BACKGROUND The purpose of this nested case-control study in Denmark was to study the association between use of corticosteroids and risk of miscarriage. METHODS We identified prescriptions for corticosteroids before the miscarriage/index date. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) for miscarriage and for early (<13 weeks) and late (13-21 weeks) miscarriage adjusting for age, history of diabetes and ...

The antibiotic trimethoprim acts as a folate antagonist. Since trophoblasts are very sensitive to drugs that interfere with the folic acid cycle and thereby inhibit DNA synthesis, use of trimethoprim during the first trimester could be associated with miscarriage. A nationwide cohort study including all women in Denmark with a registered pregnancy between 1997 and 2005 was conducted. We used na...

Progesterone (P4) is frequently used in the treatment of threatened abortion, prevention of recurrent miscarriage and threatened preterm labor. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism of P4 in the regulation of extravillous trophoblasts' (EVTs) function. This study was designed to examine the presence of progesterone receptor (PR) in the human trophoblast-derived HTR-8/SV neo cel...

The clinical diagnosis of threatened abortion is presumed when any bloody vaginal discharge or bleeding appears during the first trimester of pregnancy. A prospective study on women with threatened abortion reported that women older than 34 years had an odds ratio of 2.3 for miscarriage (Falco et al., 1996). Some women who bleed in early pregnancy, approximately half of them, will abort (Weiss ...

background: pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines and polymorphisms of their genes have been described to be involved in the pathogenesis of recurrent miscarriage (rm). objective: to investigate the association between rm and five polymorphisms of cytokine genes, interleukin 10 (il-10), (-592 a/c, -819 c/t, -1082 a/g), il-6 (-174 c/g) and il-17 (-197 g/a) in iranian women. method: po...

BACKGROUND Violence against women by their male intimate partners (IPV) during pregnancy may lead to negative pregnancy outcomes. We examined the role of IPV as a potential risk factor for miscarriage in Guatemala. Our objectives were: (1) To describe the magnitude and pattern of verbal, physical and sexual violence by male intimate partners in the last 12 months (IPV) in a sample of pregnant G...

Objective We studied the association between sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) and several clinical in vitro fertilization outcomes. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 169 consecutive fresh IVF cycles. Semen was collected on the day of oocyte retrieval, and we assessed standard semen parameters and the SDF level (by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling). Poor ovarian resp...

Miscarriage is the most common complication of pregnancy. Pre-clinical miscarriage has an estimated incidence of 30%, whilst clinical miscarriage has an incidence of 12-15%. Two thirds of pregnancies lost to miscarriage are believed to be attributable to defective placentation, thus a number of studies have sought to identify markers of defective placentation that could be used as clinical biom...

Recurrent miscarriages are one or more pregnancy losses before 20-24 weeks of gestation or below a fetal weight of 500 g (Pic. 1). About 1% of women in reproductive age are affected by recurrent miscarriages. The majority of patients are counseled to try to conceive again, and chances are about 60% that the next pregnancy is successful without treatment. However, each additional loss worsens th...