Ob/Gyn & Women's Health News

• Ferumoxytol Approved to Treat Iron Deficiency Anemia in Chronic Kidney Disease Ferumoxytol injection may be more effective than oral iron for anemic patients in all stages of chronic kidney disease.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Bone Mineral Density Monitoring May Not Be Needed Up to 3 Years After Starting Bisphosphonates A study suggests that monitoring bone mineral density in postmenopausal women in the first 3 years after starting treatment with a potent bisphosphonate is unnecessary and may be misleading.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• HPV Vaccination Is Not Cost-Effective in the Netherlands Even under the most favorable assumptions, the HPV vaccine was not found to be cost effective, Dutch researchers report.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Ultrasound Adds No Value to Cervical Cerclage Decision-Making Cervical ultrasound to determine the need for cervical cerclage does not improve outcomes over those obtained with history-indicated placement, according to a report in the June American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
  Reuters Health Information, July 2009
• Wet Ear Wax, Osmidrosis May Be Linked With Breast Cancer Risk A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the breast cancer gene ABCC11 is closely associated with wet-type earwax and axillary osmidrosis, Japanese scientists report in the June issue of The FASEB Journal, a publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
  Reuters Health Information, July 2009
• WHO Says Tamiflu-Resistant H1N1 "an Isolated Case" The first H1N1 infection found to be resistant to the antiviral Tamiflu represents an "isolated case" with "no public health implication" at this time, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.
  Reuters Health Information, July 2009
• Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Guidelines Updated The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has refined its definitions, classifications, and interpretations of fetal heart rate monitoring.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Alert Insulin Glargine Potentially Associated With Increased Cancer Risk The increased risk has been seen in 3 of 4 observational studies, but these findings warrant further follow-up studies to confirm an association, according to the FDA.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• Alert Chantix and Zyban to Receive Boxed Warnings for Serious Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Varenicline and bupropion are receiving boxed warnings regarding the risks for changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts and behavior, and attempted suicide.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2009
• ASMBS 2009: Socioeconomic Factors Figure Prominently in Access to Bariatric Surgery Focused public health efforts are needed to reduce significant race-, income-, education-, and insurance-related disparities and to equalize and expand access to bariatric surgery.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2009
• Phthalate Exposure Linked to Low Birth Weight Findings from a study of Chinese newborns suggest that maternal-fetal exposure to phthalates -- plasticizer chemicals used in many consumer products -- increases the risk of low birth weight (LBW).
  Reuters Health Information, June 2009
• Studies Suggest Physicians Should Be Vigilant for Serious H1N1 Infection in Young The pattern of the swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus (S-OIV) seen in March and April of this year suggests that people exposed to H1N1 strains during childhood before the 1957 flu pandemic will be relatively protected from severe illness, according to a study in the June 29 Online First issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
  Reuters Health Information, June 2009
• Jehovah's Witnesses Have Increased Maternal Mortality, Morbidity The risk of maternal mortality and serious maternal morbidity is markedly increased in Jehovah's Witnesses, who often refuse transfusion of blood or one of its components based on biblical texts, according to findings published in the July issue of BJOG.
  Reuters Health Information, June 2009
• Sperm-Washing Achieves Pregnancy in HIV-Serodiscordant Couples Without Viral Transmission Sperm washing and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) with intracytoplasmic sperm infection (ICSI) can safely achieve pregnancy in couples in which the male is HIV-positive, while the female is not, according to findings from a study at Columbia University in New York.
  Reuters Health Information, June 2009
• Low Prevalence of Oropharyngeal Oncogenic HPV Researchers have found a very low prevalence of tonsil infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) in a Colorado county in which the rate of HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma has been climbing.
  Reuters Health Information, June 2009
• 1 Million Swine Flu Cases in U.S. The CDC says the vast majority of cases were mild
  WebMD Health News, June 2009
• Ovarian Tissue Transplant May Restore Fertility After Cancer Treatment Even after highly gonadotoxic cancer treatment, long-term ovarian function and fertility can be restored by repeated heterotopic ovarian tissue autotransplantation.
  Reuters Health Information, June 2009
• PARP Inhibitors Represent New Direction in Cancer Treatment An editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine hails a new class of yet-to-be-approved oncology drugs as being part of a new direction in the development of anticancer drugs.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2009
• Oral and Vaginal Metronidazole Both Effective for Bacterial Vaginosis During Pregnancy Both oral and vaginal metronidazole are effective for treating bacterial vaginosis (BV) in pregnant women, according to a report in the June 10th BMC Infectious Diseases.
  Reuters Health Information, June 2009
• WHO Says H1N1 Virus Is Stable, Not Yet Mutating The World Health Organization said on Thursday that the H1N1 virus was stable and there was no sign yet of it mixing with other influenza viruses.
  Reuters Health Information, June 2009