Pregnancy

About: Pregnancy is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 163969 publications have been published within this topic receiving 4013502 citations. The topic is also known as: pregnancy & gestation.

Chronic Maternal Undernutrition in the Rat Leads to Delayed Postnatal Growth and Elevated Blood Pressure of Offspring

Abstract: To determine the effects of chronic maternal undernutrition on postnatal somatic growth and blood pressure, pregnant dams were randomly assigned to one of two dietary treatment groups. A control group was fed ad libitum throughout pregnancy and a restricted group was fed 30% of ad libitum intake. From birth, feeding was ad libitum in both groups, and litter size was adjusted to eight pups per litter. Litter size was not significantly altered by the reduced maternal intake. Offspring of the restricted fed group were significantly smaller than offspring from the ad libitum fed group from birth until 12 wk of age, but by 30 wk had similar body weights. Blood pressure was measured by tail cuff plethysmography. Offspring from the restricted fed group were found to have significantly (p < 0.05) elevated systolic blood pressure (5-8 mm Hg) at 30, 48, and 56 wk of age. These data demonstrate that nutritional deprivation in the pregnant rat leads to changes in postnatal allometric growth patterns, to delayed catch-up growth, and to elevated blood pressure in adulthood. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that poor maternal nutrition in pregnancy may irreversibly alter programming of the development of cardiovascular homeostasis.

Prospective multicenter study of pregnancy outcomes in women with Heart disease

Abstract: Either the mother or fetus may decompensate as a result of maternal heart disease, but available risk figures are based chiefly on retrospective studies or have focused on a particular cardiac disorder. This study prospectively enrolled 562 pregnant women with heart disease at 13 Canadian cardiac and obstetrical teaching hospitals. Pregnancies totaled 617. Women with congenital or acquired cardiac lesions or cardiac arrhythmia were eligible for the study. Follow-up assessments were made in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, the peripartum period, and after 6 weeks and 6 months. Primary cardiac events included pulmonary edema, sustained symptomatic tachyarrhythmia or bradyarrhythmia requiring treatment, stroke, cardiac arrest, and cardiac death. Baseline features did not in any way distinguish the 18 pregnancies ending in miscarriage. Among 546 women having 599 completed pregnancies (more than 20 weeks' gestation), the major cardiac lesion was congenital in 74%, acquired in 22%, and arrhythmic in 4%. Surgery had been performed in 46% of study pregnancies before conception. Cardiac medication, aspirin, or anticoagulants were being taken at baseline in 100 pregnancies (17%) and were initiated in the prepartum period in another 87. The rate of primary cardiac events in completed pregnancies was 13%; more than half took place in the prepartum period. Most of these events were pulmonary edema and/or cardiac arrhythmia. There were four embolic strokes. Predictors of these events included a past cardiac event or arrhythmia; New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III or higher dysfunction or cyanosis; left heart obstruction; and an ejection fraction less than 40%. Secondary cardiac events (NYHA functional deterioration of two or more stages compared with baseline or an urgent need for invasive cardiac procedures) occurred in 6% of study pregnancies. Neonatal events, most commonly premature birth, occurred in 20% of pregnancies. Predictors included NYHA class more than II or cyanosis at baseline, maternal left heart obstruction, smoking during pregnancy, multiple gestations, and anticoagulant therapy throughout pregnancy. Cardiac intervention should be considered in advance of conception when a woman is at high risk for cardiac events but the risk-benefit ratio is favorable. Women at substantial risk might well do best receiving ongoing care at a regional center. Women at low cardiac risk who lack lesion-specific risk factors can safely deliver at a community hospital.

Prednisone and aspirin in women with autoantibodies and unexplained recurrent fetal loss.

Abstract: Background Recurrent fetal loss has been well described in women with antiphospholipid antibodies. Such women also often have other autoantibodies commonly found in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Treating them with prednisone and aspirin may reduce the risk of fetal loss. Methods We screened 773 nonpregnant women who had the unexplained loss of at least two fetuses for antinuclear, anti-DNA, antilymphocyte, and anticardiolipin antibodies and for the lupus anticoagulant. Of 385 women with at least one autoantibody, 202 who later became pregnant were randomly assigned in equal numbers to receive either prednisone (0.5 to 0.8 mg per kilogram of body weight per day) and aspirin (100 mg per day) or placebo for the duration of the pregnancy. The women were stratified according to age (18 to 34 years or 35 to 39 years) and the week of gestation at which the previous fetal losses had occurred ( 12 weeks). The primary outcome measure was a successful pregnancy. Results Live infants were born to...

Is maternal smoking during pregnancy a risk factor for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children

Abstract: OBJECTIVE This study investigated the role of maternal smoking during pregnancy in the etiology of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHOD Subjects were 6-17-year-old boys with DSM-III-R ADHD (N = 140) and normal comparison subjects (N = 120) and their first-degree biological relatives. Information on maternal smoking was obtained from mothers in a standardized manner by raters who were blind to the proband's clinical status. RESULTS Twenty-two percent of the ADHD children had a maternal history of smoking during pregnancy, compared with 8% of the normal subjects. This positive association remained significant after adjustment for socioeconomic status, parental IQ, and parental ADHD status. Significant differences in IQ were found between those children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy and those whose mothers did not smoke (mean IQ = 104.9, SD = 12.3, and mean = 115.4, SD = 12.2, respectively). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that maternal smoking during pregnancy is a risk factor for ADHD. If confirmed, these findings will stress the importance of programs aimed at smoking prevention in nonsmoking women and smoking cessation in smoking women of childbearing age.