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Query: UMLS:C0030794 (pelvic pain)
 4,056 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

An integrated health and family planning program, operated by the University of Ife Teaching Hospital, was assessed to determine the impact of the integrated approach on family planning service utilization among the predominantly Yoruba residents of the city. In Nigeria, family planning services are generally delivered in clinics which have little or no connection with medical facilities, and service utilization is low. In 1979 the hospital decided to include family planning as part of the routine medical services provided at its 8 clinics located within a 25 kilometer radius of the hospital. Staff members at the clinics were trained in family planning. Trained female fieldworkers conducted motivational activities to encourage the women in the community to use the family planning services of the clinic. The program provided women with an opportunity to obtain contraceptives in a familiar setting and as part of their routine medical care. Neither parental nor spousal consent was required. Yoruba men tend to oppose family planning. Data for the study was obtained from the records of the program's 1495 new acceptors served by the program during its first 2 years of operation. 50.6% of the acceptors were 25-34 years of age, and another 31.7% were between 35-44 years of age. Very few teenagers utilized the services. 96% of the wome were married and they had an average of 4.4 living children. 56% were Catholic, 25% were Protestant, and 16% were Muslim. 37% were illiterate, and another 42.5% could barely read or write. Most were wives of government workers or service men. 88% had never used a modern contraceptive, and 94.5% were not using a method at the time of their first clinic visit. 68.4% of the acceptors were referred to the clinic by the fieldworkers or other health personnel. Only 11.2% sought the services on their own. 85% of the acceptors choose oral contraceptives (OCs), 13% had IUDs inserted, 0.3% were sterilized, and the remaining 2% chose other methods. The low sterilization rate probably reflected the fact that spousal consent was required for sterilization. Side effects reported by the OC users included asthma (9.6%), headaches (5.2%), phlebitis (3.5%), jaundice (1.7%), chest pain (1.5%), depression (1.5%), scanty menses (0.8%), and high blood pressure (0.4%). Among IUD users, 10.8% had intermenstrual bleeding, 18.4% reported pelvic pain, and another 6.8% reported a variety of other problems. 42.1% of the acceptors wanted no more children, and the remainder wanted to avoid the hardships associated with traditional methods of spacing. Correlation analysis revealed that the total number of living children was negatively related to maternal education and that women with sons wanted significantly fewer additional children than women with fewer or no sons. 51% of the acceptors were continuing contraceptive use at the time of the study. The study confirmed the feasibility of an integrated approach. The findings should be of use to government officials who want to improve service utilization in the national family planning program.
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PMID:Integrated family planning services: a Nigerian experience. 651 Mar 20

Chlamydia are obligate intracellular eubacteria that are phylogenetically separated from other bacterial divisions. C. trachomatis and C. pneumoniae are both pathogens of humans but differ in their tissue tropism and spectrum of diseases. C. pneumoniae is a newly recognized species of Chlamydia that is a natural pathogen of humans, and causes pneumonia and bronchitis. In the United States, approximately 10% of pneumonia cases and 5% of bronchitis cases are attributed to C. pneumoniae infection. Chronic disease may result following respiratory-acquired infection, such as reactive airway disease, adult-onset asthma and potentially lung cancer. In addition, C. pneumoniae infection has been associated with atherosclerosis. C. trachomatis infection causes trachoma, an ocular infection that leads to blindness, and sexually transmitted diseases such as pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pelvic pain, ectopic pregnancy and epididymitis. Although relatively little is known about C. trachomatis biology, even less is known concerning C. pneumoniae. Comparison of the C. pneumoniae genome with the C. trachomatis genome will provide an understanding of the common biological processes required for infection and survival in mammalian cells. Genomic differences are implicated in the unique properties that differentiate the two species in disease spectrum. Analysis of the 1,230,230-nt C. pneumoniae genome revealed 214 protein-coding sequences not found in C. trachomatis, most without homologues to other known sequences. Prominent comparative findings include expansion of a novel family of 21 sequence-variant outer-membrane proteins, conservation of a type-III secretion virulence system, three serine/threonine protein kinases and a pair of parologous phospholipase-D-like proteins, additional purine and biotin biosynthetic capability, a homologue for aromatic amino acid (tryptophan) hydroxylase and the loss of tryptophan biosynthesis genes.
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PMID:Comparative genomes of Chlamydia pneumoniae and C. trachomatis. 1019 88

