OBJECTIVES To examine the clinical utility of the first-trimester markers of aneuploidy in their ability to predict future fetal loss. METHODS We examined 54,722 singleton pregnancies with no chromosomal abnormality and with complete outcome data that had undergone screening for trisomy 21 by a combination of fetal nuchal translucency (NT) thickness, maternal serum free beta-human chorionic g...

Background: The secondary sex ratio (i.e., the odds of a male birth) reportedly declines following natural disasters, pollution events, and economic collapse. It remains unclear whether this decline results from an excess of male fetal loss or reduced male conceptions. The literature also does not converge as to whether the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 induced "communal bereavement",...

Gestational outcome in a murine model of congenital enterovirus infection was evaluated. Pregnant mice were inoculated intravenously with Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV), a murine enterovirus, or with BHK 21 cell lysate (control) at 6-7 days of gestation (early) and sacrificed 6 or 12 days later, and their placentas and fetuses were studied. High rates of gross and histologic ab...

OBJECTIVE Analyze indications and type of prenatal diagnostic procedures performed. METHOD This retrospective audit was conducted at a dedicated fetal medicine center in Petaling Jaya. All invasive prenatal diagnosis procedures performed from 2003 up until 2010 (amniocentesis, chorionic villous sampling and fetal blood sampling) were analyzed. RESULT A total of 1560 invasive prenatal diagno...

The incidence of pregnancy outcomes for women with the purely obstetric form of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) treated with prophylactic low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) plus low-dose aspirin (LDA) has not been documented. We observed women without a history of thrombosis who had experienced 3 consecutive spontaneous abortions before the 10th week of gestation or 1 fetal loss at or beyond t...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the association between maternal age and fetal death (spontaneous abortion, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth), taking into account a woman's reproductive history. DESIGN Prospective register linkage study. SUBJECTS All women with a reproductive outcome (live birth, stillbirth, spontaneous abortion leading to admission to hospital, induced abortion, ectopic pregnancy, or h...

  Background and Objectives: Infection with parvovirus may induce spontaneous abortion, non-immune hydrops fetalis, and intrauterine death in full term infants. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of parvovirus B19 in paraffin-embedded formalin fixed placental tissues in lost fetuses by PCR method and comparison with its frequency in healthy full term neonates as controls. Ma...