Objectives-Recommendations by health care providers have been found to vary by patient race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) and may contribute to health disparities. This study investigated the effect of these factors on recommendations for contraception.Study Design-One of 18 videos depicting patients of varying sociodemographic characteristics was shown to each of 524 health care providers. Providers indicated whether they would recommend levonorgestrel intrauterine contraception (IUC).Results-Low SES Whites were less likely to have IUC recommended than high SES Whites (OR 0.20, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.69), while SES had no significant effect among Latinas and Blacks. By race/ethnicity, low SES Latinas and Blacks were more likely to have IUC recommended than low SES Whites (OR and 95% CI 3.4 (1.1 to 10.2) and 3.1 (1.0 to 9.6) respectively), with no effect for high SES patients.Conclusion-Providers may have biases about IUC or make assumptions about its use based on patient race/ethnicity and SES.

Background-The underuse of effective contraceptive methods by women at risk for unintended pregnancy is a major factor contributing to the high rate of unintended pregnancy in the United States. As health care providers are important contributors to women's contraceptive use, this study was conducted to assess provider knowledge about contraception.Study Design-Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed using data collected from a convenience sample of health care providers (physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants) at meetings of the professional societies of family medicine and obstetrics and gynecology.Results-Younger providers were more knowledgeable, as were obstetrician/gynecologists, female providers and providers who provide intrauterine contraception in their practice.Conclusions-The lack of consistent and accurate knowledge about contraception among providers has the potential to dramatically affect providers' ability to provide quality contraceptive care for their patients, which would have an impact on their ability to prevent unintended pregnancies.

Exosomes have great potential to serve as a source of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for endometrial cancer (EC). Urine-derived exosomes from patients with EC and patients with symptoms of EC, but without established EC, were used to evaluate a unique miRNA expression profile. Of the 84 miRNA studied, 57 were amplified in qPCR, suggesting the differential packaging of miRNA in exosomes. Further, hsa-miR-200c-3p was identified to be enriched the most. Various bioinformatics and in silico tools were used to evaluate the biological significance of hsa-miR-200c-3p in EC. We conclude that differential miRNA in exosomes can be utilized for discovery of biomarker signatures and EC diagnosis; hsa-miR-200c-3p is one such candidate. Urine-derived exosomes pave the way for the development of non-invasive biomarkers.

The bottleneck in current vector-based cancer therapy is the targeted and controlled release of therapeutics in tumors. Exosomes are submicron-sized vesicles that are secreted by all cell types and are involved in communication and transportation of materials between cells. Analogous in size and function to synthetic nanoparticles, exosomes offer many advantages, rendering them the most promising candidates for targeted drug or gene delivery vehicles. Patient-specific customized therapeutic strategies can be engineered using exosomes derived from the patient's own healthy cells. Therefore, exosome-based cancer therapy has the potential to become an important part of personalized medicine. Interest in exosomes as carrier organelles is relatively recent. Knowledge about exosomal biology and its applications remains limited. The present review is an attempt to describe the current status of the application of exosomes to cancer therapy and the potential challenges associated with their use.

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The ability to predict ICU admission helps in appropriate counseling of patients and identification of institutional resource utilization.