OBJECTIVE To compare the risk of fetal death (FD) between 34 and 41 weeks' gestational age (GA) with the neonatal mortality rate to examine the best GA for delivery. STUDY DESIGN Linked birth and infant death data for the US from the National Center for Health Statistics analyzed nonanomalous singleton pregnancies between 2003 and 2005. Pregnancies were classified as high risk or low risk bas...

OBJECTIVE The prototypic long pentraxin pentraxin 3 is a new candidate marker for inflammatory conditions reflecting the involvement of the vascular bed. Endothelial dysfunction is a prominent feature of preeclampsia as a result of excessive maternal systemic inflammation. We investigated pentraxin 3 levels in preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction, pregnancy conditions related to alt...

Aim: To summarize recent articles on the risk factors of preeclampsia in twin pregnancies from 2002 to 2014. Methods: Recent articles from 2002 to 2014 were searched using PubMed. Results: We found 8 articles analyzing the risk factors of preeclampsia in twin pregnancies and focused on the following three risk factors: i) egg (oocyte) donation, ii) chorionicity (dichorionic (DC) twins vs. monoc...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to compare the fetal/infant mortality risk associated with each additional week of expectant management to that associated with immediate delivery in women with multiple gestations. METHODS This was a retrospective national cohort study of 94,170 multiple deliveries, 92,619 (98.4%) twin and 1,352 (1.44%) triplet pregnancies, between 32 0/7 and 42 6/7 w...

OBJECTIVE We compared the performance of the 50-g glucose challenge test (GCT) in singleton versus twin pregnancies and investigated the need for adjusting GCT cutoff values for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in twin pregnancies among Korean women. METHODS A retrospective chart review was performed in women who underwent GCT at 24 to 28 weeks' gestation and delivered in our department be...

INTRODUCTION The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of fetal sex on serum human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and testosterone in normotensive and preeclamptic pregnancies. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a cross-sectional study and 139 women with singleton pregnancies in the third trimester were studied. Seventy-one pregnancies were uncomplicated; among those were 35 male and ...

BACKGROUND The risk of placenta previa may be increased in pregnancies conceived by assisted reproduction technology (ART). Whether the increased risk is due to factors related to the reproductive technology, or associated with maternal factors, is not known. METHODS In a nationwide population-based study, we included 845,384 pregnancies reported to the Medical Birth Registry of Norway betwee...

Maternal immune tolerance of the semiallogeneic fetus is a complex phenomenon. Macrophages are an abundant cell population in the human decidua, and changes in distribution or phenotype may be involved in the development of preeclampsia. The aim of this study was to assess the distribution and phenotype of macrophages in preterm preeclamptic, preterm control, and term control placentas. Placent...

OBJECTIVE To estimate gestational age-specific risks of fetal death in pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia. METHODS Population-based cohort study comprising all singleton births (N=554,333) without preexisting chronic hypertension recorded in the Norwegian Medical Birth Registry from 1999 to 2008. Additional data come from a subset of preeclamptic pregnancies enrolled in the Norwegian Mot...