Objective. Evaluating changes in the power spectral density (PSD) peak frequency of the electrohysterogram (EHG) caused by nifedipine in women with preterm contractions. Methods. Calculation of the PSD peak frequency in EHG contraction bursts at different times of nifedipine treatment in women in gestational age 24 to 32 weeks with contractions. Results. A significant (P < .05) decrease of PSD ...

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the efficacy of magnesium sulfate as a second-line tocolysis for 48  hours. MATERIALS AND METHODS A multi-institutional, simple 2-arm randomized controlled trial was performed. Forty-five women at 22 to 34 weeks of gestation were eligible, whose ritodrine did not sufficiently inhibit uterine contractions. After excluding 12 women, 33 were randomly assigned to either ma...

BACKGROUND Since 2006, the empiric use of azithromycin in women at risk of premature birth has become prevalent in our institution without any evidence of its efficacy. Although antibiotics can prolong pregnancy in preterm prolonged rupture of membranes, no published data are available for women with intact membranes. OBJECTIVES To describe the purpose of adding azithromycin to the usual trea...

Parturition is composed of five separate but integrated physiological events: fetal membrane rupture, cervical dilatation, myometrial contractility, placental separation and uterine involution. Prostaglandins (PGs) have central roles in each of these, but the most studied is myometrial contraction. Elevated uterine PGs or the enhanced sensitivity of the myometrium to PGs leads to contractions a...

Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) affects 1000-1300 women in the United States each year. We present three cases of PPCM seen in our Emergency Department (ED) that cover the entire spectrum of disease from mild heart failure to sudden cardiac death. Without previous heart disease, these women develop cardiomyopathy with impairment of left ventricular function in the last month of pregnancy, or d...

A 20-year-old nulliparous woman was referred due a cervical mass in the fetus in an ultrasound examination performed in the 25th week of pregnancy. The exam revealed an irregular, solid-cystic heterogeneous mass measuring 75x54 mm that came to the exterior through the mouth of the fetus. Three-dimensional ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging confirmed the diagnosis of epignathus teratoma a...

Concentrations Are Increased in Women with Preterm Delivery But Not in Those Who Respond to Tocolytic Treatment, Xiao Yan Zhong, Wolfgang Holzgreve, Irene Hoesli, and Sinuhe Hahn ( Laboratory for Prenatal Medicine, University Women’s Hospital, and Department of Research, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; 2 University Women’s Hospital, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; ...

OBJECTIVES This study was done to compare isoxpurine hydrochloride and nifedipine as tocolytic drugs for preterm labor. METHODS A prospective cohort study of 832 antenatal women with preterm labor was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Out of 400 women found eligible for tocolysis, 200 were given isoxpurine hydrochloride while the other 200 were given nifedipine randomly....

Preterm birth is the most important single determinant of adverse infant outcome, in terms of both survival and quality of life. Although preterm birth is defined as being before 37 completed weeks, most mortality and morbidity is experienced by babies born before 34 weeks. Prevention and treatment of preterm labour is important, not as an end in itself, but as a means of reducing adverse event...