Background: Preterm premature rupture of membranes is defined as before the onset labor with gestational age < 37 weeks. associated 10% perinatal mortality, particularly respiratory distress syndrome and neonatal infection. Objective: The study aims to assess outcome maternal fetal in preterm membranes. Materials Methods: This cross-sectional was performed on 136 pregnant women complicated b...

Preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) is the leading identifiable cause of preterm birth with ~ 40% of preterm births being associated with PPROM and occurs in 1% - 2% of all pregnancies. We hypothesized that multiple rare variants in fetal genes involved in extracellular matrix synthesis would associate with PPROM, based on the assumption that impaired elaboration of matrix proteins w...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine the value of detecting insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) in the cervical-vaginal secretion in the prediction of delivery in women with clinically uncorfirmed preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM). MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 87 women, gestational age between 20 and 36 weeks were enrolled into this prospective s...

OBJECTIVE We examined whether surgically induced membrane defects elevate connexin 43 (Cx43) expression in the wound edge of the amniotic membrane (AM) and drives structural changes in collagen that affects healing after fetoscopic surgery. METHOD Cell morphology and collagen microstructure was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and second harmonic generation in fetal membranes take...

The aim of the study was to examine: 1/ allantochorial concentrations of nitrate/nitrite (NOx) and 2/ plasma concentration of NOx in pigs on days 25, 35, 40 and 60 of pregnancy as well as 3/ the influence of estradiol-17beta (E(2)) and/or progesterone (P(4)) on NOx production by porcine fetal membranes on the studied days of pregnancy. Total NOx concentration was determined using a microplate a...

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of postmortem cultures in perinatal autopsies; in particular, those cases where there is gross or histologic evidence of chorioamnionitis. Lung, liver, blood, and placental cultures were obtained from 159 neonatal autopsies with histologic evidence of chorioamnionitis at Magee-Women's Hospital between January 1980 and July 1985. The criter...