JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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Seventy-nine patients with endometrial carcinoma were compared with 203 control subjects regarding their use of combination-product oral contraceptives (OCs). Overall, 6.3% of patients and 15.3% of control subjects had used these products. The risk of endometrial cancer for users of OCs was less than half the risk for nonusers. ⋯ Recent users were strongly protected, whereas discontinuation resulted in risks returning to those of nonusers. Furthermore, OCs with predominantly progestational effects of intermediate formulations produced greater protection than those with predominantly estrogens. This pattern of results is biologically consistent with a protective effect of combination-product OCs against endometrial carcinoma.
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The Clinitemp Fever Detector (a registered trademark for the Clinitemp Co, Indianapolis) is a plastic strip thermometer designed to be placed on the forehead and to detect body temperature by changing color. In a sample of 613 patients, we evaluated the ability of the Clinitemp to detect fevers detected by traditional mercury/glass thermometers. When a Clinitemp reading of 37.8 degrees C (100 degrees F) was used to demark fever, the Clinitemp detected 34% of the clinically significant fevers detected by the mercury/glass thermometers. ⋯ The accuracy of the Clinitemp was affected by variations in ambient air temperature. A reassessment of previously published evaluations of plastic strip thermometers suggest that our results are consistent with other experimental findings. We conclude that the Clinitemp is unacceptable as a substitute for the mercury/glass thermometer.