BACKGROUND This study quantifies the association between maternal medical conditions/illnesses and congenital heart defects (CHDs) among infants. METHODS AND RESULTS We carried out a population-based study of all mother-infant pairs (n=2,278,838) in Canada (excluding Quebec) from 2002 to 2010 using data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information. CHDs among infants were classified phe...

To assess whether women with gestational diabetes (GDM) should be screened the glucose tolerance test (GTT) instead of challenge (GCT) as primary in next pregnancy. This is an IRB-exempt retrospective cohort study. We included GDM who had a subsequent delivery at our institution from 2004-2020. Patients BMI < 18.5 kg/m2, multifetal gestation, pregestational mellitus and chronic hypertension wer...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to establish the frequency of fetal cells in the maternal blood of multifetal pregnancies and compare this figure with singleton pregnancies. METHODS We obtained maternal blood from 31 pregnancies with 2-6 fetuses at 11-16 weeks gestation and from 50 normal singleton controls (11-14 weeks gestation). Fetal erythroblasts were isolated from maternal blood us...

Objective: To review the effect of the number of embryos transferred on the outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF), to provide guidelines on the number of embryos to transfer in IVF-embryo transfer (ET) in order to optimize healthy live births and minimize multiple pregnancies. Options: Rates of live birth, clinical pregnancy, and multiple pregnancy or birth by number of embryos transferred ar...

Background/Aims: It is known that high pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and high gestational weight gain both can cause many adverse pregnancy outcomes. High pre-delivery BMI (PD-BMI), though theoretically could do similar effects, is rarely been studied. The objectives of this study were to show the distribution of PD-BMI of the delivery women and to identify its correlation with adverse pr...

OBJECTIVE To review the effect of the number of embryos transferred on the outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF), to provide guidelines on the number of embryos to transfer in IVF-embryo transfer (ET) in order to optimize healthy live births and minimize multiple pregnancies. OPTIONS Rates of live birth, clinical pregnancy, and multiple pregnancy or birth by number of embryos transferred ar...

OBJECTIVE Changes in maternal concentrations of the anti-angiogenic factors, soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt1) and soluble endoglin (sEng), and the pro-angiogenic placental growth factor (PlGF) precede the development of preeclampsia in healthy women. The risk of preeclampsia is reduced in women who smoke during pregnancy. The objective of this study was to investigate whether smoking ...