OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine whether the vaginal cytokine concentration varies during the course of uncomplicated pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN Prenatal visits of healthy women to University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium were considered. Cytokine levels in vaginal washings from 30 unselected healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies were monitored during pregnanc...

This article reviews maternal metabolic strategies for accommodating fetal nutrient requirements in normal pregnancy and in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Pregnancy is characterized by a progressive increase in nutrient-stimulated insulin responses despite an only minor deterioration in glucose tolerance, consistent with progressive insulin resistance. The hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic gluc...

It is found that serum antifibrinolytic activity is inhibitory both to the spontaneous fibrinolytic activity and to the activity of streptokinase-activated plasminogen. The titres of serum antiplasmin activity during gestation, labour, and the puerperium are all of the same order and do not differ from those in non-pregnant women. The marked decrease in the spontaneous fibrinolytic activity in ...

This study is to investigate the mechanism of unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA). A total of 35 cases of URSA patients (URSA group), 20 cases with normal pregnancy (normal pregnancy group) and 20 healthy non-pregnancy candidates (healthy control group) were enrolled in this study. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method was used for detection of serum soluble Tim-3 (sTim...

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate weight gain during pregnancy and birth weight in rural regions of Tabriz, a province in the northwest of Iran. Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using routinely collected data of pregnant mothers from rural health centers. Eight health centers were randomly selected in rural areas of Tabriz. Totally, 874 women aged...

adverse outcome of pregnancy is a potentially dangerous complication of conception and affects 15-20% of pregnancies. according to recent studies increased level of blood antiphospholipids antibodies, if accompanied by predisposing factors, can be an adverse event in human pregnancy. the aim of the present study was to compare the maternal serum levels of anticardiolipin and antiphosphatidyl se...

background identification of a normal range for biomarkers, based on pregnancy outcomes (caused by their high or low values) is of special importance in clinical studies. as some pregnancy outcomes can happen in both high and low levels of biomarkers, the receiver-operating characteristic (roc) curve is unsuitable for identifying these levels separately; rather, a statistical method is preferab...