An overview is given of the current knowledge of the epidemiology of chronic pelvic pain (CPP) in terms of prevalence, incidence, and associated risk factors. However, the lack of a consensus on the definition of CPP greatly hinders epidemiological studies. Although data are limited, the prevalence of CPP in the general population appears to be high. A single study found a 3-month prevalence (pelvic pain of at least 6 months' duration) of 15% in women aged 18-50 in the general US population. In the UK, an annual prevalence in primary care of 38/1000 was found in women aged 15-73, a rate comparable to that of asthma (37/1000) and back pain (41/1000). The monthly incidence in primary care was 1.6/1000. No incidence figures exist for the general population. Analysis of risk factors for CPP is highly complicated owing to its multifactorial aetiology. At present, it is only of some value using women with CPP identified at community level, since those in primary, secondary or tertiary care are likely to constitute highly selected sub-groups.
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PMID:Epidemiology of chronic pelvic pain. 1096 34

Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a chronic disorder diagnosed by symptomatology of pelvic pain and urinary frequency, which are extremely variable and unpredictable fluctuating among patients. IC has recently been found combined with some allergic disorders and histopathologic abnormalities resembling that of allergic disorders, including mast cell activation, histamine release and eosinophil infiltration. Therefore, it could be cautiously postulated that IC is one of the allergic disorders of the urogenital system. A 28-year-old Caucasian female patient, who was diagnosed with asthma and allergic rhinitis, suffered from bladder symptoms of frequency, urgency and pelvic pain for the past 3 years. The symptoms disturbed her every day and were intractable for treatment. Urologists concluded that she had interstitial cystitis. Specific immunotherapy (SIT) was recommended for her allergic symptoms. While taking specific immunotherapy, she had anaphylaxis. She still had the reaction even with the 1000-fold diluted shot of SIT. Omalizumab was used for her allergic symptoms and possible prevention of anaphylactic reaction to SIT. Interestingly, she reported that her urogenital symptoms had subsided since omalizumab had been started. According to the published literature, we postulate that interstitial cystitis might be one of the IgE mediated, mast cell driven allergic disorders of the urogenital system. Therefore, in this case, the patient's bladder symptoms are successfully controlled primarily by anti-IgE therapy and the improvement could be maintained by SIT. We report, for the first time, a case of interstitial cystitis with allergic rhinitis and asthma, successfully treated by anti-IgE therapy and specific immunotherapy.
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PMID:Is interstitial cystitis an allergic disorder?: A case of interstitial cystitis treated successfully with anti-IgE. 1677 42

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a novel class of molecules regulating gene expression, have been hailed as modulators of many biological processes and disease states. Recent studies demonstrated an important role of miRNAs in the processes of inflammation and cancer, however, there are little data implicating miRNAs in peripheral pain. Bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is a clinical syndrome of pelvic pain and urinary urgency/frequency in the absence of a specific cause. BPS is a chronic inflammatory condition that might share some of the pathogenetic mechanisms with its common co-morbidities inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), asthma and autoimmune diseases. Using miRNA profiling in BPS and the information about validated miRNA targets, we delineated the signaling pathways activated in this and other inflammatory pain disorders. This review projects the miRNA profiling and functional data originating from the research in bladder cancer and immune-mediated diseases on the BPS-specific miRNAs with the aim to gain new insight into the pathogenesis of this enigmatic disorder, and highlighting the common regulatory mechanisms of pain and inflammation.
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PMID:Deciphering microRNA code in pain and inflammation: lessons from bladder pain syndrome. 2346 34