(Press-News.org) Brenna Anderson, MD, of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Women & Infants of Rhode Island and an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, has published a commentary in the current issue of BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, now available online. The commentary is entitled "The time has come to consider neonatal outcomes when designing embryo transfer policies."
Dr. Anderson offers her commentary in response to an article in the same issue by Kamphius et al. in which the authors seek to determine "whether an individual's preterm birth risk should be incorporated into embryo transfer policy for women undergoing in vitro fertilization."
Dr. Anderson writes, "Kamphius et al. considered only one risk factor for preterm birth, albeit the most important one: prior preterm birth … While preterm birth is an important factor to consider in subsequent preterm birth risk, one wonders whether a more accurate prediction could be generated using a more complex model, akin to the model developed as part of the Eunice Kenney Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development's Neonatal Research Network's calculator for outcomes among extremely preterm infants."
She explains that this model calculates risk of preterm birth using five clinical factors: gestational age at birth, birthweight, gender, receipt of antenatal corticosteroids, and multiple gestations. "This calculator might provide a risk of preterm birth as well as an average anticipated length of gestation," Dr. Anderson explains. "Such a tool, if reliable and easy to use, would be highly useful for patients and clinicians contemplating embryo transfer."
INFORMATION:
About Women & Infants Hospital
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation's leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women's medicine, Women & Infants is the eighth largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country with nearly 8,400 deliveries per year. A U.S.News 2014-15 Best Children's Hospital in Neonatology, in 2009, Women & Infants opened the country's largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.
New England's premier hospital for women and newborns, Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation's only mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation's only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.
Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Center of Excellence from the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; a Center for In Vitro Maturation Excellence by SAGE In Vitro Fertilization; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health; and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute's Gynecologic Oncology Group and the National Institutes of Health's Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.
Dr. Brenna Anderson publishes commentary in BJOG
2014-08-06
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Brain tumors fly under the body's radar like stealth jets, new U-M research suggests
2014-08-06
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Brain tumors fly under the radar of the body's defense forces by coating their cells with extra amounts of a specific protein, new research shows.
Like a stealth fighter jet, the coating means the cells evade detection by the early-warning immune system that should detect and kill them. The stealth approach lets the tumors hide until it's too late for the body to defeat them.
The findings, made in mice and rats, show the key role of a protein called galectin-1 in some of the most dangerous brain tumors, called high grade malignant gliomas. A research ...
NIST ion duet offers tunable module for quantum simulator
2014-08-06
BOULDER, Colo -- Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a pas de deux of atomic ions that combines the fine choreography of dance with precise individual control.
NIST's ion duet, described in the August 7 issue of Nature, is a component for a flexible quantum simulator that could be scaled up in size and configured to model quantum systems of a complexity that overwhelms traditional computer simulations. Beyond simulation, the duet might also be used to perform logic operations in future quantum computers, or as a quantum-enhanced ...
Stowers researchers reveal molecular competition drives adult stem cells to specialize
2014-08-06
KANSAS CITY, MO — Adult organisms ranging from fruit flies to humans harbor adult stem cells, some of which renew themselves through cell division while others differentiate into the specialized cells needed to replace worn-out or damaged organs and tissues.
Understanding the molecular mechanisms that control the balance between self-renewal and differentiation in adult stem cells is an important foundation for developing therapies to regenerate diseased, injured or aged tissue.
In the current issue of the journal Nature, scientists at the
Stowers Institute for ...
Enhanced international cooperation needed in Antarctica
2014-08-06
Countries need to work together to ensure Antarctic research continues and key questions on the region are answered, researchers say.
In an article published in Nature this week, 75 scientists along with policy makers in 22 countries have outlined what they see as the major priorities for Antarctic research over the next 20 years and beyond.
In it they outline six priorities for Antarctic science – the most important scientific questions to be addressed in the region, as well as what they think is needed to achieve them.
One of the report's lead authors, Monash University ...
Mercury in the global ocean
2014-08-06
Although the days of odd behavior among hat makers are a thing of the past, the dangers mercury poses to humans and the environment persist today.
Mercury is a naturally occurring element as well as a by-product of such distinctly human enterprises as burning coal and making cement. Estimates of "bioavailable" mercury—forms of the element that can be taken up by animals and humans—play an important role in everything from drafting an international treaty designed to protect humans and the environment from mercury emissions, to establishing public policies behind warnings ...
Farm manager plays leading role in postharvest loss
2014-08-06
URBANA, Ill. – With all the effort it takes to grow a food crop from seed to sale, it may be surprising that some farms in Brazil lose 10 to 12 percent of their yield at various points along the postharvest route. According to a University of Illinois agricultural economist, when it comes to meeting the needs of the world's growing population that's a lot of food falling through the cracks. Interestingly, farm managers who are aware of the factors that contribute to postharvest grain loss actually lose less grain. This was one of the findings in a study that examined how ...
NASA satellite paints a triple hurricane Pacific panorama
2014-08-06
In three passes over the Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean, NASA's Terra satellite took pictures of the three current tropical cyclones, painting a Pacific Tropical Panorama. Terra observed Hurricane Genevieve, Hurricane Iselle and Hurricane Julio in order from west to east. Iselle has now triggered a tropical storm watch in Hawaii.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument is a key instrument aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. Between the two satellites, MODIS instruments view the entire surface of the Earth every one to two days. When ...
Most kids with blunt torso trauma can skip the pelvic X-ray
2014-08-06
WASHINGTON – Pelvic x-rays ordered as a matter of course for children who have suffered blunt force trauma do not accurately identify all cases of pelvic fractures or dislocations and are usually unnecessary for patients for whom abdominal/pelvic CT scanning is otherwise planned. A study published online in Annals of Emergency Medicine last week casts doubt on a practice that has been recommended by the Advanced Trauma Life Support Program (ATLS), considered the gold standard for trauma patients "(Sensitivity of Plain Pelvis Radiography in Children with Blunt Torso Trauma). ...
Scientists discover how 'jumping genes' help black truffles adapt to their environment
2014-08-06
Black truffles, also known as Périgord truffles, grow in symbiosis with the roots of oak and hazelnut trees. In the world of haute cuisine, they are expensive and highly prized.
In the world of epigenetics, however, the fungi (Tuber melanosporum) are of major interest for another reason: their unique pattern of DNA methylation, a biochemical process that chemically modifies nucleic acids without changing their sequence. Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the DNA sequence.
A newly published study in the journal ...
Wiki ranking
2014-08-06
Wikipedia the free, online collaborative encyclopedia is an important source of information. However, while the team of volunteer editors endeavors to maintain high standards, there are occasionally problems with the veracity of content, deliberate vandalism and incomplete entries. Writing in the International Journal of Information Quality, computer scientists in China have devised a software algorithm that can automatically check a particular entry and rank it according to quality.
Jingyu Han and Kejia Chen of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, explain ...