Women's Health Commons^™

Maternal Biomarkers Of Endothelial Dysfunction And Preterm Delivery, Xinhua Chen, Theresa O Scholl

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

BACKGROUND: Endothelial dysfunction is key to the development of atherosclerosis. Preterm delivery foreshadows later maternal cardiovascular disease (CVD), but it is not known if endothelial dysfunction also occurs. We prospectively measured circulating biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction in pregnant women with preterm or term delivery.

METHODS: We conducted a case-control study nested within a large prospective epidemiological study of young, generally healthy pregnant women. Women who delivered preterm (gestation, n = 240) and controls who delivered at term (n = 439) were included. Pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia were analyzed separately. Circulating endothelial dysfunction biomarkers included soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), vascular …

Estimating The Impact Of Lost To Follow-Up On Breast Cancer Patients' Disease-Free Survival, Debbie Yan Qun Huang

Statistics

Background The 5-year survival rate for patients with breast cancer is much higher than patients with other types of cancer. Due to this longer survival period, breast cancer patients also tend to have increased rates of lost to follow-up, when compared to other cancers. When a patient becomes lost, the occurrence of distant metastasis cannot be reliably ascertained, unless the patient had a breast cancer-specific (BC) death. The impact of lost patients on recurrence rates and disease-free survival (DFS) was explored in breast cancer patients seen at the City of Hope from 1997 to 2012.

Methods Female breast cancer patients …

Vitamin D Supplementation Practices During Pregnancy And Infancy Among A Sample Of Muslim Women In Ireland And Saudi Arabia, Imann Khadrawi

Masters

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone, a group of fat-soluble pro-hormones, which encourages the absorption and metabolism of calcium and phosphorous. The requirement for the nutrient is high at particular stages of the lifecycle especially during pregnancy and infancy. Severe vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy may increase the risk of developing preeclampsia and gestational diabetes in pregnancy and rickets in the child. While vitamin D supplementation has been a policy recommendation in Ireland since 2007, at the time of this study, it was not a policy recommendation in Saudi Arabia. The present quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted to determine the …

Development Of A Diagnostic Test Set To Assess Agreement In Breast Pathology: Practical Application Of The Guidelines For Reporting Reliability And Agreement Studies (Grras), Natalia V. Oster, Patricia A. Carney, Kimberly H. Allison, Donald L. Weaver, Lisa Reisch, Gary Longton, Tracy Onega

Dartmouth Scholarship

Diagnostic test sets are a valuable research tool that contributes importantly to the validity and reliability of studies that assess agreement in breast pathology. In order to fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of any agreement and reliability study, however, the methods should be fully reported. In this paper we provide a step-by-step description of the methods used to create four complex test sets for a study of diagnostic agreement among pathologists interpreting breast biopsy specimens. We use the newly developed Guidelines for Reporting Reliability and Agreement Studies (GRRAS) as a basis to report these methods.

Erlin2 Promotes Breast Cancer Cell Survival By Modulating Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Pathways, Guohui Wang, Gang Liu, Xiaogang Wang, Seema Sethi, Rouba Ali-Fehmi, Judith Abrams, Ze Zheng, Kezhong Zhang, Stephen Ethier, Zeng-Quan Yang

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Abstract

Background

Amplification of the 8p11-12 region has been found in approximately 15% of human breast cancer and is associated with poor prognosis. Previous genomic analysis has led us to identify the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lipid raft-associated 2 (ERLIN2) gene as one of the candidate oncogenes within the 8p11-12 amplicon in human breast cancer, particularly in the luminal subtype. ERLIN2, an ER membrane protein, has recently been identified as a novel mediator of ER-associated degradation. Yet, the biological roles of ERLIN2 and molecular mechanisms by which ERLIN2 coordinates ER pathways in breast carcinogenesis remain unclear.

Methods

We established the MCF10A-ERLIN2 …

Increasing Parity Is Associated With Cumulative Effects On Memory, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this investigation was to determine if reproductive experience is associated with cumulative effects on human memory performance during pregnancy and if these effects persist into the postpartum period.

METHODS: Verbal recall memory performance was assessed in 254 women four times during pregnancy and at 3 months postpartum. The relation between parity and memory function was evaluated with hierarchical linear modeling and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).

