Project description:Purpose: Evidence regarding distinguishing characteristics of women with symptomatic leiomyomas during pregnancy who undergo myomectomy during pregnancy and those who respond to conservative treatment is sparse because it mostly derives from case reports and small patient series. As the first of its type, the present study analyzed the characteristics of women with symptomatic leiomyomas treated with myomectomy during pregnancy and those treated conservatively. Methods: We performed a computer search of medical records from 1 January 2001 to 31 March 2011 using the International Classification of Diseases Codes for pregnancy, myomectomy and leiomyomas during pregnancy. Results: 27 patients were admitted during pregnancy directly related to leiomyomas; 17 of the 27 patients received conservative treatment for symptomatic leiomyomas, and 10 patients had surgery during pregnancy: 3 had undergone diagnostic surgical procedures and 7 myomectomy. Perioperative and postoperative morbidity was low in all women in our sample. Conclusion: In our pilot study, myomectomy during pregnancy was safely performed in carefully selected patients, with subserosal or pedunculated leiomyomas that failed to respond to conservative treatment, with low perioperative and postoperative morbidity.
Project description:Dengue virus infection during pregnancy increased the risk for any neurologic congenital anomaly in the infant by roughly 50% and for other congenital malformations of brain 4-fold. Our results show an association between dengue during pregnancy and congenital anomalies of the brain, suggesting that flaviviruses other than Zika virus are associated with such malformations.
Project description:ImportanceAlthough family priorities influence specialty selection and resident attrition, few studies describe resident perspectives on pregnancy during surgical training.ObjectiveTo directly assess the resident experience of childbearing during training.Design, setting, and participantsA self-administered 74-question survey was electronically distributed in January 2017 to members of the Association of Women Surgeons, to members of the Association of Program Directors in Surgery listserv, and through targeted social media platforms. Surgeons who had 1 or more pregnancies during an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited US general surgery residency program and completed training in 2007 or later were included. Important themes were identified using focus groups of surgeons who had undergone pregnancy during training in the past 7 years. Additional topics were identified through MEDLINE searches performed from January 2000 to July 2016 combining the keywords pregnancy, resident, attrition, and parenting in any specialty.Main outcomes and measuresDescriptive data on perceptions of work schedule during pregnancy, maternity leave policies, lactation and childcare support, and career satisfaction after childbirth.ResultsThis study included 347 female surgeons (mean [SD] age, 30.5 [2.7] years) with 452 pregnancies. A total of 297 women (85.6%) worked an unmodified schedule until birth, and 220 (63.6%) were concerned that their work schedule adversely affected their health or the health of their unborn child. Residency program maternity leave policies were reported by 121 participants (34.9%). A total of 251 women (78.4%) received maternity leave of 6 weeks or less, and 250 (72.0%) perceived the duration of leave to be inadequate. The American Board of Surgery leave policy was cited as a major barrier to the desired length of leave by 268 of 326 respondents (82.2%). Breastfeeding was important to 329 (95.6%), but 200 (58.1%) stopped earlier than they wished because of poor access to lactation facilities and challenges leaving the operating room to express milk. Sixty-four women (18.4%) had institutional support for childcare, and 231 (66.8%) reported a desire for greater mentorship on integrating a surgical career with motherhood and pregnancy. A total of 135 (39.0%) strongly considered leaving surgical residency, and 102 (29.5%) would discourage female medical students from a surgical career, specifically because of the difficulties of balancing pregnancy and motherhood with training.Conclusions and relevanceThe challenges of having children during surgical residency may have significant workforce implications. A deeper understanding is critical to prevent attrition and to continue recruiting talented students. This survey characterizes these issues to help design interventions to support childbearing residents.
Project description:Obesity is a growing worldwide epidemic among women of reproductive age, including pregnant women. The increased prevalence of obesity has been accompanied by an increase in gestational weight gain. Maternal obesity has deleterious consequences for both mother and child.To review the recent guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the Institute of Medicine regarding gestational weight gain and interventions to treat obesity during pregnancy.Guidelines on gestational weight gain from these organizations, as well as reports of gestational weight gain in the published literature, are summarized.Many normal and overweight parturients exceed the recommendations in the guidelines, which may contribute to postpartum obesity.Lifestyle changes, including dieting and increased activity, may help to limit excessive gestational weight gain but the optimal strategy remains unclear.
