Fetal monitoring

INTRODUCTION: Preeclampsia (PE) is a fundamental cause of preterm labor, intrauterine growth restriction, and persistent postpartum hypertension. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the correlation between 24-h urinary protein excretion, serum markers, and placental growth factor and their adverse pregnancy outcomes in patients with PE. METHODS: A total of 126 pregnant women with PE (86 cases of mild PE and 40 cases of severe PE, assigned to the observation group) who came to our hospital from March 2019 to December 2021 for regular obstetric checkups and delivery were selected, with 60 healthy pregnant women assigned to the control group...

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of comprehensive nursing combined with thermal insulation measures on the awakening agitation (EA) of cesarean section parturient under general anesthesia and maternal and infant safety. METHODS: A total of 136 cesarean section parturients under general anesthesia admitted in our hospital from May 2020 to November 2023 were picked as the research objects following the random, double-blind method. All patients have no mental illness and can clearly reflect their physical state...

BACKGROUND: The iPREFACE score may aid in predicting fetal acidemia and neonatal asphyxia in emergency cesarean and vaginal deliveries, which may improve labor management precision in the future. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the score use of the iPREFACE as an objective indicator of the need for rapid delivery in cases of repeated abnormal waveforms without concurrent indications for immediate medical intervention during labor. STUDY DESIGN: This retrospective cohort study was conducted among term (37+ 0 days to 41+6 days) singleton pregnant women who underwent emergency cesarean delivery owing to a nonreassuring fetal status...

Cigarette smoking during pregnancy increases the risk for pregnancy complications and adverse infant outcomes such as preterm delivery, restricted fetal growth, and infant death. Health care provider counseling can support smoking cessation. Data from the 2021 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System were analyzed to estimate the prevalence of smoking before, during, and after pregnancy; quitting smoking during pregnancy; and whether health care providers asked about cigarette smoking before, during, and after pregnancy among women with a recent live birth...

IMPORTANCE: Pregnancy represents a window of opportunity for vaccination due to established maternal and fetal benefits of vaccination. Little is known about receipt of routinely recommended vaccines in pregnancy, specifically tetanus, diphtheria, plus acellular pertussis (Tdap) and influenza, among pregnant people living with HIV (PLHIV). OBJECTIVE: To estimate prevalence of vaccination receipt among pregnant people with HIV (PLHIV) and identify demographic and clinical characteristics associated with vaccination...

OBJECTIVE: To provide evidence-based clinical practice recommendations for managing Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: This EULAR-adapted national guideline in which a multidisciplinary task force utilized the modified Delphi method to develop 31 clinical key questions. A systematic literature review was conducted to update the evidence since the EULAR publication. After reaching a consensus agreement, two rounds of voting and group discussion were conducted to generate consolidated recommendations/statements...

In this editorial review, we comment on the article published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery . Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a fetal glycoprotein and can be secreted in very small amounts from healthy adults after birth. CEA is widely used not only for diagnostic tumor markers but also importantly for the management of some gastrointestinal tumors. The most common clinical use is surveillance for the monitoring of colorectal carcinoma. However, CEA can become elevated in several malign or benign characterized pathologies...

OBJECTIVES: Symptomatic neonates and infants with Ebstein Anomaly (EA) require complex management. A group of experts was commissioned by the American Association for Thoracic Surgery to provide a framework on this topic focusing on risk stratification and management. METHODS: The EA Clinical Congenital Practice Standards Committee is a multinational and multidisciplinary group of surgeons and cardiologists with expertise in EA. A citation search in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science was performed using key words related to EA...

BACKGROUND: Glucocorticoids are commonly used in children with different chronic diseases. Growth failure represents a so far untreatable undesired side-effect. As lithium chloride (LiCl) is known to induce cell renewal in various tissues, we hypothesized that LiCl may prevent glucocorticoid-induced growth failure. METHODS: We monitored growth of fetal rat metatarsals cultured ex-vivo with dexamethasone and/or LiCl, while molecular mechanisms were explored through RNA sequencing by implementing the differential gene expression and gene set analysis...

The toxicity and carcinogenicity of hexavalent chromium via the inhalation route is well established. However, a scientific debate has arisen about the potential effects of oral exposure to chromium on human health. Epidemiological studies evaluating the connection between ingested chromium and adverse health effects on the general population are limited. In recent years, a wealth of biomonitoring studies has emerged evaluating the associations between chromium levels in body fluids and tissues and health outcomes...

