Management of intrauterine growth retardation is an important issue in obstetric practice. Since the introduction of Doppler ultrasonography, the problems associated with screening, diagnosing, monitoring, and identifying foetuses at risk have decreased in recent years. Owing to the use of Doppler ultrasonography, there is now a trend towards early delivery.

The immune responses of pregnant cattle and their foetuses were examined following inoculation on day 70 of gestation either intravenously (iv) (group 1) or subcutaneously (sc) (group 2) with live NC1 strain tachyzoites or with Vero cells (control) (group 3). Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) responses to Neospora antigen and foetal viability were assessed throughout the experiment. Two ...

In the retroperitoneal space the gonadal veins form a collateral circulation that has a great clinical impact on sclerotherapy or surgical ligation of varicoceles. The aim of this study was to examine the communications of the gonadal veins (according to classification, frequency of appearance, gender and syntopic differences) in human foetuses of both sexes (71 males and 59 females) aged 4--6 ...

AIMS Animal models showed that angiogenesis is related to abnormal heart development. Our objectives were to ascertain whether a relationship exists between congenital heart defects (CHDs) and angiogenic/anti-angiogenic imbalance in maternal and foetal blood and study the expression of angiogenic factors in the foetal heart. METHODS AND RESULTS Maternal and cord blood placental growth factor ...

Absence of one umbilical artery is a rare finding, usually associated with other severe congenital malformations. The earliest recorded case is attributed to Casp. Bauhin in 1621, although Noortwyck (1743) quotes Vesalius' description 'unam tantum arteriam in fune Fallopius vidit'. Otto (1830) collected 41 case reports from the literature, and Hyrtl (1870) described 14 cases of his own and foun...

BACKGROUND The presence of foetal major aortopulmonary collateral arteries (MAPCAs) is associated with adverse outcome, therefore early diagnosis is essential. AIM To evaluate the usefulness of foetal echocardiography in the diagnosis and evaluation of MAPCAs in foetuses with pulmonary atresia, as well as to assess the effects of prenatal diagnosis on the management of neonates with pulmonary...

Clinical toxoplasmosis is most severe in congenitally-infected hosts. In humans, transmission of Toxoplasma gondii from the mother to the foetus is considered to be most efficient during the last trimester of pregnancy but clinical congenital toxoplasmosis is more severe if transmission occurs during the first trimester. However, there are no data on the rate of congenital transmission of T. go...

BACKGROUND Foetal echocardiography has become a diagnostic method to detect foetal congenital heart disease with high probability. However, it is not only time consuming and but also difficult to visualize outflow tract of foetus early in the second trimester of pregnancy, even for an experienced obstetric ultrasonographer. Recently, many methods for screening foetal cardiac anomalies were expl...

Malnutrition during foetal life can induce modifications in the phenotype of an individual. The present study aimed to observe effects of low foetal life protein provision on modifications of the phenotype and changes in the progeny of 1-year-old female mink (F(1) generation) offspring of mothers fed a low-protein diet. Traits studied included reproductive performance, energy and protein metabo...