MFM specialists contribute to Clinical Expert Series in Obstetrics & Gynecology

Series reviews principles, indications and evidence for fetal surgery

2014-10-06

(Press-News.org) Since the first human fetal surgery was reported in 1965, several different fetal surgical procedures have been developed and perfected, resulting in significantly improved outcomes for many fetuses. However, the significant investments associated with this highly specialized service and quality metrics must be considered as more fetal treatment programs are developed.

Katharine D. Wenstrom, MD, director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, co-director of the hospital's Integrated Program for High-Risk Pregnancy, and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and Stephen R. Carr, MD, director of Women & Infants' Prenatal Diagnosis Center and Maternal-Fetal Medicine Diagnostic Imaging, co-director of the Fetal Treatment Program of New England, and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Alpert Medical School, have published an article as part of a Clinical Expert Series in the October 2014 edition of Obstetrics & Gynecology, now available online. The article is entitled "Fetal Surgery: Principles, Indications, and Evidence."

According to the authors, there have been tremendous advances in fetal treatment in the past few years, made by centers like the Fetal Treatment Program of New England (a combined service of Women & Infants and Hasbro Children's hospitals).

"This means that in some cases when we identify a fetal problem prenatally, we can offer a treatment," said Dr. Carr. "This article presents the scientific justification for available in utero interventions, evaluates data on their benefits and risks, and offers a framework for future development and refinement of new and more focused interventions that address fetal problems while minimizing maternal risk."

Drs. Carr and Wenstrom concluded that the tremendous resources that are required to perform fetal surgery, including considerable investment in training that is required of a fetal surgeon, together with the relative rarity of most of the conditions for which fetal surgery is attempted, necessitate that the number of fetal surgery centers be limited so that each can care for enough patients to justify their cost and maintain the skills of the fetal interventionist.

INFORMATION: Obstetrics & Gynecology is the official publication of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (the College). Popularly known as "The Green Journal," Obstetrics & Gynecology has been published since 1953. The goal of the journal is to promote excellence in the clinical practice of obstetrics and gynecology and closely related fields.

About Women & Infants Hospital Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation's leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women's medicine, Women & Infants is the eighth largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country with nearly 8,400 deliveries per year. A U.S.News 2014-15 Best Children's Hospital in Neonatology, in 2009, Women & Infants opened the country's largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.

New England's premier hospital for women and newborns, Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation's only mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation's only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.

Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Center of Excellence from the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; a Center for In Vitro Maturation Excellence by SAGE In Vitro Fertilization; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health; and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute's Gynecologic Oncology Group and the National Institutes of Health's Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

MFM specialists contribute to Clinical Expert Series in Obstetrics & Gynecology 2

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Why does toothpaste make orange juice taste awful? (video)

2014-10-06

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2014 — It's happened to many of us: Half asleep in the morning, you finish brushing your teeth and reach for your daily glass of orange juice. After taking a big swig, you spit it back out, making a face like you've just chewed on a lemon. Turns out, a specific chemical in your toothpaste is responsible for that nasty taste. This week, Reactions explains why toothpaste and orange juice don't mix. Learn all about it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X5_gtel-c0. Subscribe to the series at Reactions YouTube, and follow us on Twitter @ACSreactions to ...

Pressing the accelerator on quantum robotics

2014-10-06

Quantum computing will allow for the creation of powerful computers, but also much smarter and more creative robots than conventional ones. This was the conclusion arrived at by researchers from Spain and Austria, who have confirmed that quantum tools help robots learn and respond much faster to the stimuli around them. Quantum mechanics has revolutionised the world of communications and computers by introducing algorithms which are much quicker and more secure in transferring information. Now researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and the University ...

A glimpse into the 3-D brain: How memories form

2014-10-06

The way neurons are interconnected in the brain is very complicated. This holds especially true for the cells of the hippocampus. It is one of the oldest brain regions and its form resembles a see horse (hippocampus in Latin). The hippocampus enables us to navigate space securely and to form personal memories. So far, the anatomic knowledge of the networks inside the hippocampus and its connection to the rest of the brain has left scientists guessing which information arrived where and when. Signals spread through the brain Accordingly, Dr Martin Pyka and his colleagues ...