RESULTS: The data indicate that the previously documented adverse effects of pregnancy on memory performance are compounded with successive pregnancies. During gestation and postpartum, multiparity was associated with poorer memory function, …

Study Of The Four Factor Theory Of Women’S Sexual Function, Julie M. Merrell

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Tiefer, Hall, and Tavris (2002) described factors comprising four categories of female sexual function. They suggested that unique factors need to be examined to understand sexual function in women. Socio-cultural, political, or economic factors, partner and relationship factors, psychological factors, and medical factors were described as aspects of women’s lives that can be the source of sexual dysfunction. In a previous study, Merrell (2007) utilized Tiefer et al’s (2002) four factor model of sexual functioning to examine female sexual functioning looking specifically at body shame, relationship satisfaction, positive and negative affect, sexual self-schema, and overall health. Based on the results …

The Mind-Body Connection: The Association Between Adolescent Locus Of Control And Indicators Of Physical Health, C. Jayne Brahler, James Cropper

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Locus of control (LOC) describes an individual’s generalized beliefs or expectancies that their reinforcements are under internal versus external control (1). An individual exhibits either an internal or external LOC. This study examines the link between LOC and selected health risk factors in adolescents. A convenience sample of 167 high school physical education students completed a 13-item LOC questionnaire based on Rotter’s 1966 instrument.

Various anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and body fat were recorded on all subjects. A subsample of 61 female students received blood chemistry analysis that included a lipid profile, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), Apo …

A Cohort Study Of Reproductive And Hormonal Factors And Renal Cell Cancer Risk In Women, Gc Kabat, Stephanie A. Navarro Silvera, Ab Miller, Te Rohan

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

We examined the association of reproductive and hormonal factors with renal cell cancer risk in a cohort study of 89 835 Canadian women. Compared with nulliparous women, parous women were at increased risk (hazard ratio (HR) 1.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02–3.09), and there was a significant gradient of risk with increasing levels of parity: relative to nulliparous women, women who had X5 pregnancies lasting 4 months or more had a 2.4-fold risk (HR 1⁄4 2.41, 95% CI 1⁄4 1.27–4.59, P for trend 0.01). Ever use of oral contraceptives was associated with a modest reduction in risk. No associations were …

An In Vitro Model Of Ovarian Cancer: Studying The Effects Of Talc And Pycnogenol®, Amber Renée Buz'zard

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer and accounts for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. The American Cancer Society has suggested that poor diet, talc and industrial pollutants may increase the risk of developing ovarian cancer. Talc is ubiquitous and concern is raised about its safety, role as a possible carcinogen and known ability to cause irritation and inflammation. Due to the silent nature of ovarian cancer, chemoprevention is a high priority. The most useful chemopreventive compounds will inhibit, delay or reverse carcinogenesis, and can be taken for long periods of time with …

Decreasing Barriers For Teens: Evaluation Of A New Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Strategy In School-Based Clinics, Abbey C. Sidebottom, Amanda Birnbaum, Sarah S. Nafstad

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Sidebottom et al seek to evaluate the effects of the change in distribution systems on students' receipt of requested contraceptives and demand for contraceptive school-based clinics (SBC). The result of the study reveals that the average number of requests per student was higher under the voucher system, possibly as a consequence of expires vouchers resulting in repeated requests. The findings also suggest that SBCs could go a step further in reducing adolescents' barriers to accessing contraceptives by adopting an on-site direct delivery system..

The Benefits Of Breastfeeding: An Introduction For Health Educators, Sheila G. J. Clark, Timothy J. Bungum

Environmental & Global Health Faculty Research

Currently 16% of Americans breastfeed their children for at least 12 months as recommended by the AAP, which is well below the HP 2010 goal of 25%. Breastfed infants receive benefits that can improve their health throughout their lives. The benefits of breastfeeding for children include increased resistance to infectious diseases, such as gastroenteritis, respiratory tract infections, and ear infections. Breastfed children also display lower rates of chronic diseases including diabetes, obesity, asthma, and leukemia. The choice to breastfeed results in economic benefits from lower health care costs and from reduced spending on infant formula. The Healthy People 2010 targets …

Update - March 1993, Loma Linda University Center For Christian Bioethics

Update

In this issue:

-- Loma Linda offers Masters of Arts in Biomedical and Clinical Ethics and assists Claremont with Theological degree

[ Depo-Provera: Contraceptive Dream or Nightmare? ]
-- A Gynecologist's Perspective
-- Some Catholic Moral Reflections

-- Doctor of Philosophy at Claremont

A Descriptive Study Of Women's Attitudes Towards Obtaining Or Not Obtaining Papanicolaou Smears, Linda J. Shults

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

It was the purpose of this study to identify the attitudes of a selected group of women which influenced their participation in Papanicolaou testing. These attitudes were inferred from the reasons women gave for obtaining the test. The subjects were randomly selected from the telephone book of a medium-sized town in Southern California. The 135 women who participated in the telephone interview were considered to be the respondents in the study.

A review of the literature revealed that through the annual use of the Papanicolaou smear, approximately 11,000 deaths every year from uterine and cervical cancer could be prevented, Attitudes …