BACKGROUND The geography of where pregnant mothers live is important for understanding outdoor environmental habitat that may result in adverse birth outcomes. We investigated whether more babies were born small for gestational age or low birth weight at term to mothers living in environments with a higher accumulation of outdoor hazards. METHODS Live singleton births from the Alberta Perinat...

Fifteen compounds reported to be inhibitors of gelation or sickling were studied by standard methods. These tests included (1) the determination of the solubility of deoxyhemoglobin S or Csat, (2) evaluation of sickling in whole SS blood at various pO2s, (3) measurement of the oxygen affinity of hemoglobin and blood, and (4) examination of red cell indices and morphology. Among the 4 noncovalen...

Several studies have indicated that birth weight is associated with increased risk for excess fat accumulation later in life. Our objective was to evaluate the association between birth weight and body composition measures in a multiethnic pediatric population while controlling for environmental factors previously associated with increased adiposity. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry was perform...

OBJECTIVE We reported on the distribution of very preterm (VPT) birth rates by race across metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). METHODS Rates of singleton VPT birth for non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and Hispanic women were calculated with National Center for Health Statistics 2002-2004 natality files for infants in 168 MSAs. Subanalysis included stratification by parity, age, smok...

BACKGROUND Data on normative clitoral sizes in newborns is relatively sparse and racial/ethnic differences have also been reported. This study was performed to establish norms for clitoral size in term Ghanaian female newborns. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study of all apparently well full-term newborns of postnatal age < 48 h and birth weight between 2.5 and 4.0 kg delivered at Komfo A...

Premature birth is associated with increased respiratory morbidity. We investigated cross-sectionally, in 69 healthy infants who had never had cardiorespiratory problems, whether premature birth is associated with diminished pulmonary function. The study comprised 26 healthy infants born prematurely (PT), median gestational age 32 (26-36) weeks, and 43 healthy controls born full-term (FT), medi...

Asthma comprises a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by airway inflammation, airway obstruction, and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR). Airway inflammation, which induces AHR and recurrence of asthma, is the main pathophysiology of asthma. The fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) level is a noninvasive, reproducible measurement of eosinophilic airway inflammation that is easy to p...

INTRODUCTION This study analyses the DHS 1993, 2000 and 2006-07 and NFSS 2009 survey data to investigate trends, inequalities and determinants of low birth weight (LBW) in Sri Lanka. METHODS We re-evaluated recent trends in LBW incidence, adjusting for changes in the coverage of DHS surveys to ensure comparability, and used multivariate logistic regression to investigate determinants. We quan...

AIMS To investigate whether the lipid profile of pregnant women during parturition differs from the profile at previous stages of pregnancy and to determine the effects of maternal lipid changes on fetal or neonatal haemorheology. METHODS Sixty pregnant women were studied, divided into two groups. Group 1 contained 30 women of mean age of 27 (SD 3) years and gestational age > 38 weeks in whom...

OBJECTIVE An accurate assessment of the nutritional status of an infant at birth is very important, since it provides information on early identification of pathological events related to intrauterine growth acceleration or retardation. Anthropometric ratios such as weight/length and mid-arm circumference/head circumference may be used as alternative tools for this purpose. The main objective o...