Methylphenidate is a centrally acting sympathomimetic used for the treatment of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents and for narcolepsy in adults. Despite the growing use among adult women, no reliable data on the prevalence of use during pregnancy have been published, and safety during pregnancy has not been established. We systematically reviewed available data...

A method is reported by which the "in utero" crownrump length of the fetus may be determined by sonar in the first trimester of pregnancy. The accuracy of the technique was assessed by comparing the sonar and the direct postabortum measurements of fetuses in cases of missed abortion. A normal curve of fetal crown-rump length was derived from 214 examinations on 80 patients and by using these va...

BACKGROUND Subclinical hypothyroidism is defined as an elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone level with a normal thyroxin level without signs or symptoms of hypothyroidism. Although it is well accepted that overt hypothyroidism has a deleterious impact on pregnancy, recent studies indicate that subclinical hypothyroidism may affect maternal and fetal health. Studies suggest an association betwee...

Background: HbA1C has been a known predictor and diagnostic test for diabetes type 2. However, this test has not yet been widely studied in GDM and more importantly no cutoff point has been defined for HbA1C in GDM. We investigated the efficacy of screening during first and second trimester of pregnancy and defined appropriate cutoff points according to HbA1C and FBS for predicting maternal GDM...

To assess the possible relationship between an increase in progesterone concentration in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and enhancement of spread of spinal anaesthesia, we have measured CSF progesterone concentrations in 134 patients undergoing spinal anaesthesia with hyperbaric amethocaine 8 mg. Patients were allocated to one of five groups according to the gestational period: non-pregnant group (n...

BACKGROUND To identify the socio-demographic differences between a sample of women who present for first-trimester and second-trimester abortion. AIM To determine whether women presenting late (in the second trimester) for abortion differ socio-demographically from those presenting early (in the first trimester). MATERIALS AND METHODS Data over 4 years for women presenting for second-trimes...

OBJECTIVE The use of human fetal pancreatic tissue may provide a potential source of transplantable beta-cells as a therapy for type 1 diabetes. Human fetal pancreas has a remarkable capacity to grow and differentiate in vivo and has been shown to reverse diabetes in rodents. However, it is known that human fetal pancreas obtained from the second trimester of gestation is immunogenic and is rej...

Serum cholesterol, triacylglycerols and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) subfractions were determined in 120 primagravid women during normal gestation (40 in each trimester) and in 20 non-pregnant age-matched controls. LDL subfractions were determined by PAGE, and an LDL score was calculated. The higher the score, the smaller the subfractions. The objective of the study was to determine the effect...

Women attending routine antenatal care at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, from 1989 to 1996 were eligible for this cohort study on the association between alcohol intake in pregnancy and the risk of spontaneous abortion. We included 24 679 singleton pregnancies in the study. We used Cox regression analyses with delayed entry for the analyses. We found an increased risk of spontaneous abort...

A disintegrin and metalloproteinases (ADAMs) are members of the metzincin family of zinc-dependent metalloproteinases that play pivotal roles in the proteolytic degradation of the extracellular matrix for cell invasion. Few studies have investigated the ADAM subtypes that are expressed in first trimester trophoblast cells. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the differential expression p...