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Access To Abortion Services In Kansas Hindered After Closure Of Tiller's Clinic
After the murder of abortion provider George Tiller and the closure of his Wichita, Kan., clinic, residents of the city face about a three-hour drive to the nearest abortion provider, a distance experts say is not uncommon for access to abortion services in southern and midwestern states, the Wichita Eagle reports. Jenny O"Donnell of the Abortion Access Project said that southern and midwestern states have the heaviest restrictions on abortion, adding that "substantial populations don"t have an abortion provider" in states such as Mississippi and Arkansas. According to 2005 statistics from the Guttmacher Institute, 87% of U.S. counties have no abortion provider; the figure rises to 94% of counties in the Midwest and 96% of counties in Kansas. The number of abortion providers in Kansas declined from 15 in 1992 to seven in 2005, while the number of providers nationwide dropped from 2,380 to 1,787 over the same time period, according to Guttmacher. Experts say the decline is the result of several factors, including public pressures, increased regulation that has driven up the cost and complexity of providing abortion and a general trend in the health care industry toward consolidated, more specialized practices.Vicki Saporta, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation, said that the decrease in the number of abortion providers is misleading on some levels. The decline primarily has occurred among hospitals and small providers who perform a few procedures a year, while major clinics that specialize in abortion have remained essentially stable, Saporta said. Peter Brownie, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said that the group"s clinics have experienced an increase in contacts from women from south-central Kansas since Tiller"s clinic closed a little more than one week ago. He added, "At the present time, there"s no place between Denver and Kansas City where a woman can obtain abortion care. That"s a significant barrier for women throughout the state that have that need." NAF has established a national hotline to offer referrals for women who have to make new arrangements for abortion care because of the closure of Tiller"s clinic, Saporta said (Lefler, Wichita Eagle, 6/9).
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Rush University Commencement Ceremony, June 13 At The UIC Pavilion
Rush University will award 536 baccalaureate and graduate degrees at its 37th commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 13, at 1:45 p.m. at the UIC Pavilion, 525 South Racine, Chicago.
News of the day
Amyloid Aggregations And Tau Pathology Reflected By Cortical Thickness In The Default Network Of MCI And AD
Alzheimer"s disease patients show a relentless decline in memory over the course of the disease, which is accompanied by both brain atrophy and by characteristic deposits in the brain tissue called amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences studied a large database, collected in the US, of patients with Alzheimer"s or memory complaints who had MRI scans and had spinal taps to collect cerebrospinal fluid, which is in the brain and spinal chord. By examining the CFS they could measure the amounts of the substances that make p plaques and tangles, and related this to brain atrophy. They found that the amount of plaque and tangle-producing chemicals in the cerebrospinal fluid correlated with brain tissue loss in selective regions of the brain which are typically affected in Alzheimer"s disease. The brains in these regions had thinned out suggesting that brain cells had died. These regions are important for memory and are typically active when the brain is at rest. Using these techniques may ultimately help identify early markers of disease in Alzheimer"s, potentially indicating who is likely to develop Alzheimer"s before memory loss is critical.
Diagnostics

Regardless Of Family History, HRT-Breast Cancer Risk Stays Same

The risk of developing breast cancer due to taking hormone replacement therapy appears to be the same for women with a family history of the disease and without a family history, a University of Rochester Medical Center study concluded. The study, published online this week in the journal Epidemiology, adds to the evolving picture of what factors, either alone or in combination, boost breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women. It also refutes the notion, held by many in the medical community, that a familial predisposition to breast cancer enhances the carcinogenic effects of estrogen. "Although we know that family history is a risk factor, we don"t know yet what it is about family history that conveys the risk," said Robert E. Gramling, M.D., D.Sc., assistant professor of Family Medicine and of Community and Preventive Medicine at URMC. "Some have proposed that it might be an increased sensitivity to estrogen, but our data did not support that notion. In fact, this study suggests the causal pathway based on family history is probably not estrogen sensitivity." Researchers analyzed data from the Women"s Health Initiative randomized trial, which followed 16,608 postmenopausal women, ages 50 to 79, who took hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or a placebo pill between 1993 and 2002. Among the participants, 349 cases of invasive breast cancer occurred during a mean follow-up period of 5.6 years. Gramling divided the data into subgroups and studied the direct interaction between the contributions that the two risk factors (HRT and family history) had on breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women. The results showed only a negligible degree of interaction, suggesting that HRT conveys no greater breast cancer risk to women with, versus without, a first-degree family history of breast cancer (i.e. breast cancer in a mother, sister or daughter). The study does have limitations, the authors noted. First, the women had a short period of exposure to hormone treatment and a short follow-up period. It is possible that longer exposure to HRT would have generated different results, the study said. Also, researchers asked women about family history of breast cancer only at the start of the WHI study. Finally, the majority of women who enrolled in the WHI trial represented a more educated and somewhat healthier population, and it is unknown how this might have influenced any interaction between hormone therapy and family history. The WHI study gained notoriety when it was stopped abruptly in 2002, after data safety monitoring experts found hormonal therapy did not provide many of the benefits doctors and patients expected, and also carried some unforeseen risks. Since then, many postmenopausal women have been wary of using HRT. Scientists have continued to study the data for nuances that will lead to a more complete picture. Gramling believes his research adds a new dimension to the large body of information now available on HRT and breast cancer. "The decision to use hormonal therapy, even for a short period of time, is very difficult for many women," Gramling said. "We hope our data will provide postmenopausal women and their physicians more evidence to consider when weighing the risks versus benefits." The study was conducted using publicly available data from the WHI trial, which was supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Leslie Orr University of Rochester Medical Center


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