Monitoring fetal heart rate (FHR) through cardiotocography is crucial for the early diagnosis of fetal distress situations, necessitating prompt obstetrical intervention. However, FHR signals are often marred by various contaminants, making preprocessing techniques essential for accurate analysis. This scoping review, following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, describes the preprocessing methods in original research articles on human FHR (or beat-to-beat intervals) signal preprocessing from PubMed and Web of Science, published from their inception up to May 2021...

Timely and reliable fetal monitoring is crucial to prevent adverse events during pregnancy and delivery. Fetal phonocardiography, i.e., the recording of fetal heart sounds, is emerging as a novel possibility to monitor fetal health status. Indeed, due to its passive nature and its noninvasiveness, the technique is suitable for long-term monitoring and for telemonitoring applications. Despite the high share of literature focusing on signal processing, no previous work has reviewed the technological hardware solutions devoted to the recording of fetal heart sounds...

BACKGROUND: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the predominant birth defect. This study aimed to explore the association between maternal cardiovascular health (CVH) and the CHD risk in offspring. METHODS: We used the prospective data from the Fujian Birth Cohort Study, collected from March 2019 to December 2022 on pregnant women within 14 weeks of gestation. Overall maternal CVH was assessed by seven CVH metrics (including physical activity, smoking, sleep duration, body mass index, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and fasting plasma glucose), with each metric classified as ideal, intermediate or poor with specific points...

INTRODUCTION: Despite technological developments and intensified care, pregnancies in women with pre-existing diabetes are still considered high-risk pregnancies. The rate of adverse outcomes in pregnancies affected by diabetes in Denmark is currently unknown, and there is a limited understanding of mechanisms contributing to this elevated risk. To address these gaps, the Danish Diabetes Birth Registry 2 (DDBR2) was established. The aims of this registry are to evaluate maternal and fetal-neonatal outcomes based on 5 years cohort data, and to identify pathophysiology and risk factors associated with short-term and long-term outcomes of pregnancies in women with pre-existing diabetes...

BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia (PE) is one of the most common hypertensive diseases, affecting 2%-8% of all pregnancies. The high maternal and fetal mortality rates of PE are due to a lack of early identification of affected pregnant women that would have led to closer monitoring and care. Recent data suggest that misfolded proteins might be a promising biomarker for PE prediction, which can be detected in urine samples of pregnant women according to their congophilia (aggregated) characteristic...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: It is important to predict and prevent post-spinal hypotension in lower segment cesarean section (LSCS). Peripheral vascular tone can be monitored as a perfusion index (PI) from a pulse oximeter. We aimed to study baseline PI as a predictor of post-spinal hypotension in LSCS. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Prospective observational study conducted in a tertiary care teaching public hospital on patients posted for elective LSCS under spinal anesthesia...

BACKGROUND: Gestational weight gain (GWG) is an important indicator for monitoring maternal and fetal health. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of GWG outside the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on fetal and neonatal outcomes. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective cohort study with 1642 pregnant women selected from 2017 to 2023, with gestational age ≤ 18 weeks and followed until delivery in the city of Araraquara, Southeast Brazil...

BACKGROUND: EFM is used in the vast majority of US hospital births, but has significant limitations in achieving its intended goal of preventing intrapartum hypoxic-ischemic injury. Novel deep learning techniques can improve complex data processing and pattern recognition in medicine. OBJECTIVE: We sought to apply deep learning approaches to develop and validate a model to predict fetal acidemia from EFM data. STUDY DESIGN: The database was created using intrapartum EFM data from 2006-2020 from a large, multi-site academic health system...

BACKGROUND: Heat exposure during pregnancy can increase the risk of preterm birth (PTB) through a range of potential mechanisms including pregnancy complications, hormone secretion and infections. However, current research mainly focuses on the effect of heat exposure on pathophysiological pathways of pregnant women, but ignore that that maternal heat exposure can also cause physiological changes to the fetus, which will affect the risk of PTB. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to explore the mediating role of fetal heart rate (FHR) in the relationship between maternal heat exposure and PTB incidence...

The physiological, hormonal and biomechanical changes during pregnancy may trigger sleep disorders breathing in pregnant women. Pregnancy-related sleep disorders may associate with adverse fetal and maternal outcomes including gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, preterm birth and gestational hypertension. Most of the screening and diagnostic studies that explore sleep disordered breathing during pregnancy were based on questionnaires which are inherently limited in providing definitive conclusions. The current gold standard for in diagnostics is overnight polysomnography involving the comprehensive measurements of physiological changes during sleep...