BACKGROUND Emerging antenatal interventions and care delivery to the fetus require diagnostic support, including laboratory technologies, appropriate methodologies, establishment of special algorithms, and interpretative guidelines for clinical decision-making. CONTENT Fetal diagnostic and therapeutic interventions vary in invasiveness and are associated with a spectrum of risks and benefits....

PURPOSE This article is a retrospective examination of environmental risk, language performance, and narrative discourse data from a clinical database of school-age children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). METHOD A case-defined diagnostic approach for measuring and reporting the full spectrum of disabilities in children with prenatal alcohol exposure is presented. Demographic, en...

Cardiotocography is the primary method for biophysical assessment of a fetal state. It is based mainly on the recording and analysis of fetal heart rate signal (FHR). Computer systems for fetal monitoring provide a quantitative description of FHR signals, however the effective methods for their qualitative assessment are still needed. The measurements of hydronium ions concentration (pH) in new...

Improvement of high resolution ultrasound scan equipment, have enabled obstetricians to examine the fetus during first trimester in more detail than ever before. It is established that first trimester ultrasound scan is superior to second trimester scan in determining gestational age, risk assessment for chromosomal aneuploidy and chorionicity in multiple pregnancy1-3. Moreover, first trimester...

Purpose: To compare axial view images obtained with fetal ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) when applying the Cardiovascular System Sonographic Evaluation Algorithm (CASSEAL). Materials and method: CASSEAL is an US algorithm consisting on the acquisition of 9 different axial views of the fetal abdomen and chest, from the umbilical vein to the subclavian arteries. It was desig...

background: one of the first‑line assessment tools for fetal surveillance is nonstress test (nst), although it is limited by a high rate of false‑nonreactive results. this study was performed to investigate if external stimulation from vibroacoustic and halogen light could help in provoking fetal responsiveness and altering nst results. materials and methods: this is a clinical trial. sampling ...

Intrauterine tissues (placenta, amnion, chorion, decidua) express hormones and cytokines that play a decisive role in maternal-fetal physiological interactions. The excessive or deficient release of some placental hormones in association with gestational diseases may reflect an abnormal differentiation of the placenta, an impaired fetal metabolism, or an adaptive response of the feto-placental ...

Clear guidance on fetal growth assessment is important because of the strong links between growth restriction or macrosomia and adverse perinatal outcome in order to reduce associated morbidity and mortality. Fetal growth curves are extensively adopted to track fetal sizes from the early phases of pregnancy up to delivery. In the literature, a large variety of reference charts are reported but ...