FINDINGS

Cheaper Treatment Blocks Uterine Fibroids

A procedure that blocks the flow of blood to benign uterine fibroid tumors in women is as effective as surgery in eliminating them, and it is much cheaper, a study found.

The procedure, called embolization, involves inserting a tiny tube through the skin to inject particles into arteries to cut off blood supply to the tumors.

Fibroids, present in 15 to 20 percent of women in their child-bearing years, can cause excessive menstrual bleeding, lower-back pain, a constant urge to urinate and enlargement of the uterus. The study, led by Jonathan Moss, a radiologist at North Glasgow University Hospitals in Scotland, found there was no difference in outcome between surgery and embolization a year afterward, even though surgery cost about $2,500 more.

"A lot of women are not offered embolization as an option, are not even aware that it exists, and that does them a tremendous disservice," said Timothy Clark, chief of vascular and interventional radiology at New York University School of Medicine, who was not affiliated with the study.

Fifteen percent of patients who underwent embolization reported complications. In comparison, 20 percent of the patients who underwent surgery reported complications, said the study, which is being published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

U.S. Should Prepare For Avian Flu, Panel Told

Bird flu poses as big a threat to the world as ever, and people need to worry about it more, U.S. senators and health experts agreed yesterday.

The H5N1 avian flu virus could cause a human pandemic at any time, killing perhaps millions, yet preparations are slow, they told a Senate hearing.

Federal health officials said they were working to raise preparedness, although progress has been slowed by budget limitations and the generally poor state of public health systems.

"People who fail to prepare for a flu pandemic are going to be tragically mistaken," said Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the hearing. "It is inevitable. I don't know when and I don't know which virus will be the culprit."

The virus is "moving biologically," she said. "It's mutating and evolving."

The H5N1 virus has started to become more active again. Hungary confirmed an outbreak in geese yesterday, the European Union's first case this year.

Five people have died of the virus in Indonesia since Jan. 1, and new cases in poultry have been reported in Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. China, Egypt and South Korea have also reported human cases in recent weeks, with one death in Egypt.