Risks in multiple pregnancies
2010-10-10
(Press-News.org) The complication rate during pregnancy with twins is about 40%. Women with multiple pregnancies often develop pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, and hemorrhages during the term of their pregnancy. Joachim W Dudenhausen from the Charité Berlin University Medicine and Rolf F Maier from Magdeburg University Medical Center, investigate which risks can be minimized by close monitoring in multiple pregnancies (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2010; 107[38]: 663-8).
14 in 1000 pregnancies will be multiple pregnancies. The average term for multiple pregnancies is notably shorter (for twins, 36 weeks; for triplets, 32 weeks; and for quadruplets, 30 weeks). Causes include the greater weight carried by the pregnant woman and increased metabolism compared with a pregnancy with only one fetus. In monozygotic twins, only one placenta is present; consequently, the risk of death of one twin is higher than in dizygotic twins, where two placentas are present.
The feto-fetal transfusion syndrome affects only monozygotic twins and results in an undersupply of blood in one twin. The cause is a connecting blood vessel between the embryos, which leads to a redistribution of the blood. The treatment of choice for the syndrome is coagulation of the connecting vessel. The growth of the fetuses needs close monitoring. The fetal growth curves of head diameter and length of femur in twins are no different from those in singletons, but towards the end of multiple pregnancies, intrauterine growth is delayed. For this reason, in multiple pregnancies the delivery should be arranged after the 38th completed week of gestation.
INFORMATION:
Contact: Joachim.Dudenhausen@charite.de
http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/archiv/pdf.asp?id=78519
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2010-10-10
Shift work can cause cancer. In the new issue of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2010; 107[38]: 657-62), Thomas C. Erren and colleagues describe the current state of knowledge in this area and point out the challenges lying ahead.
Although it is well known that short-term disturbances of circadian rhythms, such as jet lag, can impair a person's sense of well-being, researchers only recently began to ask whether chronic disruption of biological rhythms over the long term might promote cancer. The possibility of financial compensation in such cases ...
2010-10-10
Some of America's most popular fish--salmon and albacore tuna, for example--are rich in healthful natural compounds known as omega-3 fatty acids. Ongoing studies by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) chemist Darshan S. Kelley and co-investigators are helping uncover new details about how these fish-oil components help protect us from chronic diseases.
Kelley is with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Western Human Nutrition Research Center at the University of California-Davis. ARS is the USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency.
In an early ...
2010-10-10
Children with autism will tell white lies to protect other people's feelings and they are not very good at covering up their lies, according to a Queen's University study.
The study, conducted by psychology professor Beth Kelley and developmental psychology PhD student Annie Li, is one of the first scientific studies of lying and autism.
"The results are surprising because there is a notion that children with autism have difficulty appreciating the thoughts and feelings of other people, so we didn't expect them to lie to avoid saying things that may hurt others," says ...
2010-10-10
Nutrition rating systems and their accompanying symbols are intended to help consumers make healthy choices, but shoppers may be confused by the variety of symbols that have proliferated in recent years. Moreover, different rating systems focus on different nutrients, and questions have been raised about the nutritional criteria underlying these systems. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Phase 1 Report presents the preliminary findings of an Institute of Medicine committee's review of these nutrition information tools. and focuses on the criteria behind ...
2010-10-10
The study, led by Matthew Niedner, M.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, was conducted by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Focus Group. It appears in the October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.
"There is an intense amount of attention being placed on measures of quality performance that have significant implications in pay-for-performance, and reimbursement," says Niedner, who led the study. "What you have is a desire ...
2010-10-10
A new type of breast cancer treatment has shown encouraging activity as a first-line therapy in HER2-positive metastatic disease, researchers reported at the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy.
Principal investigator Edith Perez, MD, Mayo Clinic in Florida, presented the results of the first ever randomized trial of trastuzumab-DM1 (T-DM1) as a first-line treatment for metastatic breast cancer.
T-DM1 is the first of a new type of cancer medicine known as an antibody-drug conjugate. It binds together two existing cancer ...
2010-10-10
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—We know that casting a ballot in the voting booth involves politics, values and personalities. But before you ever push the button for your candidate, your brain has already carried out an election of its own to make that action possible. New research from Vanderbilt University reveals that our brain accumulates evidence when faced with a choice and triggers an action once that evidence reaches a tipping point.
The research was published in the October issue of Psychological Review.
"Psychological models of decision-making explain that humans gradually ...
2010-10-10
Saranac Lake, N.Y. – A billion people living in underdeveloped areas around the world are infected with parasitic helminthes, worms that survive by residing in and feeding on their hosts. These infestations can cause chronic intestinal (and occasionally systemic) illnesses leading to long-term disability. Irah King and Markus Mohrs, biomedical researchers at the Trudeau Institute, are investigating illnesses caused by these gut-dwelling worms in an effort to decipher how immune cells send and receive signals that determine the specific immune response to mount.
In a study ...
2010-10-10
TEMPE, Az. - An international team of scientists, exploiting pioneering techniques at Arizona State University, has taken a significant step toward unlocking the secrets of oxygenation of the Earth's oceans and atmosphere.
Evolution of the Earth's multitude of organisms is intimately linked to the rise of oxygen in the oceans and atmosphere. The new research indicates that the appearance of large predatory fish as well as vascular plants approximately 400 million years ago coincided with an increase in oxygen, to levels comparable to those we experience today. If so, ...
2010-10-10
Educational policy is controversial: positions on achievement gaps, troubled schools and class size are emotionally charged, and research studies often come to very different conclusions.
But what if there was a new way of looking at the problem -- a way that treats education as a complex system (taking into account all interactions) and uses computer modeling and network analysis to provide a comprehensive look at the outcomes of policy choices?
Researchers at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and School of Education and ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Risks in multiple pregnancies
