Chromosomal aneuploidy is the major reason why couples opt for prenatal diagnosis. Current methods for definitive diagnosis rely on invasive procedures, such as chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis, and are associated with a risk of fetal miscarriage. Fetal DNA has been found in maternal plasma but exists as a minor fraction among a high background of maternal DNA. Hence, quantitative pe...

The maternal plasma concentration of bupivacaine has been determined in 19 patients receiving a continuous epidural block during labour, using bupivacaine 0.125% with adrenaline 1:400,000. The plasma concentration of bupivacaine rarely exceeded 0.18 /*g/ml. Bupivacaine does not accumulate in the maternal blood when such low concentrations are used. The plasma concentration of bupivacaine has al...

The effects of water deprivation for 3 days were studied in pregnant rats and their fetuses on day 21 of gestation. Maternal water deprivation induced a significant decrease of the body weight in both maternal and fetal rats. This weight loss was accompanied by significant increases in plasma osmolality and haematocrit in both maternal and fetal rats. Similarly, dehydration significantly decrea...

OBJECTIVE The available data on antidepressant levels in nursing infants were analyzed in order to calculate average infant drug levels and determine what factors influence plasma drug levels in breast-feeding infants of mothers treated with antidepressants. METHOD Electronic searches of MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, Current Contents, Biological Abstracts, and PsycINFO from 1966 through July 2002 foll...

We aimed to investigate the effects of fish oil (FO) supplementation to pregnant women on the maternal and fetal fatty acid profile in plasma and erythrocyte phospholipids (PL) and to identify the best compartment for the assessment of fatty acid status. A multi-centre, double-blind, controlled trial was conducted. Healthy pregnant women from three European centres were randomly assigned to rec...

BACKGROUND Sulfate is important for fetal growth and development. During pregnancy, the fetus relies on sulfate from the maternal circulation. We report reference intervals for maternal plasma sulfate levels and fractional excretion index (FEI) for sulfate in pregnancy, as well as sulfate levels in cord blood from term pregnancies. METHODS Plasma and urine were collected from 103 pregnant wom...

OBJECTIVE To examine the possible effects of maternal and fetal characteristics on the fetal fraction in maternal plasma cell-free (cf) DNA at 11-13 weeks' gestation and estimate the proportion of pregnancies at high risk of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) failure because the fetal fraction is less than 4%. METHODS In 1949 singleton pregnancies at 11-13 weeks' gestation cf-DNA was extrac...

background: discovery of short cell free fetal dna (cffdna) fragments in maternal plasma has created major changes in the field of prenatal diagnosis. the use of cffdna to set up noninvasive prenatal test is limited due to the low concentration of fetal dna in maternal plasma therefore, employing a high efficiency extraction method leads to more accurate results. the aim of this study was to ev...

background the rate of mother-to-infant hepatitis c virus (hcv) transmission is relatively low, however, this mode of infection is the most important route for childhood hcv involvement. the chances of transmission are increased by the level of maternal hcv viraemia and maternal human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) co infection. objectives the objective of the present study was to determine the p...