Use and Effectiveness of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonists for Prophylactic Menstrual Suppression in Postmenarchal Women Who Undergo Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.

Study Objective: To describe the rates of use and effectiveness of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists and other forms of hormonal menstrual suppression in prevention of vaginal bleeding among young women who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT).

Design: Retrospective descriptive study.

Setting: University-based pediatric HCT practice.

Pattern of mutation rates in the germline of Drosophila melanogaster males from a large-scale mutation screening experiment.

The sperm or eggs of sexual organisms go through a series of cell divisions from the fertilized egg; mutations can occur at each division. Mutations in the lineage of cells leading to the sperm or eggs are of particular importance because many such mutations may be shared by somatic tissues and also may be inherited, thus having a lasting consequence. For decades, little has been known about the pattern of the mutation rates along the germline development.

Public opinion regarding utilization of assisted reproductive technology (ART) in obese women.

Background: There have been calls to restrict access to fertility treatment in women above a certain body mass index (BMI). It is important to consider public expectations before formulating policy. The study objective was to assess public opinion regarding provision of assisted reproductive technology (ART) to obese (BMI>30 kg/m(2)) women in the United States.

Infertility, infertility treatment, and achievement of pregnancy in female survivors of childhood cancer: a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort.

Background: Previous studies have shown decreased pregnancy rates and early menopause in female cancer survivors; however, infertility rates and reproductive interventions have not been studied. We investigated infertility and time to pregnancy in female childhood cancer survivors, and analysed treatment characteristics associated with infertility and subsequent pregnancy.

Methods: The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) is a cohort study including 5 year cancer survivors from 26 Canadian and US institutions who were younger than 21 years at the time of diagnosis between Jan 1, 1970, and Dec 31, 1986, and a sibling control group.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic myomectomy and adenomyomectomy with a flexible CO2 laser device.

We describe a novel surgical technique combining the use of a robotic surgical platform with a flexible CO2 laser in gynecologic surgery at a university-hospital-based reproductive medicine practice. Thirteen women with symptomatic uterine fibroids and/or adenomyosis, desiring uterine conservation, underwent robot-assisted laparoscopic myomectomy or focal adenomyomectomy with CO2 laser energy using a novel flexible delivery fiber (BeamPath GYN-L fiber, OmniGuide, Cambridge, MA, USA). On average, four myomas or areas of adenomyosis were removed with an average total specimen weight of 95 g.

Early β-human chorionic gonadotropin trends in vanishing twin pregnancies.

Objective: To describe the early β-hCG trends in vanishing twins compared with normally progressing singleton and twin pregnancies.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: University-based infertility clinic.

Environmental lithium exposure in the north of Chile--II. Natural food sources.

Lithium, generally, occurs in barely trace amounts in ground water with few major exceptions. One of these is the northern area of Chile where all potable water and many of the food stuffs contain high levels of lithium. Surface water can contain between 100 and 10,000 times more than most rivers in North America.

Population-based study of attitudes toward posthumous reproduction.

Objective: To measure public attitudes toward posthumous reproduction.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Electronic survey.

Female cancer survivors are low responders and have reduced success compared with other patients undergoing assisted reproductive technologies.

Objective: To investigate the effect of prior chemotherapy and radiation on assisted reproductive technology (ART) outcomes.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: University-based infertility clinic.

Highly variable recessive lethal or nearly lethal mutation rates during germ-line development of male Drosophila melanogaster.

Each cell of higher organism adults is derived from a fertilized egg through a series of divisions, during which mutations can occur. Both the rate and timing of mutations can have profound impacts on both the individual and the population, because mutations that occur at early cell divisions will affect more tissues and are more likely to be transferred to the next generation. Using large-scale multigeneration screening experiments for recessive lethal or nearly lethal mutations of Drosophila melanogaster and recently developed statistical analysis, we show for male D.

Transabdominal follicular aspiration for oocyte retrieval in patients with ovaries inaccessible by transvaginal ultrasound.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of ultrasound-guided transabdominal follicular aspiration when the ovaries are not accessible transvaginally.

Design: Retrospective case-control study.

Setting: University-hospital based in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic.

Multivariate analysis of the association between oocyte donor characteristics, including basal follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and age, and IVF cycle outcomes.

Objective: To determine whether oocyte donor FSH and age are independently associated IVF cycle success.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: University hospital-based IVF clinic.

Isolated teratozoospermia does not affect in vitro fertilization outcome and is not an indication for intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Objective: To reevaluate clinical management of isolated teratozoospermia, in couples initiating IVF.

