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Treatment Decisions in the Management of Menorrhagia.

Menorrhagia--menstrual periods lasting longer than 7 days and totaling blood losses greater than 80mL--affects 9%-14% of otherwise healthy women, and it can signal cancer, an endocrinologic disorder, or gynecologic disease. Blood loss can be high enough to result in anemia, fatigue, and syncope. Most often, abnormal uterine bleeding such as menorrhagia involves a disruption in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, the ovary, and/or the uterus. Other identified causes include medications (especially psychotropics) that cross the blood-brain barrier; chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and liver and kidney dysfunction; endocrine disorders, perimenopausal anovulation, polycystic ovary disease, pituitary tumors, and abnormal estrogen cycling caused by morbid obesity; and anatomic abnormalities of the uterus. Routine tests include hematocrit or hemoglobin to detect and evaluate anemia, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level to evaluate thyroid function as a possible cause, and a pregnancy test to rule out an incomplete, spontaneous abortion as a cause. A Pap test is recommended to screen for dysplasia that can suggest a gynecologic cancer cause. Additional screening for endocrine disorders that may be causing menorrhagia include tests of thyroid, liver, and kidney function, and tests of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), prolactin, and cortisol levels. Treatment can be medical or surgical. Medical treatment includes prostaglandin inhibitors, specifically nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and hormonal therapy with estrogen, progesterone, gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, or oral contraceptives such as medroxyprogesterone (Depo-Provera). Surgical treatment includes hysteroscopic endometrial ablation by physical agents, laser electrodiathermy, and "roller ball," or surgical, resection. Hysterectomy is the treatment of last resort.

Journal Article↗

[Secondary amenorrhea due to intrauterine adhesions: Asherman's syndrome].

Three women aged 35, 33 and 40 years had secondary amenorrhoea and monthly recurring abdominal pains after curettage for blood loss after a pregnancy. Hysteroscopy revealed intrauterine adhesions. The symptoms disappeared largely or completely after synechiolysis, introduction of an IUD and oestrogen treatment. Changes in the menstrual cycle, infertility or recurrent abortions starting after a puerperal or postabortum curettage should cause the physician to suspect intrauterine adhesions. For the diagnosis hysteroscopy is the method of choice and hysterography should be added for preoperative assessment and classification. Blind procedures for rupturing the adhesions should not be performed because of the risk of perforation and creating false routes.

Abdominal Pain↗

A study of abortion in countries where abortions are legally restricted.

In countries where induced abortion is permitted, national family planning programs are able to combine pre- and postconceptive fertility control methods to maximize success in achieving personally desired fertility levels and nationally desired growth levels. The proscription against induced abortion tends to produce criminal abortions and consequent morbidity and mortality which, in some countries, are often recognized as a national health problem. The International Fertility Research Program has undertaken this study of incomplete, inevitable, threatened and septic abortion cases, using a standard data collection instrument, to facilitate comparisons across institutions and countries. The data gather since 1971 in nine Asian, African and Middle Eastern hospitals includes 7,331 cases. Policies of the participating institutions with respect to what constitutes a therapeutic abortion affected the proportions of spontaneous abortions and of abortions induced outside the hospital and inside the hospital. Women treated for induced abortion tended to be of higher parity and more likely to have attained their desired family size than patients treated for spontaneous abortions. Morbidity rates were quite low for patients treated in centers where vacuum aspiration was mainly used, particularly in contrast to the morbidity rates for patients treated in centers where dilatation and curettage was used exclusively. High mortality rates in patients admitted with sepsis confirm the need not only for improvement of clinical procedures but also for reconsideration of the legal issues since many patients admitted with sepsis can be assumed to have had abortions induced.

Abortion, Illegal↗

[Maternal CA 125 serum level in intrauterine pregnancy and abortion in the first trimester].

