Obstetrics News and Research

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Gynecology and obstetrics are twin subjects that deal with the female reproductive system. While obstetrics deals with pregnancy and its associated procedures and complications, gynaecology involves treating women who are not pregnant.

Ascension Health launches project to determine best methods to reduce or eliminate birth complications

Ascension Health, the nation's largest Catholic and nonprofit healthcare system, is launching a demonstration project to determine best methods to reduce or eliminate birth complications. The project, Excellence in Obstetrics, will take place within the obstetrical care units at five Ascension Health Ministries.

12 Jan 2011

Better monitoring, new techniques reduce anesthesia-related maternal deaths

The number of women who die from complications of anesthesia during childbirth has plummeted 59 percent over the last two decades thanks to improved monitoring and better medical techniques, according to a recent study.

7 Jan 2011

Mutated TDP-43 can cause neurons to die: Study

Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and frontotemporal lobar degeneration are characterized by protein clumps in brain and spinal-cord cells that include an RNA-binding protein called TDP-43. This protein is the major building block of the lesions formed by these clumps.

6 Jan 2011

Study: Stem cells play an unexpected role in male pattern balding

Given the amount of angst over male pattern balding, surprisingly little is known about its cause at the cellular level. In a new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a team led by George Cotsarelis, MD, chair of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has found that stem cells play an unexpected role in explaining what happens in bald scalp.

5 Jan 2011

Increased amounts of MMP-1 enzyme may explain preeclampsia symptoms in pregnant women

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have found that a significant increase of an enzyme in the blood vessels of pregnant women with preeclampsia may explain some of the symptoms associated with the condition, including hypertension, swelling and protein in the urine.

5 Jan 2011

Los Angeles Magazine declares LA BioMed physicians as 2011 Southern California Super Doctors

A select 40 physician-researchers at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center were named 2011 Southern California Super Doctors in the January issue of Los Angeles Magazine.

4 Jan 2011

Fondation Leducq awards Penn Medicine researcher $6M grant for cardiovascular disease study

An international team of researchers led by Daniel J. Rader, MD, associate director of Penn Medicine's Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, has received a $6 million grant from the Paris-based Fondation Leducq to study the molecular genetics of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The team's proposal, "Molecular Mechanisms of Novel Genes Associated with Plasma Lipids and Cardiovascular Disease," was selected to receive the award through the Fondation's Transatlantic Networks of Excellence Program.

4 Jan 2011

Home births on the decline in UK: Midwives protest

According to a leader of Britain’s midwives, more and more women are being discouraged from giving birth at home. Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives said that many GPs are citing harms of a home birth like dangerous bleeding where their midwives may be unable to help. Warwick said, “There are doctors that still tell women scary things that aren’t evidence-based that then put them off having a home birth…

30 Dec 2010

Columbia Asia opens new hospitals in India and Malaysia

Columbia Asia, a fast-growing hospital company with Pacific Northwest roots, has opened hospitals in two cities near New Delhi, India, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

23 Dec 2010

Sequenom CMM authorizes SensiGene T21 LDT clinical validation study

Sequenom, Inc. today announced that the company's wholly-owned reference laboratory, the Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine (Sequenom CMM), has authorized commencement of a pivotal clinical validation study. This validation study is designed to evaluate the clinical performance of the SensiGene T21 Laboratory Developed Test (LDT) for the detection of an overabundance in maternal blood of chromosome 21, which is associated with fetal chromosome 21 aneuploidy.

23 Dec 2010

Patients with over expression of P-Rex1 protein are more likely to develop cancer metastasis

Overexpression or hyperactivation of ErbB cell-surface receptors drives the growth of many breast cancers. Drugs, like Herceptin, that block the receptors' signals halt tumor progression in some patients.

23 Dec 2010

Obstetrics and Gynecology: One third of pregnant women are not screened for gestational diabetes

Nearly one third of pregnant women are not being screened by a simple laboratory test for gestational diabetes mellitus (gestational diabetes), according to a study of more than 900,000 American women published online today in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

From Quest Diagnostics 21 Dec 2010

Bayer's SAFYRAL oral contraceptive receives FDA approval

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new oral contraceptive (OC), SAFYRAL™ (drospirenone 3 mg/ ethinyl estradiol 30 mcg/ levomefolate calcium 451 mcg tablets and levomefolate calcium 451 mcg tablets). In women who choose an OC for birth control, SAFYRAL raises folate levels for the purpose of reducing the risk of rare neural tube defects (NTDs) in a pregnancy conceived while taking SAFYRAL or shortly after discontinuing it.

17 Dec 2010

BPA exposure reduces quality of womens' eggs retrieved for IVF

A small-scale University of California, San Francisco-led study has identified the first evidence in humans that exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) may compromise the quality of a woman's eggs retrieved for in vitro fertilization (IVF). As blood levels of BPA in the women studied doubled, the percentage of eggs that fertilized normally declined by 50 percent, according to the research team.

16 Dec 2010

HUP launches Penn Hand Transplant Program

The Penn Transplant Institute, the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Division of Plastic Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) have collaborated to form the Penn Hand Transplant Program.

15 Dec 2010

Women & Infants Hospital participates in new fertility drug study

The emotional and physical demands on a couple seeking fertility treatment can be daunting. Researchers are constantly on a quest to improve fertility to increase a couple's chances of becoming pregnant in the most time and cost efficient manner.

13 Dec 2010

Research identifies two genetic variants that increase risk of endometriosis

Research published today identifies two genetic variants that increase the risk of developing endometriosis, a common gynaecological disease. The study provides clues to the origin of this often very painful condition, which has a significant impact on the quality of life of sufferers.

13 Dec 2010

Better approaches to ovarian cancer screening could lower cancer deaths

Cancer prevention experts have long been frustrated by the lack of a meaningful way to screen women for ovarian cancer. It is a relatively rare disease that often progresses with few symptoms until it is too late for potentially curative treatments, and elevated values of the most commonly used biomarker used in screening, CA125, are also related to other disorders.

13 Dec 2010

Weightlifting may help prevent lymphedema following breast cancer treatment

Weightlifting may play a key role in the prevention of the painful limb-swelling condition lymphedema following breast cancer treatment, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Combined with the team's previous findings that the exercise limits a worsening of symptoms among women who already have lymphedema, the new data cements the reversal of long-running advice that breast cancer survivors should avoid lifting anything heavier than five pounds after they finish treatment.

10 Dec 2010

Chinese study examines association between alcohol intake, CAD

Among a large number of Chinese men presenting with chest pain or EKG changes, sequential subjects undergoing cardiac angiography were evaluated for obstructive coronary artery disease lesions according to their reported recent alcohol intake. The study population consisted of 1,476 consecutive men 36 to 84 years of age; participants were categorized as nondrinkers, light drinkers, moderate drinkers, or heavy drinkers.

10 Dec 2010