News in brief - April 17, 2000

House rejects HHS rules on organ transplant

Washington -- The House of Representatives OK'd a bill April 4 that would strip Health and Human Services of powers to regulate the nation's organ transplant system. The bill also would overturn HHS regulations that took effect in March. This rule would have refocused the transplant system to respond to the sickest patients first with less emphasis on location.

This is the latest move in a two-year struggle over organ transplant policy. Under the current local-first system, geography is a strong determinant in how organs are distributed. The United Network for Organ Sharing, along with many transplant centers, saw the HHS rule as a threat to medical decision-making. But advocates such as the Campaign for Transplant Patient Fairness argue that "the HHS final rule ... strikes a reasonable balance between medical issues that should be resolved by the transplant community and the federal government's role to ensure that the public's interests are protected."

Washington -- Rather than reduce the risk of heart disease, hormone replacement therapy may increase, however slightly, the risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to researchers in the hormone replacement therapy trial of the Women's Health Initiative.

In late March, the study informed participants that those taking estrogen had slightly more heart attacks, strokes and blood clots in the lungs than did those on placebo. Nevertheless, the results are short term and preliminary, and therefore "should not influence current medical practice," according to the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute.