WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Research by Paul Meis, M.D., an obstetrician at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, has been named one of the “Top 10 Advances for 2004” by Health magazine.
“It was a wonderful year, one that changed the world,” said the article in announcing “The Life-Changing 10” in its January/February issue.
A research study led by Meis found that injections of a progesterone-type hormone were able to prevent more than one third of pre-term births in women with a history of giving birth early.
“No other technique to stop labor, including bed rest or drugs, has proved as effective as progesterone,” said Meis in Health.
Meis led a 19-center research study that was stopped early because evidence of the treatment’s effectiveness was so dramatic. In women who received weekly injections of the drug 17-alpha-hydroxprogesterone caproate, also known as 17P, the risk of pre-term birth before the 37th week of pregnancy was reduced by 34 percent. The risk of pre-term birth prior to 32 weeks was reduced by 42 percent. The study involved 463 women who had a history of giving birth before the 37th week of pregnancy.
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Media Contacts: Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu; Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu; at 336-716-4587
About Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center: Wake Forest Baptist is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. The system comprises 1,282 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.