Effectiveness of Sengstaken-Blankemore tube to control postpartum hemorrhage / 대한산부인과학회지

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness and identify the role of interventional procedure of tamponade treatment with modified Sengstaken-Blankemore (S-B) tube on control of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) unresponsive to conventional medical treatment. METHODS: This study was performed retrospectively on the clinical records of 90 patients who had experienced PPH at the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of OO University Hospital from February, 2000 to September, 2005. We have actively applied tamponade balloon since 2004. As a result, tamponade balloon were applied to 17 patients. Medical records were reviewed such as clinical status, cause of bleeding, volume of balloon, duration of balloon, complication, success rate and additional treatment. RESULTS: We have overall success rate of tamponade balloon in 11 (64.7%) of 17 patients of PPH. The causes of bleeding were subinvolution of uterus (100%), uterine atony (80%) and abnormal placentation (20%) in order of success rate. There was no major complication related to the tamponade procedure. We had compared final treatment during two period (before tamponade use v.s after tamponade use). 15 (33.3%) received invasive procedure and 8 (17.8%) received hysterectomy before tamponade use. However 10 (22.2%) received invasive procedure and just 1 (2.2%) received hysterectomy after tamponade use. CONCLUSION: Tamponade with modified S-B tube is effective on PPH unresponsive to conventional medical treatment and cuts down additional invasive procedure when tamponade treatment failed.

Association of the COMT Gene Polymorphism with the Risk of PCOS in Korean Women / 대한불임학회지

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether polymorphism of Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene is associated with the risk of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in Korean women. METHODS: One hundred and thirty-six PCOS patients and eighty four controls were enrolled. Blood samples were collected from the patients diagnosed according to the 2003 revised criteria of the Rotterdam ESHRE/ASRM-sponsored PCOS consensus workshop group. Age matched women with regular menstruation from same geographic region were recruited as control subject. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of PCR products were done to determine all individuals' genotype. RESULTS: In women with COMT(LL) genotype, there was decreased PCOS risk and this difference was statistically significant (OR 0.24, 95% CI 0.11~0.51). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the COMT(LL) genetic polymorphism might be associated with PCOS risk in Korean women.