ExAblate 2000 (MRgFUS) non-invasive fibroid treatment receives two new associated approvals by the FDA

March 9, 2007 — EclecticGeek

Received an email message from a visitor who wanted to pass along this information about the additional ExAblate 2000 approvals by the FDA. Thanks for the update!

From the email message:

The FDA approved new software that allows the ExAblate 2000 incisionless surgery procedure to be performed more efficiently by permitting more sonications during the same treatment window. This means that women with fibroids can be treated faster and women with larger fibroids may now be eligible for the outpatient procedure. The greater the area of the fibroid that a physician can treat, the greater the symptom relief. The agency is also allowing the system to be used with a more powerful open MRI machine, which means the physicians will have an even more precise view inside the woman’s body.

You can click the links to view the full press releases on Insightec’s web site but I included excerpts…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Body, Diagnosis, Doctors, ExAblate, Fibroids, Geek, Health, Interventional Radiologist, MRI, Medicine, Minimally or Non-Invasive, News, Science, Treatment, Women's Health. Comments Off

Get your fibroids on the dance floor and do the robot

August 22, 2006 — EclecticGeek

Glanced over some news feeds yesterday and noticed this headline under Yahoo! News | Uterine Fibroids:

Robot-assisted surgery removes fibroids but preserves women’s fertility

You know I love robots and other gizmos (because I’m a geek) so I had to click the link. The story revolves around Anna Crowder who needed a fibroid removed but still wanted to have a child. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Fertility, Fibroids, Geek, Health, Medicine, Minimally or Non-Invasive, Myomectomy, News, Pregnancy, Science, Surgery, Treatment, Women's Health. 105 Comments »

New treatment uses sound waves to shrink uterine fibroid tumors

August 20, 2006 — EclecticGeek

Stumbled upon a TIME magazine article as I wandered around the Internet looking for all sorts of fibroid information. It discusses the benefits of MRgFUS (Magnetic Resonance guided Focused Ultrasound). This non-invasive procedure simultaneously images, treats, and ablates targeted areas. Approved by the FDA in 2004, it is available at approximately a dozen US locations and is also performed worldwide.

Read the TIME magazine article: Giving Fibroids the Heat

Other informational links:
MRgFUS – Non-invasive treatment for uterine fibroid tumors
ExAblate 2000 MRgFUS system
ExAblate 2000 treatment centers in the US and abroad

[Edited to add the ExAblate toll-free number (US): 1 866 EXABLATE (1 866 392 2528). Thanks Randee!]

Can’t believe the small number of facilities offering this treatment. I hope it continues to steadily increase. We’ve got to spread the word on ALL options.

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Related Posts:
Does anyone have an experience with ExAblate (MRgFUS)?
ExAblate 2000 (MRgFUS) non-invasive fibroid treatment receives two new associated approvals by the FDA

Posted in ExAblate, Fibroids, Health, MRI, Medicine, Minimally or Non-Invasive, News, Science, Treatment, Ultrasound, Women's Health. 19 Comments »

Looking for a feed that specifically searches for uterine fibroid news?

August 12, 2006 — EclecticGeek

Mentioned previously how I am attempting to assemble a uterine fibroid reference site with specialized feeds and search tools. So far, the only medical/health news site that will allow me to tailor a feed is Google News. I’m still looking.

I’ve decided to go ahead and add that specific feed to this site. So, along the right side (probably have to scroll down a bit) there is a “Google News | Uterine Fibroids” section. Use the orange icon to get this news feed for yourself. Click on the individual title to view that particular story. Click on Google News | Uterine Fibroids to view the results of the Google News search using the words “uterine fibroids”. Results can be sorted by relevance or date. Of course, you can also change the search terms.

Hope you find this useful.

Now, if I can just track down 5 or 6 others…

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UPDATES: (August 12, 2006) Found another one. Under Google News, you will see Yahoo! News | Uterine Fibroids. Works the same way. Must thank Jeremy Zawodny for this. I stumbled upon his blog post on Yahoo! News Search via RSS. There’s even a Yahoo! News Search RSS URL Generator to make creating a specialized feed quick and painless.