OBJECTIVE: Maternal CA 125 levels are supposed to rise in pregnancies complicated by vaginal bleedings in dependence to the extent of decidual disruption which is directly related to the outcome of pregnancy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The prognostic value of maternal CA 125 serum measurement was investigated in 239 women with a first trimester intact pregnancy, imminent, incomplete, complete or missed abortion. RESULTS: 43.9% of the CA 125 serum levels were without normal range (> 20 U/ml). Mean CA 125 serum levels were higher in patients with incomplete (52.4 +/- 67.4 U/ml), complete (34.3 +/- 46.1 U/ml), and imminent abortion (33.0 +/- 45.8 U/ml) as compared with normal pregnancies (28.9 +/- 28.8 U/ml) and missed abortion (23.5 +/- 21.5 U/ml). CA 125 levels in first trimester pregnancies tended to be higher in patients with vaginal bleedings than in patients without bleeding (40.5 U/ml +/- 55.0 vs. 28.9 U/ml +/- 28.8; p = 0.65). CONCLUSIONS: For clinical use CA 125 serum measurement is not relevant. First trimester CA 125 measurement can not serve as an accurate predictor of pregnancy outcome due to the wide overlap of ranges.

Abortion, Incomplete↗

Legal duties to respect abortion choices.

This paper addresses legal protection of individual choices to obtain abortion services, to decline to perform abortions on grounds of religious objection, and to participate in these procedures. It considers legal duties to respect women as decision-makers in their own lives, including when they decide to continue pregnancy. The choice to decline participation in abortions is an aspect of religious freedom available to physicians, nurses, and, for instance, pharmacists, but not artificial legal persons such as hospital and clinic corporations. Refusal does not extend to ancillary functions such as serving meals, routine pre-operative and post-operative care of abortion patients or typing abortion referral letters. Physicians practising in proximate care must be trained in appropriate medical management of incomplete and threatened abortion even when they would refuse to apply such techniques to induce abortion.

Abortion, Induced↗

Corpus luteum blood flow in normal and abnormal early pregnancy: evaluation with transvaginal color and pulsed Doppler sonography.

One hundred and thirteen (66.5%) women in this study had a normal intrauterine pregnancy with ages ranging 6 to 12 weeks of gestation. Fifty-seven (33.5%) patients were admitted to the hospital owing to clinically suspected abnormal early pregnancy. Dilatation and curettage were done on all women and tissue sample sent to the pathologist for a final diagnostic. Diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy was made on laparoscopy. Both ovaries were examined carefully by color Doppler in sonography in all patients. Color flow was used as a guide for pulsed Doppler exploration. Corpus luteum blood flow was defined as random, usually semilunar in appearance, dispersed vessels with very low impedance to blood flow. The resistive index and pulsatility index were calculated. Overall detection rate of corpus luteum blood flow in normal pregnancies was higher for the left ovary (62.6%) than for the right ovary (37.4%) (P < 0.01). The mean resistive and pulsatility indices from corpus luteum blood flow were not influenced by gestational age in normal pregnancy. The overall mean value for for resistive index was 0.452 +/- 0.04 and for pulsatility index 0.636 +/- 0.09. The overall detection rate of corpus luteum in abnormal pregnancies also was higher for the left ovary (56.7%) than for the right ovary (43.4%) (P < 0.01). The mean resistive indices from corpus luteum blood flow in patients with missed abortion was higher than in women with normal pregnancy (P < 0.01). Both resistive and pulsatility indices were higher in patients with incomplete or threatened abortion in comparison with normal pregnancy (P < 0.01). No statistically significant difference was seen in the case of anembryonic, molar, or ectopic pregnancy.

Adult↗

Clinical experience using intraamniotic prostaglandin F2alpha for midtrimester abortion in 600 patients.

Six hundred consecutive patients received intraamniotic prostaglandin F2alpha to induce midtrimester abortion. The PGF2alpha was administered by a general population of gynecologists according to a standard protocol. The aim of the study was to observe whether results would be similar to those reported in various research studies. Of 600 abortions, 460 were complete, 140 were incomplete, and there were no abortion failures. Other parameters were also similar to previous research results, indicating that PGF2alpha can be an effective and safe means of inducing midtrimester abortion when administered by the practicing gynecologist.

