Women who had pre-term birth in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, over a two and a half year period were studied. The aim was to establish the factors influencing the incidence of pre-term birth in Calabar. Factors which significantly increase the incidence of pre-term delivery included: previous induced abortion [P < 0.0001], nulliparity [P < 0.001], out of wedlock birth [P...

Anatomopathologic studies have failed to define the fetal inflammatory response syndrome (FIRS) as a cause of fetal death. Here, liver fragments of perinatal autopsies were collected at a university hospital from 1990 to 2009 and classified according to the cause of death, perinatal stress, and gestational age (GA) of the fetus. IL-6, TNF-α, and C-reactive protein (CRP) expression were immunost...

The objective of this study was to ascertain if incomplete correction leaving a residual uterine septum of < or = 1 cm affects fertility outcome. Reproductive outcome in 17 women with a residual septum of between 0.5 cm and 1 cm after hysteroscopic metroplasty was compared to that in 51 women with no residual septum or one of < 0.5 cm. Septal lysis was performed with microscissors or resectosco...

BACKGROUND In contrast to the effects of preterm birth, the extent to which shorter gestational age affects the cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) levels of individuals who were born at term (ie, between 37 and 42 weeks) is largely unknown. The aim of this study was to examine whether life-course CRF levels varied across different gestational ages within the at-term range. METHODS AND RESULTS Th...

OBJECTIVE To identify factors affecting birth weight and pre-term birth, and to find associations with electromagnetic devices such as television, computer and mobile phones. METHODS The study was conducted in Turkey at Gazintep University, Faculty of Medicine's Outpatient Clinic at the Paediatric Ward. It comprised 500 patients who presented at the clinic from May to December 2009. All parti...

OBJECTIVE To assess whether, in girls with early onset of puberty, low birth weight is a risk factor for rapid progression to menarche and for short adult stature. DESIGN Longitudinal clinical assessment of 54 Catalan (Northern Spanish) girls followed from early onset of puberty (onset of breast development between 8.0 and 9.0 years of age) to final height. The timing of menarche and the fina...

BACKGROUND Pre-pregnancy health and care are important for the health of the future generations. Smoking during pregnancy has been well-researched and there is clear evidence of harm. But there has been little research on the health impact of planning for pregnancy. This study aims to investigate the independent effects of pregnancy planning and smoking during pregnancy on neonatal outcome. M...

Of the 10,730 neonates born in the period 1978-1997 and examined for cryptorchidism (C) at birth, 1387 were pre-term (gestational age <37 wk), and 9343 were full-term. At birth, a total of 737 neonates (6.9%) were cryptorchid, 487 had bilateral C and 250 unilateral C. The C rate of pre-terms was 10 times higher than that of the full-terms (30.1 and 3.4%, respectively). Comparing the two studied...

OBJECTIVES A stable follow-up participation rate is a very important factor for validity in a cohort study. This study analyzed the factors that affect the participation rate at one hospital-based birth cohort in South Korean. METHODS The participants were recruited from the Mothers' and Children's Environmental Health study between 2006 and 2010. The analysis targeted 1751 mothers who partic...

Methods In this study, we retrospectively reviewed the records of 249 mothers who experienced the admission of preterm labor and delivered single live birth from January 2005 to May 2011 at our hospital. For our analyses, the mothers were divided into two groups according to delivery age; preterm birth group and full term birth group. And full term birth group was divided into two groups which ...