(August 13, 2006) Just found out that I can set up customized PubMed RSS feeds. An updated listing of actual research articles. I’m excited. Look in the RSS feed section for PubMed | Uterine Fibroid. This feed is courtesy of AJ Cann who was kind enough to visit and leave the information in a comment. Thanks for your help. Want the latest news about microbiology (bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses) and have a bit of a sense of humor? Visit his blog.

Posted in Blogging, Fibroids, Health, Life, Medicine, News, Personal, References, Science, Site News, Women's Health. 4 Comments »

The truth about uterine fibroids reported on NPR

May 31, 2006 — EclecticGeek

I found this radio piece about uterine fibroid tumors. Happy to see National Public Radio coverage. You can listen to the story using either RealPlayer or Windows Media Player.

The Truth About Uterine Fibroids

News & Notes with Ed Gordon, May 29, 2006 · Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous tumors that can cause bleeding, cramping, swelling and miscarriage. Farai Chideya talks to gynecologist Hilda Hutcherson about diagnosing and treating uterine fibroids.

Here is the link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5437130

The Geek’s summary:

The piece lasts about 6 minutes and discusses several treatment options for fibroids including laparoscopic and hysteroscopic procedures, and Uterine Artery Embolization. The gynecologist in this story considers hysterectomy a treatment of last resort. Let’s hope this is a trend that catches on.

Posted in Diagnosis, Doctors, Fibroids, Gynecologist, Health, Medical Decisions, Medicine, Minimally or Non-Invasive, Myomectomy, News, References, Surgery, Treatment, Uterine Fibroid Embolization, Women's Health. 2 Comments »

New clinical trial looks to optimize uterine fibroid embolization

May 29, 2006 — EclecticGeek

Received this article in a Google News Alert using the search term “fibroid”. Since I plan on having this procedure in the future, I am interested in seeing the research results.

Penn researchers start new clinical trial to examine ways to improve treatment of uterine fibroids

Philadelphia, PA – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are working on ways to improve the results of a non-surgical method to treat fibroids. They are examining the overall effectiveness of different agents used to destroy uterine fibroids – a discovery that could lead to more answers about the durability of a procedure called Uterine Fibroid Embolization (UFE). It’s already been established throughout the medical community that, after a decade, UFE works to relieve the symptoms of fibroids. Now, in this new study, investigators want to learn how to optimize the procedure, by running a comparison of materials used during it.

Read the full article: Penn researchers start new clinical trial to examine ways to improve treatment of uterine fibroids

The Geek’s summary:

  • Randomized, single-center study involving 60 patients and lasting about nine months
  • Two different particless will be compared (Contour SE Microspheres vs. Embosphere Microspheres)
  • Several researchers will perform UFE procedures and then compare patient outcomes through MRI to determine which particle does a more effective job at destroying fibroid tissue

Links:
Learn more about uterine fibroids. Images and animation are available upon request.
Ask a Penn Interventional Radiologist a question about UFE
Procedure Overview by Boston Scientific

Posted in Clinical Studies, Fibroids, Health, Medicine, Minimally or Non-Invasive, News, References, Research, Science, Treatment, Uterine Fibroid Embolization, Women's Health. 4 Comments »

Google News Alerts keep me updated

May 28, 2006 — EclecticGeek

Google Alerts are emails that are sent automatically when there are new results for your search terms. A News alert lets you know if new articles make it into the top ten results of a Google News search. I signed up about a month ago to receive alerts on the search terms of “fibroid”, “fibroid tumor”, and “uterine fibroid”. Occasionally, I’ll post the information here. A recent News Alert caught my eye and is discussed in my next entry.

Posted in Fibroids, Health, Medicine, News, References, Research, Science, Women's Health. Comments Off