Abortion, Induced↗

Spontaneous abortion.

Spontaneous abortion, or the early termination of pregnancy without outside interference, may be caused by fetal, maternal or external factors. In many cases, a specific etiology may never be identified. A variety of clinical presentations are possible, ranging from imperceptible loss to profound life-threatening shock. Physicians should be able to diagnose and manage the six recognized types of spontaneous abortion: threatened, inevitable, incomplete, complete, missed and septic. In all cases, uterine evacuation, avoidance of complications and psychologic support of the family are important. The prognosis for a subsequent successful pregnancy is good, except in cases of habitual abortion.

Abortion, Habitual↗

Agency announces policy on use of U.S. dollars to fund abortions.

In an April 1994 statement, the USAID articulated its current policy on abortion. Reiterating the Clinton Administration's view that abortions should be "safe, legal, and rare," the policy remains surprisingly close to the positions of the Reagan and Bush Administrations. According to the Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA), AID monies cannot be used for the "performance of abortion as a method of family planning." Under the previous Administrations, AID ceased all abortion funding based on this restrictive language. The Clinton Administration policy notes that AID neither "advocate[s] the use of abortion as a method of family planning" nor "use[s] its policies or programs to restrict ... [the] right to choose" abortion. Yet it interprets the Helms Amendment to permit abortion funding only in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment--the same conditions placed on federal Medicaid funds by the Hyde Amendment. Funds can also be used for the treatment of complications caused by unsafe, incomplete, or septic abortions. Because the US is a major contributor to population and family planning programs, a change in AID policy can have a widespread impact on the reproductive health of women worldwide, especially in developing countries. Up to 167,000 women are estimated to die each year as a result of unsafe abortion and its complications.

Abortion, Induced↗

Justifying prenatal screening and genetic amniocentesis programs by cost-effectiveness analyses: a re-evaluation.

A strength of cost-effectiveness analysis is the presentation of all relevant clinical options, variables, and outcomes and the placement of values on the outcomes. Despite success in many fields of health policy, cost-effectiveness analysts have failed to provide a complete evaluation of prenatal screening and genetic amniocentesis programs. Specifically, all published cost-effectiveness analyses of these programs at best only partially acknowledge the potential life of the aborted fetus. These incomplete evaluations not only violate some basic principles of cost-effectiveness analysis, they also produce conclusions that may be misleading. Ultimately, society must answer two basic questions regarding the use of cost-effectiveness to justify prenatal screening programs: Is cost-effectiveness analysis an appropriate tool for the evaluation of these programs? If so, then what are the outcomes of interest? This paper first shows that the current literature does not present a complete evaluation of these programs. The ramifications of this incomplete evaluation are presented from several perspectives. Finally, given the problems associated with the use of cost-effectiveness analysis, the article suggests that cost-effectiveness analysis is not yet an appropriate tool to justify prenatal screening or genetic amniocentesis programs.

Abortion, Eugenic↗

Design of a placebo-controlled clinical trial of long-acting diltiazem and aspirin versus aspirin alone in patients receiving thrombolysis with a first acute myocardial infarction. Incomplete Infarction Trial of European Research Collaborators Evaluating Prognosis Post-Thrombolysis (diltiazem) (INTERCEPT) Research Group.

