Fertility May Correlate to Birth Weight
Women who have had fertility problems are more likely to have very small babies, according to physicians from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Very low birth-weight babies are defined as those weighing 3.3 pounds or less. They are much more likely to die or to develop health problems later in life.
Dr. Thomas McElrath and colleagues surveyed 10,000 women in 48 states. They reported in Obstetrics and Gynecology that those women who went to a doctor because of fertility problems had very small babies 6.8% of the time. Those who were treated for infertility had an 11.4% incidence--compared to a 1.2% normal national incidence. McElrath said he did not know why.
Transplanted Pig Cells May Ease Parkinson’s
Studies in rats suggest that transplanting pig testicle cells called Sertoli cells into the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients could slow the progression of the devastating disease that affects 500,000 to 1 million Americans.
Neurologist Serge Przedborski and his colleagues at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons reported in the October Nature Medicine that the transplanted cells reduced Parkinson’s-like symptoms by 50%.
Separately, Dr. Samuel Ellis of the Boston University Medical Center reported at a San Diego symposium that implants of fetal pig brain tissue into 10 Parkinson’s patients were well-tolerated after six months and had improved the patients’ conditions measurably.
Studies Quantify Effects of Sex Abuse of Teen Girls
Teenage girls who report being sexually abused are more likely to get pregnant, have poor grades and use drugs, according to three studies. The studies, one released Tuesday by the Commonwealth Fund and two published the same day in Family Planning Perspectives, found that abused girls face a tougher road:
* In Washington state, teen girls who had been sexually abused were more than twice as likely to have sexual intercourse and three times as likely to get pregnant.
* In an unidentified Midwestern state, teens with a history of sexual abuse were likely to have more sexual partners than other teens.
* And in a national survey of adolescents, girls who had been sexually or physically abused were more likely to be depressed, smoke, drink alcohol and use drugs.
In Washington state, researchers found 23% of adolescent girls were sexually abused; in the Midwestern state, it was 10%. The national survey found 12% of high school girls reporting sexual abuse.
Teens, Adults Can Have Whooping Cough Too
Whooping cough, usually considered a disease of the very young, is actually an extremely common--but rarely recognized--cause of nasty lingering coughs in teenagers and adults, federal researchers reported Tuesday. Preliminary new figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that several hundred thousand adolescents and adults may get sick enough annually with this to seek treatment.
Virtually all children in developed countries are vaccinated against whooping cough. But immunity wears off gradually, beginning around age 8 or 10. When whooping cough strikes teens and adults, it is often blamed on colds or flu.
Eliminating Bacterium May Reduce Ulcer Risk
Eradicating the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori in the stomach can decrease the likelihood of developing ulcers from prolonged use of aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs, according to Asian researchers. Dr. Francis K.L. Chan of the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong studied 92 patients who had a nonsymptomatic H. pylori infection and arthritis pain. Half had their infections cleared with a cocktail of antibiotics, while all were given the anti-inflammatory drug naproxen for pain. Chan reported in the Oct. 4 Lancet that 12 of the patients who remained infected developed ulcers, compared to only one of those treated with antibiotics.
