation during cesarean sections performed with regional anesthesia for reasons other than fetal distress or malpresentation, pediatricians need not be present, according to a recent cohort study from Australia.

Regardless of the specific screening option chosen, what is clear is that the inclusion of NT measurements optimizes Down syndrome screening.