Lowering BP in Women Reduces Heart Disease Risk
February 9th 2011High systolic blood pressure (BP) appears to be a substantial risk factor for cardiovascular events in women middle-aged and older, and many of these events are potentially preventable with lowered PB, according to research published online Jan 24 in Hypertension.
False-Positive Mammogram Results Affect Quality of Life
February 8th 2011Women who receive false-positive results from routine breast cancer screenings may experience a low quality of life and feelings of anxiety for at least one year, according to a study published online Dec. 20 in the British Journal of Surgery.
Q&A: Endometriosis and Breastfeeding
February 3rd 2011A 30 y/o woman, P1001, sought a second opinion from me regarding the following situation: She just had her first baby, and has a history of symptomatic endometriosis including some difficulty in achieving pregnancy (but did so without medical intervention). She was advised by another physician that she should use either depo or the progestin only pill for the next 6-12 months (while she is breastfeeding) to prevent the progression of endometriosis.
Maternal Grief May Predict Infant Attachment Security
February 2nd 2011Resolution of maternal grief following the experience of preterm birth, and the subsequent quality of maternal interactions, have important implications for attachment security development in premature infants, according to a study published online Jan. 17 in Pediatrics.
Radiotherapy Increases Risk of Death From Cardiac Disease
February 2nd 2011Radiotherapy may increase the long-term risk of death from cardiovascular disease, especially in women with left-sided breast cancer who are treated with contemporary tangential breast or chest-wall radiotherapy, according to a study in the Jan. 25 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Detecting Occult Lymph Node Metastases Has Little Benefit
February 2nd 2011Occult metastases are prognostic variables in patients with breast cancer who have negative sentinel lymph node biopsies, but the difference in five-year outcome is very small, according to a study published online Jan. 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Basal-Like Breast CA Equally Aggressive for Different Races
February 2nd 2011Basal-like breast cancer is not more aggressive among African-American individuals than whites; however, in patients with luminal A cancer, African-American women experience worse outcomes, according to a study published in the Dec. 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.
Western Diet Linked to Aggressive Breast Cancer
February 2nd 2011A Western diet high in fat and cholesterol may be linked to larger, faster-growing tumors that metastasize more easily in mice predisposed to breast cancer, according to a study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Pathology.
Adjuvant Breast Cancer Therapies Offer Similar Survival
February 2nd 2011Adjuvant breast cancer therapy with an aromatase inhibitor (exemestane) alone, or used following tamoxifen, offers similar disease-free survival rates but different side-effect profiles, according to a study published online Jan. 18 in The Lancet.
Transvaginal ultrasound predicts cancer risk
February 1st 2011Transvaginal ultrasound screening can detect endometrial thickness and other endometrial abnormalities with enough sensitivity to predict a postmenopausal woman's risk for endometrial cancer and atypical endometrial hyperplasia within 1 year of the test, according to study results.
Tamoxifen/radiotherapy effective in treating locally exposed ductal carcinoma in situ
February 1st 2011In women with ductal carcinoma in situ treated with complete local excision, radiotherapy reduces by about 60% to 70% new breast events of ipsilateral invasive and DCIS natures compared with no radiotherapy.
Q & A: Uterine Adhesions to post per. wall
January 31st 2011I have a case that I've known for some time. She is a case of diagnosed endometriosis. I did her adhesiolisis in 1993 and then she got pregnant, then she had a big endometriotic cyst and I removed it and then she got pregnant again. In the last six years, she got 2 endometriotic cysts that were very big and causing agonizing pains and had to be surgically removed in 2 occasions. Last year she got pregnant spontaneously but missed abortion at 14 weeks and had to evacuate by extramniotic PG.
Q & A: New Case - Vaginal Adhesions
January 31st 2011I have a 30 year old patient who was diagnosed with recurrent herpes about 9 months ago. I documented the lesions with cultures and treated her with three different antivirals. Despite all of them, she continued to have painful vaginal erethematous spots in the vagina and on the vulva. She cultured negative, but the symptoms never went away.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Issues Opinion on Planned Home Births
January 24th 2011The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (The College) issued a Committee Opinion today that says although the absolute risk of planned home births is low, published medical evidence shows it does carry a two- to three-fold increase in the risk of newborn death compared with planned hospital births.
Updated Osteoporosis Screening Recommendations Issued
January 24th 2011TUESDAY, Jan. 18 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued an updated statement recommending that women aged 65 years or older, and younger women with an increased risk of fractures, should be screened for osteoporosis; the statement has been published online Jan. 17 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.