Project description:High carbohydrate intake has been linked to insulin resistance, obesity, and abnormal serum lipid profiles-conditions which favor gallstone formation.The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary carbohydrate intake on incident gallbladder disease, defined as biliary sludge and stones, during pregnancy.We prospectively studied 3070 pregnant women who underwent serial gallbladder ultrasound during pregnancy and at 4 to 6 weeks postpartum. All women had at least 2 study ultrasounds for comparison. A semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire was completed by subjects in the early third trimester. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to assess the risk of incident gallbladder disease across quartiles total and individual carbohydrate and individual carbohydrates (starch, sucrose, galactose, fructose, and lactose) intake.The cumulative incidence of gallbladder disease was 10.2% by 4 to 6 weeks postpartum. The risk of incident gallbladder disease during pregnancy was significantly higher among women in the highest quartile of total carbohydrate intake versus those in the lowest quartile (odds ratio 2.09, 95% confidence interval 1.02-4.27). High intake of fructose was associated with increased risk even after additional adjustment for total carbohydrate intake (odds ratio 2.18, 95% confidence interval 1.23-3.86, comparing highest with lowest quartile). No association was found between the intake of starch, sucrose, lactose, or galactose and the risk of incident gallbladder disease.High consumption of total carbohydrate and fructose may increase the risk of developing gallbladder disease during pregnancy. Dietary modification during pregnancy might reduce gallstone incidence during this time period.
Project description:BACKGROUND:Triclosan is an antimicrobial chemical used in consumer products, and exposure is ubiquitous among pregnant women in the United States. Triclosan may reduce the levels of thyroid hormones that are important for fetal growth and development. OBJECTIVE:We investigated the relationship of prenatal triclosan exposure with birth anthropometry and gestational duration. METHODS:We used data from 378 mother-child pairs participating in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, a prospective pregnancy and birth cohort from Cincinnati, OH. We measured triclosan concentrations in maternal urine samples collected at 16 and 26 weeks of pregnancy. We abstracted information on neonatal anthropometry and gestational duration from medical records. We used multivariable linear regression to estimate the covariate-adjusted association between the average of the two urinary triclosan concentrations and gestational age standardized weight z-score, length, head circumference, and gestational age at birth. RESULTS:Median urinary triclosan concentrations were 16ng/mL (range: <2.4 to 1501ng/mL). Each 10-fold increase in triclosan was associated with a predicted 0.15 standard deviation decrease (95% CI: -0.30, 0.00) in birth weight z-score, 0.4-cm decrease (95% CI: -0.8, 0.1) in birth length, 0.3-cm decrease (95% CI: -0.5, 0.0) in head circumference, and 0.3-week decrease (95% CI: -0.6, -0.1) in gestational age. Child sex did not modify the associations between triclosan and birth outcomes. CONCLUSIONS:In this cohort, maternal urinary triclosan concentrations during pregnancy were inversely associated with infants' birth weight, length, head circumference, and gestational age.
Project description:BackgroundProgress in the fields of protein separation and identification technologies has accelerated research into biofluids proteomics for protein biomarker discovery. Urine has become an ideal and rich source of biomarkers in clinical proteomics. Here we performed a proteomic analysis of urine samples from pregnant and non-pregnant patients using gel electrophoresis and high-resolution mass spectrometry. Furthermore, we also apply a non-prefractionation quantitative phosphoproteomic approach using mTRAQ labeling to evaluate the expression of specific phosphoproteins during pregnancy comparison with non-pregnancy.ResultsIn total, 2579 proteins (10429 unique peptides) were identified, including 1408 from the urine of pregnant volunteers and 1985 from the urine of non-pregnant volunteers. One thousand and twenty-three proteins were not reported in previous studies at the proteome level and were unique to our study. Furthermore, we obtained 237 phosphopeptides, representing 105 phosphoproteins. Among these phosphoproteins, 16 of them were found to be significantly differentially expressed, of which 14 were up-regulated and two were down-regulated in urine samples from women just before vaginal delivery.ConclusionTaken together, these results offer a comprehensive urinary proteomic profile of healthy women during before and after vaginal delivery and novel information on the phosphoproteins that are differentially regulated during the maintenance of normal pregnancy. Our results may provide a better understanding of the mechanisms of pregnancy maintenance, potentially leading to the development of biomarker-based sensitive assays for understanding pregnancy.
Project description:To examine associations between phthalate metabolite urinary concentrations during early pregnancy and blood glucose levels obtained at the time of screening for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).Upon initiation of prenatal care, women with a mean gestational age of 12.8 weeks were recruited for a study of environmental chemical exposures (n = 110) and provided a spot urinary specimen. Blood glucose concentrations (mg/dl) were obtained from the electronic medical record for those patients who did not experience a pregnancy loss and did not transfer care to another facility prior to glucose screening (n = 72). Urinary concentrations of nine phthalate metabolites and creatinine were measured at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Associations between tertiles of phthalate metabolites concentrations and blood glucose levels were estimated using linear regression.Compared to pregnant women in the lowest concentration tertile, women with the highest urinary concentrations (? 3 rd tertile) of mono-iso-butyl phthalate (tertile: ? 15.3 ?g/l, ? = -18.3, 95% CI: -35.4, -1.2) and monobenzyl phthalate (tertile: ? 30.3 ?g/l, ? = -17.3, 95% CI: -34.1, -0.4) had lower blood glucose levels at the time of GDM screening after adjustment for urinary creatinine and demographic covariates.Because maternal glucose levels increase during pregnancy to provide adequate nutrition for fetal growth and development, these findings may have implications for fetal health. However, given the limitations of our study, findings should be interpreted cautiously.