BACKGROUND A number of first-trimester prediction models addressing important obstetric outcomes have been published. However, most models have not been externally validated. External validation is essential before implementing a prediction model in clinical practice. OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper is to describe the design of a study to externally validate existing first trimester obs...

background: unwanted pregnancy not intended by at least one of the parents has undesirable consequences for the family and the society. in the present study, three classification models were used and compared to predict unwanted pregnancies in an urban population.   methods : in this cross-sectional study, 887 pregnant mothers referring to health centers in khorramabad, iran, in 2012 were selec...

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including preeclampsia, are major contributors to maternal morbidity. The goal of this study was to evaluate the potential of metabolomics to predict preeclampsia and gestational hypertension from urine and serum samples in early pregnancy, and elucidate the metabolic changes related to the diseases. Metabolic profiles were obtained by nuclear magnetic reson...

OBJECTIVE This study was performed to assess the prognostic value of serum hCG, progesterone, and inhibin A levels measured at 11 days post-ET for predicting pregnancy outcome in women participating in IVF. METHODS Between May 2005 and April 2008, sera were obtained from 70 infertile women who underwent IVF-ET at 11 days post-ET and stored. HCG, progesterone, and inhibin A levels were measure...

INTRODUCTION HIV-1 prevention programs targeting HIV-1 serodiscordant couples need to identify couples that are likely to become pregnant to facilitate discussions about methods to minimize HIV-1 risk during pregnancy attempts (i.e. safer conception) or effective contraception when pregnancy is unintended. A clinical prediction tool could be used to identify HIV-1 serodiscordant couples with a ...

BACKGROUND Sperm DNA integrity has been used as a new marker of sperm quality in the prediction of pregnancy. Nevertheless, no previous study has been performed by analysing the same samples that were employed in assisted reproduction. The main objective of this work was to correlate sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD), measured by the SCD test, with semen parameters and pregnancy outcome in intra...

Human placenta, decidua, and fetal membranes are the major sites of production and secretion of inhibin A and activin A in maternal serum, amniotic fluid, and umbilical cord blood. These tissues also express follistatin-related gene and betaglycan, the binding proteins of activin A and inhibin A, respectively, recently identified. They show a different expression throughout pregnancy, suggestin...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the importance of assessment of fetal cardiac output (CO) for the prediction of complications of pregnancy. METHODS We evaluated 65 fetuses and all of them had a fetal cardiac scan at 20 to 24 weeks of pregnancy. To measure CO, diameters (d) of the left right ventricle outflow tract were measured just above the valves. Each left CO (LCO) and right CO (RCO) was derived us...

OBJECTIVE We examined whether selected indexes of insulin sensitivity derived from an oral glucose tolerance test (IS(OGTT)) or fasting glucose/insulin levels (IS(QUICKI) and IS(HOMA)) can be used to predict insulin sensitivity in women before and during pregnancy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A 2-h euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp (5 mmol/l glucose, 40 mU. m(-2). min(-1) insulin) and a 120-m...