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This is the third installment of my geeky science series on the abstracts and posters presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 32nd annual Scientific Meeting held March 1 – March 6, 2007.
Pregnancy after MRgFUS for Uterine Fibroids: First Experiences
This is the second in my series of geeky reports on the abstracts and posters presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 32nd annual Scientific Meeting held March 1 – March 6, 2007.
Post-Embolization Syndrome: Leukocytosis after Uterine Artery Embolization
The Society of Interventional Radiology held its 32nd annual Scientific Meeting from March 1 – March 6, 2007. Multiple abstracts and posters were presented. I’ll try my best to discuss as many of the fibroid-related ones as I can. Yes, this is (hopefully) the first in a series of very geeky reports.
A Prospective Randomized Comparison of Partial to Complete Uterine Fibroid Embolization
Wanted to blog a bit about normal distribution, the Gaussian curve, the bell curve (pick your favorite name). I spent most of yesterday reading about normal distribution and clinical studies and variables and skewing. Rekindled memories of my Biostatistics class. Hard to believe I understood all that stuff at one point in my life. Now, it’s just Greek to me. 
My point here is that (in general) with treatments given to a large enough sample of patients, a Gaussian curve is produced. Keeping that curve in mind in terms of therapeutic experience:
This, in fact, is the basis for an upcoming post on my experience with Lupron.
Here are some links with additional information about normal distribution:
Biostatistics and Analysis of Clinical Data (Chiacchierini)
Statistics notes: The normal distribution (Altman and Bland)
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:
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
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.
You know, scientists still aren’t quite sure what causes uterine fibroid tumors. As someone who still believes that a “Star Trek”-type transporter is just around the corner, I find the “we just don’t know” answer a bit puzzling. Since one of my interests is genetic medicine, I’ll look for the latest research to attempt to answer if fibroids “run in families”.
Fibroid tumors are a reoccurring theme in my family so I am intrigued by the thought of a genetic component. Should I talk about DNA microarray research, changes in gene expression, or mutations now? Nah, I’ll wait but it‘s great to think that scientists will have a breakthrough one day and future generations of women will never have to endure this. (Yes, that was my flying car moment.) In the interim, I’ll use this blog to keep both my family and you and your family informed.
Look who’s talking about fibroids