For 6 years after heart transplantation, a 23-year old female recipient had been treated with immunosuppressants including tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), without any major rejection or graft dysfunction. She unexpectedly became pregnant for the first time, and we converted MMF to azathioprine (AZA), but she soon experienced a spontaneous abortion. After careful counseling under the...

Pregnancy poses a unique challenge to patients with sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia, who often have exacerbations of hemolysis or anemia during the gestational period, experience higher rates of obstetric and fetal complications, and may have distinct underlying comorbidities related to vasculopathy and iron overload that can endanger maternal health. Optimal management of pregnant women ...

background: amniotic fluid is an indicator of placental function on the fetal development. the amniotic fluid index is the most commonly used method of measuring amniotic fluid. objective: the purpose of this study was to compare the pregnancy outcomes of a borderline versus normal afi. materials and methods: this cross-sectional study was carried out on a total of 235 pregnant women referred t...

trauma is one of the major non-obstetric causes of pregnancy-associated maternal deaths. most cases of maternal trauma include: motor vehicle crashes, domestic violence, falls, burns, suicide, and toxic exposure. pregnancy-related anatomic and physiologic changes like increased joint laxity, weight gain, and changes in the center of gravity during pregnancy increase the risk of falling. one of ...

Relapsing-fever borreliosis caused by Borrelia duttonii is a common cause of complications of pregnancy, miscarriage, and neonatal death in sub-Saharan Africa. We established a murine model of gestational relapsing fever infection for the study of the pathological development of these complications. We demonstrate that B. duttonii infection during pregnancy results in intrauterine growth retard...

Women with connective tissue diseases increase risks of obstetric complications during pregnancy. Especially, women who have anti-SSA/Ro and anti-SSB/La auto-antibodies increase the risk of developing fetal atrioventricular (AV) block. It is difficult to indentify fetal AV block in the early stage of the disease, which is consequently found after the establishment of complete AV block as the fo...

OBJECTIVE In women with hyperglycemia due to heterozygous glucokinase (GCK) mutations, the fetal genotype determines its growth. If the fetus inherits the mutation, birth weight is normal when maternal hyperglycemia is not treated, whereas intensive treatment may adversely reduce fetal growth. However, fetal genotype is not usually known antenatally, making treatment decisions difficult. HIST...

The assessment of fetal growth represents a fundamental step towards the identification of the true growth restricted fetus that is associated to important perinatal morbidity and mortality. The possible ways of detecting abnormal fetal growth are taken into consideration in this review and their strong and weak points are discussed. An important debate still remains about how to discriminate b...

Since 1928, human fetal tissues and stem cells have been used worldwide to treat various conditions. Although the transplantation of the fetal midbrain substantia nigra and dopaminergic neurons in patients suffering from Parkinson's disease is particularly noteworthy, the history of other types of grafts, such as those of the fetal liver, thymus, and pancreas, should be addressed as there are m...

Women with congenital heart disease have increased risks of complications during pregnancy. Several risk scoring tools been developed to quantify the likelihood adverse cardiac outcomes This article describes how comprehensive pre-pregnancy or early pregnancy counseling needs go well beyond these scores. Non-cardiac factors and obstetric fetal are vital components dialogue between multidiscipli...