in a comparative study, 460 serum samples were tested for the serological determination of human immunodeficiency vrius (hiv) using an elisa kit and a rapid test kit. results indicated that the rapid test is reliable for screening unkonwn samples when there is no special equipment for screening with immunoblotting and/or elisa.

PROBLEM Inflammation during pregnancy has devastating consequences for the placenta and fetus. These events are incompletely understood, thereby hampering screening and treatment. METHOD OF STUDY The inflammatory profile of villous tissue was studied in pregnancies at high-risk of placental dysfunction and compared to uncomplicated pregnancies. The systemic inflammatory profile was assessed i...

OBJECTIVE To assess the risk for preeclampsia (PE) by maternal characteristics, uterine artery pulsatility index (Ut-PI), mean arterial pressure (MAP), serum placental growth factor (PlGF) and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) at 30-33 weeks' gestation. METHODS This was a screening study in singleton pregnancies including 2,140 that developed PE and 83,615 that were unaffected by PE...

BACKGROUND Increased second-trimester levels of maternal serum HCG in IVF conceptions lead to an increased false-positive rate in Down syndrome screening. Increased levels of cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) in maternal plasma have been correlated with increased HCG levels. Our aim was to determine whether cffDNA levels are elevated in IVF pregnancies compared with natural pregnancies. METHODS Si...

CONTEXT Maternal serum human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) and Alpha Fetal Protein (AFP) were originally introduced to detect trisomy 21 and neural tube defects. However, in the absence of aneuploidy or neural tube defects, mid-trimester maternal serum hCG and/or maternal serum AFP associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Pregnancies with unexplained mid-trimester elevation in maternal serum ...

background: the discovery of circulating fetal dna in maternal blood led to the discovery of new strategies to perform noninvasive testing for prenatal diagnosis. objective: the purpose of the study was to detect fetal aneuploidy at chromosomes 13, 18, 21, x, and y by analysis of fetal cell-free dna from maternal blood, without endangering pregnancy. materials and methods: this retrospective st...

BACKGROUND Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I is primarily produced by the liver under the stimulation of growth hormone, and has systemic growth effects. Placental growth hormone in maternal circulation increases from early pregnancy and is responsible for the increment in maternal serum IGF-I. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes in maternal serum IGF-I during pregnancy and t...

Aim. To explore whether first-trimester levels of pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPPA) and serum free ß-human chorionic gonadotrophin (free ß-hCG) vary with maternal blood group and rhesus status and to determine their implications for Down syndrome. Methods. Blood samples were collected from all 539 singleton pregnancies undergoing first-trimester screening. Values of maternal serum P...