Expectant management of functional ovarian cysts: an alternative to hormonal therapy.

OBJECTIVE: We studied whether the administration of oral contraceptives facilitates the disappearance of spontaneously formed functional ovarian cysts. METHODS: Eighty patients in whom ultrasonography revealed unilateral, mobile, unilocular, thin-walled ovarian cysts without internal echoes and greater than 30 mm but not exceeding 60 mm in diameter were enrolled into the study. Patients were randomized by stratification to receive a low-dose monophasic pill, a high-dose monophasic pill, a multiphasic pill or no therapy. Patients were re-evaluated after 5 weeks of therapy and at the end of therapy (10 weeks). RESULTS: The mean ages and the mean cyst diameters of the patients for each group were not significantly different. We did not find a significant effect of oral contraceptive administration on the disappearance rate of functional ovarian cysts over that of expectant management. CONCLUSION: We conclude that oral contraceptive therapy even with multiphasic pills is very effective in the management of functional ovarian cysts but expectant management achieves similar success rates and may be a good alternative to oral contraceptive therapy.

Selenium status in Turkey. II. Serum selenium concentration in healthy residents of different ages in Ankara.

In this study we determined the serum selenium concentraction of 218 healthy individuals at different ages, in Ankara, using a spectrofluorimetric method. The mean selenium levels were found to be 45 +/- 10 micrograms/L in cord blood at birth; 69 +/- 13 micrograms/L in 2 month-12 month-old infants; 77 +/- 12 micrograms/L in children aged > 12 months-16 years; and 74 +/- 16 micrograms/L in adults aged 18-48 years. Selenium concentrations showed age dependency, increasing significantly in childhood but decreasing after 40 years of age. No relation to the sex, dietary habits, socioeconomical status or hematological parameters such as hemoglobin concentration and white blood cell count, was observed. The results obtained thus suggest that the status of selenium in Ankara residents is in a range that could be considered as safe and adequate.