Pediatrics

According to a recent study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the evidence continues to mount for an association between breastfeeding and reduced risk of aggressive breast cancers in African-American women.

Vulvovaginal disorders in prepubertal girls-including vulvovaginitis, lichen sclerosus, labial adhesions, urethral prolapse, and genital ulcers-are common and can be managed on an outpatient basis by a skilled clinician.

New guidelines from the American Heart Association are designed to help practitioners make decisions when faced with caring for unborn babies with heart issues.

A meta-analysis has shown that even small increases in a mother's BMI can increase the risk of fetal death, stillbirth, and neonatal, perinatal, and infant death.

Eating disorders develop in vulnerable individuals from an interplay of genetics and a host of personality and sociocultural factors. Healthcare providers should be mindful of red flags for eating disorders in adolescents and young women.

Three major Ohio universities and 4 hospitals have joined with the March of Dimes Foundation to establish a new collaborative research program aimed exclusively at finding the unknown causes of premature birth.

A longitudinal study of more than 10,000 children born in the United States suggests that maternal depressive symptoms are connected to growth patterns in preschool- and school-aged children. The research, by investigators from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, underscores the importance of prevention, early detection, and treatment of depression in the first year postpartum.

Children exposed in the womb to the commonly used pesticide bolstering agent piperonyl butoxide (PBO) are more likely to suffer from a noninfectious cough at ages 5 to 6 years than those with no such prenatal exposure, according to researchers from the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health and of Columbia University Medical Center.

Light to moderate consumption of alcohol during early pregnancy does not seem to increase the risk for behavioral problems among offspring, according to study findings.

For the first time, AHRQ is moving to designate data to be collected to establish a core set of quality indicators of children's healthcare under Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Despite recommended guidelines, many women who received chest radiation for a childhood cancer have not had mammography screening for breast cancer in the past 2 years.

True precocious puberty differs from premature adrenarche and premature thelarche. Understanding normal sexual development and these common variants will help ob/gyns make the correct diagnosis and appropriate referrals.

Within hours of the start of the 110th Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, introduced legislation addressing preventive services in women's health care.

Children who had nuchal translucency thickening during the first trimester, but a normal karyotype and no structural abnormalities, are clinically and developmentally normal during the first 2 years of life, according to a study in the January issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Contrary to findings of studies using older cohorts of twins, a new follow-up study of Danish twins born during the late 1980s finds their academic performance by the teen years to be similar to that of singletons, and that birthweight, unless in the very low range, has minimal effect on school achievement.

Half of all adults with this autoimmune disorder don't have the classic GI symptoms, which include bloating and diarrhea. So should you screen women with otherwise unexplained infertility for it? Other ob/gyn complications in women with celiac disease include miscarriage, iron deficiency anemia, and IUGR.

Women who smoke cigarettes and who are infected with high levels of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) increase their risk of cervical cancer as much as 27-fold, according to a Swedish study, which is one of the largest to date on the subject.

The Leapfrog Group, a national coalition of large health-care purchasers, is asking hospitals and their staffs to agree to be held accountable for events that "occur rarely, are clearly identifiable, largely preventable, have serious consequences, and should never happen," reported Medical Economics (12/15/2006). These so-called "never events" include leaving a foreign object in a patient or discharging an infant to the wrong parents.

Children born to women who take fish oil supplements during late pregnancy have better eye/hand coordination at age 2 to 3 years than their counterparts whose mothers did not take the supplements, according to a study published online Dec. 21 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood-Fetal and Neonatal Edition.

Clinical situations that typically result in litigation and the variation in jury verdicts and awards across the nation.

Despite what some observational studies have suggested, nonsurgical treatment of periodontal disease during pregnancy does not significantly lower rates of preterm birth, low birthweight, or fetal growth restriction.

The dramatic decline in teenage pregnancy rates in the United States since 1991 is largely due to improved contraceptive use with a decline in sexual activity playing a relatively small role, according to study findings published online Nov. 30 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Michelle, a 31-year-old G1P0, is in for a routine second-trimester prenatal visit at 18 weeks. During the visit, she mentions that her family is gearing up for their winter vacation. As you are walking out the door, she says, "Oh, by the way... can I ski?"

Although serial amnioreduction is still widely used to treat this dangerous condition, a recent randomized trial found that when compared to amnioreduction at 15 to 26 weeks, overall perinatal survival is higher with laser ablation, which tries to reverse the disease process.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) lowers IVF success by more than 50%, according to the findings of a prospective study of 106 women.

Conference Highlights

Be frank about the real and potential complications when counseling patients considering assisted reproductive technologies. The list includes the link between multiple gestations and preterm delivery, the possibility of ectopic pregnancies or malformations-and much more.

Do you remember bringing something to school for "show and tell" when you were a child? That's what I did recently, only it wasn't a game. I was teaching basic medicine, obstetrics, and gynecology to medical students, lay midwives, and physicians in Liberia.

Be frank about the real and potential complications when counseling patients considering assisted reproductive technologies. The list includes the link between multiple gestations and preterm delivery, the possibility of ectopic pregnancies or malformations-and much more.

Second-born twins are at significantly greater risk for serious perinatal morbidity than first-born twins at all gestational ages, according to the results of a retrospective cohort study conducted in Nova Scotia. And the higher risk prevails regardless of presentation, chorionicity, or infant sex.