Several pharmacologic forms of adjunctive therapy, designed to enhance the efficacy of thrombolysis following acute myocardial infarction (AMI), are being explored. However, few studies have assessed the use of standard secondary prevention therapies (beta-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, magnesium, calcium antagonists, etc.) for antecedent thrombolysis. Although calcium antagonists have not been shown to alter post-AMI mortality, diltiazem has been shown to reduce recurrent nonfatal infarction and myocardial ischemia following non-Q-wave AMI. Because both non-Q-wave AMI and AMI treated with thrombolytic therapy result in early reperfusion and clinical manifestations of "incomplete infarction" (i.e., aborted transmural infarction), we hypothesize that prophylactic administration of diltiazem to AMI patients who receive thrombolysis before other therapies might decrease ischemic complications. We have initiated a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group comparison of long-acting diltiazem 300 mg/day and aspirin 160 mg/day versus aspirin 160 mg/day alone in up to 920 patients with an uncomplicated first AMI (no heart failure or left ventricular dysfunction) within 36 to 96 hours of receiving thrombolysis. Active enrollment is under way at 46 centers in the United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Denmark. This trial (known as the Incomplete INfarction Trial of European Research Collaborators Evaluating Prognosis Post-Thrombolysis [diltiazem], or INTERCEPT) represents the first long-term, large-scale, prospective study of a calcium antagonist administered post-thrombolysis as adjunctive therapy to AMI patients in which the primary trial objective is to assess the effect of blinded therapy on the 6-month cumulative occurrence of a combined clinical end point (cardiac death, recurrent nonfatal AMI, and medically refractory ischemia).

Adolescent↗

Prevalence of developmental and inflammatory lesions in nonmolar first-trimester spontaneous abortions.

The management of patients with first-trimester spontaneous abortions is handicapped by two problems: difficulty in recognizing conceptions that abort because of abnormal karyotypes and an incomplete understanding of what causes abortions with normal karyotypes. Our goals in this study were to define features useful in distinguishing normal from abnormal karyotype and to identify pathological processes contributing to abortions with a normal karyotype. The study population consisted of 668 well-characterized first-trimester spontaneous abortions derived from a larger study of 1,054 consecutively karyotyped spontaneous abortions. Clinical factors increased in specimens with normal karyotype were maternal age younger than 20 years (P=.0003) and autoimmune markers (P=.0474). Developmental features associated with abnormal karyotype were developmental stage less than 6 weeks (P=.0017), hydropic villi greater than 1 mm (P=.0004), and villi with two or more dysmorphic features (P=.0001). Developmental stage greater than 11.5 weeks was increased with normal karyotype (P=.0001). Histological features increased in specimens with a normal karyotype were chronic intervillositis (P=.0003), increased perivillous fibrin deposition with intermediate trophoblast (P=.0006), decidual plasma cells (P=.0040), deciduitis without plasma cells (P=.0660), and chronic villitis (P=.1581). Overall, 19% of samples with a normal karyotype versus 8% with abnormal karyotype had one or more of these findings (P < .0001). Autoimmune markers, chronic intervillositis, and increased perivillous fibrin with intermediate trophoblast all had positive predictive values greater than 85% for normal karyotype, whereas dysmorphic villi had a positive predictive value of 90% for abnormal karyotype. Patients with recurrent spontaneous abortion and normal karyotype were more likely to have one or more of the histological features listed above (31%) than patients with normal karyotype and no prior abortions (13%) and patients with recurrent abortion and abnormal karyotype (11%).

Abortion, Spontaneous↗

Secular trends in uncertain-sex births and proportion of male births in Norway, 1967-1998.

It has been hypothesized that environmental factors influence sex differentiation in the fetus, thus causing a reduced sex ratio (male/female) at birth, an increase in the prevalence of ambiguous-sex infants, and possibly an increase in spontaneous abortion rates. In Norway, subsequent to 1967, all deliveries, including late abortions after 16 wk of gestation, have been reported to the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. The authors used these data to assess birth-weight-specific secular trends of uncertain-sex infants and the proportion of male births, from 1967 through 1998. Total rates of uncertain-sex infants increased from 2.3/10,000 births in 1967 to 8.0/10,000 births in 1998 in the birth weight strata of less than 600 gm. The total proportion of male births was stable; however, there was a reduction in the proportion of male births among births weighing less than 400 gm--from 58.4% to 53.4%. Incomplete ascertainment of abortions may have biased the results, but it would not have accounted for the increased occurrence of uncertain-sex infants and the decreased proportion of males observed among late-term abortions.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗

Postabortion insertions of the pleated membrane.

