OBJECTIVE To investigate the frontomaxillary facial (FMF) angle in fetuses with trisomy 13 at 11 + 0 to 13 + 6 weeks of gestation. METHODS A three-dimensional (3D) volume of the fetal head was obtained before karyotyping at 11 + 0 to 13 + 6 weeks of gestation in 23 fetuses with trisomy 13. The FMF angle, defined as the angle between the upper surface of the maxilla and the frontal bone in a m...

OBJECTIVE To examine in a general population the performance of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) testing for trisomies 21, 18 and 13 at 10-11 weeks' gestation and compare it to that of the combined test at 11-13 weeks. METHODS In 2905 singleton pregnancies, prospective screening for trisomies was performed by chromosome-selective sequencing of cfDNA in maternal blood at 10-11 weeks' gestation and by the...

OBJECTIVE To establish normal ranges of maternal serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4) and free triiodothyronine (FT3) at 11-13 weeks of gestation. METHODS Maternal serum concentrations of FT3, FT4, TSH, anti-thyroperoxidase (anti-TPO) and anti-thyroglobulin (anti-Tg) antibodies were measured at 11-13 weeks. Normal ranges were constructed from the data of singleton pre...

Günther Nürnberger was born on January 13, 1948, near Marktredwitz, a little town in North Bavaria, Germany. In 1969 he matriculated in the university of Erlangen-Nürnberg and did there his diploma thesis in Functional Analysis in 1974. One year later he finished his doctoral thesis, both theses under the supervision of Dietrich Kölzow. In his thesis [1] he studied the problem of characterizati...

Effective screening for major aneuploidies can be provided in the first trimester of pregnancy. Screening by a combination of fetal nuchal translucency and maternal serum free-β-human chorionic gonadotrophin and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A can identify about 90% of fetuses with trisomy 21 and other major aneuploidies for a false-positive rate of 5%. Improvement in the performance of f...

1 Introduction Activities in and with groups are a central element of participatory research processes, particularly in the most popular approach, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). Ideally a research team comprises people from various disciplines, of both sexes and of different cultural origins to avoid observer bias and to include diverse perspectives. As regards the methods used in PRAs, g...