No need for water, enzymes are doing it for themselves

2014-10-06

New research by scientists at the University of Bristol has challenged one of the key axioms in biology - that enzymes need water to function. The breakthrough could eventually lead to the development of new industrial catalysts for processing biodiesel. Enzymes are large biological molecules that catalyse thousands of different chemical reactions that are essential for all life, from converting food into energy, to controlling how our cells replicate DNA. Throughout this diverse range of biological environments in which enzymes perform their various roles, the only ...

Research paves way for new generation of fungicides

2014-10-06

Plants that come under attack from pathogens have an automatic immune response. Fungi get around this plant immunity by injecting proteins into the host plant cells. These 'effector proteins' enable the fungi to escape the plant's immune system and allow the fungal cells to enter the plant unrecognised. Exeter scientists have now shown that signalling organelles, known as 'early endosomes' act as long distance messengers in the fungi. They travel rapidly along long tube-like cells between the plant-invading fungal cell tip and the fungal cell nucleus. This rapid communication ...

Online games and remote experiments could reduce scientific fraud, cherry-picking

2014-10-06

PITTSBURGH—One way to combat the rising level of errors and fraud in life sciences research is through massive online laboratories, which use videogames to engage large numbers of non-professional investigators and prevent scientists from manually testing their own hypotheses, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University say. Though unconventional, CMU's Adrien Treuille and Stanford's Rhiju Das argue that this online, game-like approach actually is more scientifically rigorous than the standard practice of scientists proposing an explanation for ...

Treatments for HIV-visceral leishmaniasis co-infected patients

2014-10-06

This news release is available in Spanish. [Gondar, Ethiopia and Geneva, Switzerland – October 6, 2014] - The international research & development (R&D) consortium, AfriCoLeish, formed by six research organizations from East Africa and Europe, has launched a Phase III clinical study to address the extreme difficulty in treating visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in patients who also are HIV-positive. The study will assess the efficacy and the safety of two treatments: a combination treatment of AmBisome® and miltefosine, and AmBisome® alone. This is the first randomized clinical ...

A vicious cycle in osteoarthritis: Sleep disturbance-pain-depression-disability

2014-10-06

New research confirms that sleep disturbances are linked to pain and depression, but not disability, among patients with osteoarthritis (OA). Study results published in Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), found that poor sleep increases depression and disability, but does not worsen pain over time. Arthritis is one of the top three health concerns that cause disability in the U.S., with OA being the most common form of arthritis. Medical evidence reports that nearly 30 million Americans are affected by OA, which has increased ...

A new way to extract bone-making cells from fat tissue

2014-10-06

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Within our fat lives a variety of cells with the potential to become bone, cartilage, or more fat if properly prompted. This makes adipose tissue, in theory, a readily available reservoir for regenerative therapies such as bone healing if doctors can get enough of those cells and compel them to produce bone. In a new study in the journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy, scientists at Brown University demonstrate a new method for extracting a wide variety of potential bone-producing cells from human fat. They developed a fluorescent tag ...

Innovative stroke patient management system cuts hospital bed usage by more than 25 percent

2014-10-06

An innovative patient management system at the acute stroke unit of Kelowna (BC) General Hospital has reduced the number of stroke patient bed days by more than 25 per cent, according to a study of the system presented at the annual Canadian Stroke Congress in Vancouver. In total, it is estimated the new system is saving the 380-bed hospital more than 1,000 bed days per year. This represents annual savings of up to $800,000, all achieved without the need for any new investment in devices, treatments or personnel. "It's a win-win situation," says Dr. John B. Falconer, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

UK study shows there is less stigma against LGBTQ people than you might think, but people with mental health problems continue to experience higher levels of stigma