The pleated or intrauterine membrane (IUM) was designed to fit a range of uterine sizes and shapes and to adjust to transient changes resulting from uterine motility. The retention and contraceptive abilities of postabortion IUM insertions are analyzed in this study of 154 IUM insertions made within 3 days of treatment for an incomplete or inevitable abortion. Results indicate low 1-year net cumulative event rates for pregnancy (1.7 per 100 users), expulsion (7.2 per 100 users), and removal for bleeding and/or pain (3.9 per 100 users). These rates were similar to those reported in a study of interval insertions of the IUM; moreover, these results also compared favorably with corresponding rates of postabortion insertions reported in studies using other devices. Thus, the postabortion period is indicated as being an effective time for IUM insertion.

Abortion, Induced↗

Differential diagnosis of abnormal uterine bleeding.

The causes of abnormal uterine bleeding include a wide spectrum of diseases of the reproductive system and nongynecologic causes as well. The differential diagnosis of abnormal excessive uterine bleeding includes organic causes that may be subdivided into reproductive tract disease, iatrogenic causes, and systemic disease. Reproductive tract disease that may result in abnormal uterine bleeding comprises the complications of pregnancy (threatened, incomplete, or missed abortion, ectopic pregnancy, trophoblastic disease, placental polyp, and subinvolution of the placental site), malignant tumors (endometrial, cervical, vaginal, vulvar, and oviduct malignancies and granulosa theca cell ovarian tumors), infection (endometritis, salpingitis), and other benign pelvic disorders (traumatic lesions of the vagina, severe vaginal infections, foreign bodies, cervical polyps, cervical erosion, cervicitis, submucous uterine leiomyomas, adenomyosis, endometriosis, and endometrial polyps). Iatrogenic causes of abnormal uterine bleeding include sex steroids, hypothalamic depressants, digitalis, phenytoin, anticoagulants, and intrauterine contraceptive devices. Systemic diseases that may cause abnormal uterine bleeding include hypothyroidism, cirrhosis, and coagulation disorders. Abnormal uterine bleeding that occurs in a woman of reproductive age should be considered the result of complication of pregnancy until proved otherwise. Abnormal uterine bleeding occurring in a woman of perimenopausal or postmenopausal age should be considered the result of a malignancy until proved otherwise. Menorrhagia occurring in an adolescent should be attributed to a coagulopathy until proved otherwise. When an organic cause of abnormal uterine bleeding cannot be found, then by exclusion the diagnosis of dysfunctional uterine bleeding is assumed. Coagulation disorders, particularly von Willebrand disease, are more common than many physicians realize. Women with a history of high-risk factors, all adolescents with menorrhagia, women with anovulatory dysfunctional uterine bleeding who fail medical or surgical therapy, and women with ovulatory dysfunctional uterine bleeding without an anatomic uterine lesion should be screened for a coagulopathy.

Diagnosis, Differential↗

Gestational trophoblastic disease following the evacuation of partial hydatidiform mole: a review of 66 cases.

OBJECTIVE: The current study was undertaken in order to identify the clinical characteristics and natural history, as well as methods of investigation and available therapy, of persistent gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) following the evacuation of partial hydatidiform mole (PM). METHODS: Case reports of persistent GTD following the evacuation of partial mole, were searched using the Medline computerized retrieval system. There were 66 such cases (including 4 cases treated at our department), representing 2.9% of GTD following PM. RESULTS: The mean age of the women at diagnosis was 28.4 years and mean gravidity was 2.99. The mean gestational age at diagnosis was 15.5 weeks and the mean uterine size was 13.6 weeks. The most common presenting symptom was vaginal bleeding. In the majority of the patients, the pre-evacuation diagnosis was incomplete or missed abortion. CONCLUSIONS: Although the malignant potential of PM is low, persistent GTD may develop after PM and may even metastasize, it is usually responsive to single agent chemotherapy but may require combination chemotherapy. Therefore, after evacuation of PM, these women should be followed with serial serum b-hCG. Further research is needed to enable earlier identification of PM that eventually will develop persistent GTD.

Adult↗