ENORRHAGIA IS AN IMPORtant cause of ill health in women worldwide. A b o u t o n e t h i r d o f women report heavy menstrual bleeding at some time in their lives. 1 Menorrhagia is the presenting symptom among the majority of women who undergo hysterectomy, 2,3 and recent data suggest that menorrhagia is an increasingly common health problem. 4 The levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG-IUS) (Schering Co, Turku, Finland) has been advocated for the treatment of menorrhagia as an alternative to surgery. 5 The LNG-IUS is an intrauterine system that releases 20 µg of levonorgestrel every 24 hours over 5 years. The LNG-IUS was developed during the 1980s and licensed first for contraception in Finland in 1990. The estimated number of current LNG-IUS users worldwide is

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in biopsies taken from clinically normal buccal mucosa (n = 212) and clinical lesions (n = 60) was examined by Southern blot hybridization (SBH) using 32P-labelled HPV DNA probes. Furthermore, one hundred formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded biopsies were analyzed by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), combined with dot blot hybridization and biotinylated HPV DNA probes. With SBH and PCR, 15.4% and 29.4% of the biopsies, respectively, contained HPV DNA. In clinically normal epithelium, 15.6% and 23.1% of the samples were HPV-positive with SBH and PCR, respectively. The HPV types detected in the genital and oral mucosa of index patients differed in all except two cases. Histology could not be relied on distinguishing HPV DNA positive and HPV DNA negative samples. Hand warts were encountered significantly more frequently in patients with a concomitant oral HPV infection. To conclude, oral HPV infections as detected by SBH and PCR are surprisingly common, but similar to the genital tract, the virus seems to exist in a latent form in the vast majority of cases. The frequent concomitant finding of skin warts and oral HPV infection may suggest some kind of HPV-specific immunosuppression.