OBJECTIVE To examine the livebirth prevalence rate of Down Syndrome in Singapore from 1993 to 1998. DESIGN Index cases for the National Birth Defects Register were obtained from all neonatal nurseries in Singapore, all hospital discharge summaries, cytogenetic and pathology reports from all pathology laboratories in Singapore and from the compulsory reporting of all termination of pregnancy c...

Obesity is an increasing health problem, not only in developed countries but also all over the world. In addition to the focus on food intake and energy expenditure, current studies suggest two other important influences on adult body weight: birth weight and postnatal rate of growth. A common procedure in laboratory animal studies to examine the relationship of low birth weight and adult obesi...

OBJECTIVE Foetal ductal problems may have various cardiopulmonary consequences. This study aimed to identify the spectrum of ductus arteriosus (DA) dysfunction (closure, constriction, kinking, aneurysm and thrombosis) and the resultant clinical and echocardiographic presentation in foetuses and neonates. METHODS AND RESULTS This is a retrospective analysis of serial pre- and post-natal data o...

AIM One way to assess foetal health of smokers is to ask mothers to count perceived movements, an unreliable method hiding differences in prenatal development. The aim of this pilot study was to assess subtle foetal movements in ultrasound scans and establish whether they differ in foetuses of mothers who smoked and nonsmoking mothers. METHODS This longitudinal pilot study recruited twenty mo...

Raj tová V. : The Foetal Ependyma of Cerebral Ventricles in Sheep and Goat. The Third Cerebral Ventricle in the Light and Scanning Electron Microscope. Acta Vet. Brno 68, 1999: 241-245. The study of the ependyma of the third cerebral ventricle in 35 sheep foetuses and 16 goat foetuses using a histological method, Golgi-Cox impregnation and scanning electron microscope has revealed that the 3-4 ...

Daily application of cortisone acetate (10mg/100g body wt.) or L-tri-iodothyronine (20 microng/100g body wt.) to female rats in the last (third) week of pregnancy elicits a precocious appearance of jejunal sucrase in their foetuses.

OBJECTIVES This paper reviews the effects of elevated maternal temperature on embryo and foetal development in experimental animals and in humans. CONCLUSIONS Hyperthermia during pregnancy can cause embryonic death, abortion, growth retardation and developmental defects. Processes critical to embryonic development, such as cell proliferation, migration, differentiation and programmed cell dea...

OBJECTIVE to quantify placenta-specific RNA in plasma of women carrying foetuses with intrauterine growth restriction and pregnant women with normal pregnancies. METHODS 8 pregnant women with foetuses with intrauterine growth restriction were studied as well as 18 women with uncomplicated pregnancies in the third pregnancy trimester. Total free RNA was quantified in maternal plasma by spectro...