background: the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis is most critical in pregnant women who acquire infection during gestation and also in fetuses and newborns who are congenitally infected. this study described the performance of molecular and confirmatory serologic testing for toxoplasma infection in the tissues of human spontaneous aborted fetuses and their mothers' blood. materials and methods: ...

Abortion is one of the most important economic issues in sheep flocks. Chlamydophila abortus is an agent of enzootic abortions in sheep. Mycoplasma agalactiae is the main etiological agent of contagious agalactia, which can cause abortion in sheep. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of M. agalactiae and C. abortus among aborted ovine fetu...

OBJECTIVES Measurement of the shortening fraction of the left ventricle (SFLV) is an objective way to assess systolic performance. The aim of the study was to compare first trimester SFLV values in euploid fetuses to those in fetuses with trisomy 21. METHODS We measured SFLV in 56 fetuses from 11 weeks to 13 weeks 6 days. The left ventricular diastolic diameter (LVDD) and left ventricular sys...

OBJECTIVE To document the growth of the left heart structures and outcome of fetuses with aortic stenosis. DESIGN Retrospective echocardiographic and clinical study. SETTING Tertiary centre for fetal cardiology. PATIENTS 27 consecutive fetuses with aortic stenosis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Survival of affected fetuses. Measurement of left ventricular end diastolic volume (LVEDV), aortic ro...

BACKGROUND A risk assessment of magnetic field (MF) exposure conducted by the World Health Organization indicated the need for biological studies on primary hazard identification and quantitative risk evaluation of intermediate frequency (300 Hz-100 kHz) MFs. Because induction heating cookers generate such MFs for cooking, reproductive and developmental effects are a concern due to the close pr...

OBJECTIVE To determine the diameter changes of umbilical cord components in intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) fetuses comparative with normal growth fetuses by using the ultrasonogram. MATERIAL AND METHOD A cross sectional study was performed with 140 singleton pregnant women who was attended at Maternal-Fetal Medicine unit, Thammasat University Hospital between June, 2007 to May, 2009. ...

OBJECTIVES To assess thymic size expressed as the thymic-thoracic ratio (TT-ratio) in fetuses with trisomy 21, 18 or 13. METHODS The TT-ratio, the quotient of the anteroposterior thymic and the intrathoracic mediastinal diameter, was measured in 65 trisomic fetuses between 15 and 36 weeks' gestation, including 30 cases with trisomy 21, 19 with trisomy 18 and 16 with trisomy 13. In addition th...

The role of the renin-angiotensin system in modulating the renal hemodynamic and functional responses to reductions of fetoplacental blood volume (8.8-35.5%) was studied in two groups of fetal lambs (less than 120 days and greater than 130 days gestation; term 145 days) during infusion of either captopril (experimental fetuses) or dextrose 5% in water (control fetuses). At high hemorrhage level...

Background: One in every 250 newborns is exposed to antiepileptic drugs, inutero .The risk of congenital malformations in newborns, prenatally exposed to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), is around 5% which is 2 to 2.5 times that of general population; while carbamazepine (CBZ) and valproate (VPA) still provide the treatment of choice in most forms of epilepsy, being efficacious in approximately two-...