BACKGROUND This study compared the stroke-free survival rates and hazard ratios (HRs) for stroke between preeclamptic women who received general anaesthesia and those who received neuraxial anaesthesia for Caesarean section (CS). METHODS This study used 2002-7 data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The stroke-free survival rate was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier meth...

Preeclampsia is the most common medical complication of pregnancy. About 10% of normotensive women and 20-25% chronic hypertensive women, in their first pregnancy suffer from pregnancy induced hypertension requires its early diagnosis and intervention. The aim of the study is to measure and correlate serum malondialdehyde (MDA) level (an index of oxidative stress) with Atherogenic Index (A.I.) ...

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific complication defined as newly onset gestational hypertension and proteinuria. Deficiency in placental development is considered as the predominant cause of preeclampsia. Our previous study found that the expression of miR-518b increased significantly in the preeclamptic placentas, indicating the potential participation of this small RNA in the occurrence of ...

OBJECTIVE Our purpose was to investigate iron status parameters in preeclampsia with a view to exploring their possible contribution to the etiology. STUDY DESIGN In prepared serum samples from 40 preeclamptic women and matched pregnant control subjects at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, a number of iron status parameters were measured. Statistical analysis was by the Wilcoxon signed ran...

Preeclampsia (PE) is a severe complication of pregnancy associated with maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. The underlying pathophysiology involves maternal systemic vascular and endothelial dysfunction associated with circulating antiangiogenic factors, although the specific etiology of the disease remains elusive. Our aim was to investigate the maternal endothelium in PE by exploring ...

BACKGROUND Beta-catenin is a key nuclear effector of Wnt signaling which could be antagonized by dickkopf-1(DKK1). Beta-catenin and DKK1 are involved in a variety of biological processes; however, their expression in the placenta with severe preeclampsia (PE) has not been elucidated. This study was aimed to detect the localization and compare the expression of beta-catenin and DKK1 in normal an...

OBJECTIVE In this study, we determined circulating levels of C-reactive protein, several cytokines, chemokines, adhesion molecules and angiogenic factors along with those of leptin in healthy non-pregnant and pregnant women and preeclamptic patients, and investigated whether serum leptin levels were related to the clinical characteristics and measured laboratory parameters of the study particip...

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific complication characterized by hypertension, proteinuria and oedema. It has remained as a major cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. The major function of prolactin is its role in lactation during pregnancy, but many authors have claimed that this hormone is also involved in angiogenesis, thus linking it with the pathogenesis of ...

Systemic inflammation and oxidative stress are features of normal pregnancy and, in excess, contribute to the pathogenesis of preeclampsia. Inflammatory cell activation stimulates uptake of arginine (the precursor for nitric oxide) by transport system y+, expression of one of its genes (CAT-2) together with inducible nitric oxide synthase, leading to nitric oxide production. We investigated whe...

OBJECTIVE Advanced glycation end-products are considered to be markers of oxidative stress and to be involved in the atherosclerotic process. We investigated skin autofluorescence, which reflected advanced glycation end-product accumulation, in recently preeclamptic women and its relationship with intima-media thickness, which is a marker of atherosclerosis. STUDY DESIGN Skin autofluorescence...