Women who use postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may be at increased risk of acute pancreatitis, found a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Acute pancreatitis, a sudden inflammation of the pancreas, has symptoms that range from mild discomfort to severe, debilitating pain and may, in some cases, even lead to death.

Although several case reports have indicated that there may be an association between use of HRT and risk of acute pancreatitis, the evidence from large studies is sparse. To understand whether there is an association, the researchers looked at data on 31 494 Swedish postmenopausal women aged 48 years at the start of the 13-year study from 1997 to 2010. At the start of the study, 13 113 (42%) of the women were current users of HRT, 3660 (12%) were previous users, and the remainder had never used the therapy. Of the current users of HRT, 6795 (52%) used systemic therapy for hot flashes, 4148 (32%) used local therapy for vaginal dryness, and 2170 (16%) used both therapies.

Virtual reality, dance and fun are not the first things that come to mind when we think of treating urinary incontinence in senior women. However, these concepts were the foundations of a promising study by Dr. Chantal Dumoulin, PhD, Canada Research Chair in Urogynaecological Health and Aging, a researcher at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, and an associate professor in the Physiotherapy Program of the Rehabilitation School at Université de Montréal, and her master's student, Miss Valérie Elliott.

Dr Eling D. de Bruin, Ph.D., researcher at the department of Health Sciences and Technology, Swiss federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland collaborated in this study for his expertise in the use of exergame in geriatric rehabilitation. The results of their feasibility study were published in Neurourology and Urodynamics.

For the study, the researchers added a series of dance exercises via a video game console to a physiotherapy program for pelvic floor muscles. What were the results for the 24 participants? A greater decrease in daily urine leakage than for the usual program (improvement in effectiveness) as well as no dropouts from the program and a higher weekly participation rate (increase in compliance).