Design: Retrospective analysis of fertility indices in 535 cycles.

Setting: A large, university-based fertility center.

p53 codon 72 polymorphism and risk of cervical cancer.

Storey et al. (1998) implicated the proline/argine polymorphism of the codon 72 of the tumor-suppressor gene p53 in the development of cervical cancer (CC) with the observation that the p53 protein is more efficiently inactivated by the E6 oncoprotein of human papillomavirus in p53 arginine as compared with its proline isoform. These authors further noted that in the United Kingdom, individuals homozygous for the arginine allele were several times more susceptible to HPV-associated tumorigenesis that proline/arginine heterozygotes.

Admixture in Hispanics: distribution of ancestral population contributions in the Continental United States.

The effect of gene flow on Hispanic populations from different geographic regions of the United States was analyzed using six autosomal DNA markers (LDLR, GYPA, HBGG, D7S8, GC, and HLA-DQA). By region of sampling, the Hispanic populations showed different ancestry contributions, from a trihybrid structure with European, Native American, and African contributions (California, Nevada, Florida, New Jersey, and Virginia) to a dihybrid structure with European and American contributions (Southwest population) or European and African contributions (Pennsylvania and Southeast population). These findings allowed us to define two regional groups, the West and the East.

Maximum likelihood estimates of admixture in Northeastern Mexico using 13 short tandem repeat loci.

Tetrameric short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms are widely used in population genetics, molecular evolution, gene mapping and linkage analysis, paternity tests, forensic analysis, and medical applications. This article provides allelic distributions of the STR loci D3S1358, vWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, CSF1PO, TPOX, TH01, and D16S539 in 143 Mestizos from Northeastern Mexico, estimates of contributions of genes of European (Spanish), American Indian and African origin in the gene pool of this admixed Mestizo population (using 10 of these loci); and a comparison of the genetic admixture of this population with the previously reported two polymorphic molecular markers, D1S80 and HLA-DQA1 (n = 103). Genotype distributions were in agreement with Hardy-Weinberg expectations (HWE) for almost all 13 STR markers.

Measuring health beliefs in Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans with type 2 diabetes: adapting an existing instrument.

Mexican Americans bear a disproportionate burden of type 2 diabetes, and although clinicians and researchers are beginning to develop culturally competent interventions, few instruments are available for measuring variables relevant to health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of a diabetes-related health belief instrument translated for use with Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans. Three hundred and twenty-six Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans from Starr County, a Texas-Mexico border community, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes participated in the study.

Genetic admixture in three Mexican Mestizo populations based on D1S80 and HLA-DQA1 loci.

This study compares genetic polymorphisms at the D1S80 and HLA-DQA1 loci in three Mexican Mestizo populations from three large states (Nuevo León, Jalisco, and the Federal District). Allele frequency distributions are relatively homogenous in the three samples; only the Federal District population shows minor differences of the HLA-DQA1 allele frequencies compared with the other two. In terms of genetic composition, these Mestizo populations show evidence of admixture with predominantly Spanish-European (50-60%) and Amerindian (37-49%) contributions; the African contribution (1-3%) is minor.

Facial clefting and Amerindian admixture in populations of Santiago, Chile.

Among congenital malformations, cleft lip with and/or without cleft palate has the highest relative frequencies and shows ethnic variation in prevalence. Both malformations are generally more common among the Asian than European populations. Many populations of Chile have genes of Amerindian and Spanish ancestry, with considerable variation in the degree of Amerindian admixture.

Genetic variation by birth cohorts in Mexican Americans of Starr County, Texas.

Mexican Americans residing in Starr County, Texas, were grouped by their year of birth (1896-1925, 1926-1955, and 1956-1985) to determine the extent of birth cohort-related genetic variation within this population and the genetic differences, if any, from the Mexican population residing in the Metropolitan Monterrey Area (MMA), Nuevo León, México. Twenty-one genetic markers were analyzed which indicate that the three birth cohort groups are genetically indistinguishable. Gene diversity analysis suggests that more than 99.

Obesity and upper body fat distribution in Mexican American children from families with a diabetic proband.

Unlabelled: Upper and centralized body fat distribution is associated with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Few studies have focused on anthropometric characteristics of preadults from families in which there is a diabetic (NIDDM) proband. This study explores the prevalence of upper and centralized body fatness in Mexican American children from the Diabetes Alert study (1981-1983) in Starr County, Texas.