Empiric antibiotics for peripartum bacteremia: A chart review from a quaternary Canadian centre.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of empiric antibiotic protocols for peripartum bacteremia at a quaternary institution by describing incidence, microbial epidemiology, clinical source of infection, susceptibility patterns, and maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Methods: Retrospective chart review of peripartum patients with positive blood cultures between 2010 and 2018.

Results: The incidence of peripartum bacteremia was 0.

Maternal vaginal microbiome composition does not affect development of the infant gut microbiome in early life.

Birth mode has been implicated as a major factor influencing neonatal gut microbiome development, and it has been assumed that lack of exposure to the maternal vaginal microbiome is responsible for gut dysbiosis among caesarean-delivered infants. Consequently, practices to correct dysbiotic gut microbiomes, such as vaginal seeding, have arisen while the effect of the maternal vaginal microbiome on that of the infant gut remains unknown. We conducted a longitudinal, prospective cohort study of 621 Canadian pregnant women and their newborn infants and collected pre-delivery maternal vaginal swabs and infant stool samples at 10-days and 3-months of life.

First-trimester surgical abortion practice in Canada in 2012.

Objective: To evaluate practices among first-trimester surgical abortion facilities and providers in Canada in 2012 and examine the characteristics of the surgical abortion work force.

Design: Self-administered paper or electronic survey adapted from a survey previously fielded in the United States.

Setting: Canada.

Analysis of ancestry heterozygosity suggests that hybrid incompatibilities in threespine stickleback are environment dependent.

Hybrid incompatibilities occur when interactions between opposite ancestry alleles at different loci reduce the fitness of hybrids. Most work on incompatibilities has focused on those that are "intrinsic," meaning they affect viability and sterility in the laboratory. Theory predicts that ecological selection can also underlie hybrid incompatibilities, but tests of this hypothesis using sequence data are scarce.

Early Neonatal Meconium Does Not Have a Demonstrable Microbiota Determined through Use of Robust Negative Controls with 60-Based Microbiome Profiling.

Detection of bacterial DNA within meconium is often cited as evidence supporting colonization. However, many studies fail to adequately control for contamination. We aimed to define the microbial content of meconium under properly controlled conditions.

High Prevalence and Incidence of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Among Women Across Pregnancy and the Postpartum.

During the perinatal period, women are at an increased risk for the onset/exacerbation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and may experience perinatal-specific obsessions and/or compulsions. Past research has provided preliminary findings regarding the prevalence of OCD in the perinatal period but has often reported limited metrics and ignored perinatal specific symptoms. This research aimed to assess the prevalence and incidence of maternal OCD between the third trimester in pregnancy and 6 months postpartum.

Sex-dependent effects of prenatal food and protein restriction on offspring physiology in rats and mice: systematic review and meta-analyses.

Background: Males and females may experience different effects of early-life adversity on life-long health. One hypothesis is that male foetuses invest more in foetal growth and relatively less in placental growth, and that this makes them susceptible to poor nutrition in utero, particularly if nutrition is reduced part-way through gestation.

Objectives: Our objectives were to examine whether (1) food and/ or protein restriction in rats and mice has consistent sex-dependent effects, (2) sex-dependency differs between types of outcomes, and (3) males are more severely affected when restriction starts part-way through gestation.

Elevated Blood Mitochondrial DNA in Early Life Among Uninfected Children Exposed to Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Combination Antiretroviral Therapy in utero.

Background: Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) during pregnancy prevents vertical transmission, but many antiretrovirals cross the placenta and several can affect mitochondria. Exposure to maternal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and/or cART could have long-term effects on children who are HIV exposed and uninfected (CHEU). Our objective was to compare blood mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content in CHEU and children who are HIV unexposed and uninfected (CHUU), at birth and in early life.

Rate of dyslipidemia higher among women living with HIV: A comparison of metabolic and cardiovascular health in a cohort to study aging in HIV.

Objectives: Combination antiretroviral therapy has largely restored the lifespan of persons living with HIV. Data suggest early comorbidities of aging in this population. Past studies focused on men; limited data exist regarding the prevalence of dyslipidaemia in women living with HIV (WLWH).

Prolonged Amenorrhea and Low Hip Bone Mineral Density in Women Living With HIV-A Controlled Cross-sectional Study.

Background: Women living with HIV (WLWH) have higher rates of prolonged secondary amenorrhea (no flow for ≥1 year) than HIV-negative women. Both having amenorrhea and being HIV positive are associated with lower areal bone mineral density (BMD). However, their combined BMD effects remain unclear.

The promises and pitfalls of sex difference research.

Funding agencies in North America and Europe are recognizing the importance of the integration of sex differences into basic and clinical research. Although these mandates are in place to improve our knowledge of health for both men and women, there have been a number of implementation issues that require vigilance on the part of funders and the research community. Here we discuss issues on simple inclusion of both sexes in studies to specialisation of sex differences with attention paid to statistics and the need for sex-specific treatments.

Resolution and Cooccurrence Patterns of Gardnerella leopoldii, G. swidsinskii, G. piotii, and G. vaginalis within the Vaginal Microbiome.

is a hallmark of vaginal dysbiosis, but it is found in the microbiomes of women with and without vaginal symptoms and those who do not have microbiologically defined dysbiosis. encompasses diverse taxa differing in attributes that are potentially important for virulence, and there is evidence that clades or subgroups within the species are differentially associated with clinical outcomes. The species description was recently emended, and three new species within the genus were defined (, , and ).

Different and diverse anaerobic microbiota were seen in women living with HIV with unsuppressed HIV viral load and in women with recurrent bacterial vaginosis: a cohort study.

Objective: To compare the vaginal microbiota of women living with HIV (WLWH) with the vaginal microbiota of women with recurrent bacterial vaginosis (BV) and healthy women without HIV to determine if there are differences in the vaginal microbiome, what factors influence these differences, and to characterise HIV clinical parameters including viral load and CD4 count in relation to the vaginal microbiome.

Design: Observational cohort study.

Setting: Canada.

Anxiety among women experiencing medically complicated pregnancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Symptoms of anxiety are common among pregnant and postpartum women, and 15%-20% of pregnancies are affected by medical complications. Despite this, little is known about the relationship of medical complications in pregnancy and women's experience of anxiety. The purpose of this research was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of differences in anxiety symptom severity among women experiencing a medically complicated versus a medically uncomplicated pregnancy.

Exploring the live birth rates of women living with HIV in British Columbia, Canada.

Objective: To evaluate the birth rates of women living with HIV (WLWH) compared to the general population in British Columbia (BC), Canada.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed clinical and population level surveillance data from 1997 to 2015. Live birth rates from 1997 to 2015 among WLWH aged 15-49 years were compared with those of all BC women.

Training family physicians as researchers: Outcomes over 15 years for Canada's first clinician scholar program.

Objective: To examine characteristics at admission and subsequent academic achievements among the graduates of the first 15 years of the clinician scholar program (CSP), Canada's longest-running such program, housed at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Design: Cross-sectional study with data gathered from program files, personal correspondence, and public sources.

Setting: Vancouver.

Multidisciplinary Treatment for Provoked Vestibulodynia: Treatment Trajectories, Predictors, and Moderators of Sexual Distress and Pain.

Objectives: Multidisciplinary treatment programs for provoked vestibulodynia (PVD) are recommended, yet few have been evaluated. This study examined women's symptom trajectories over time, as well as baseline demographic, psychosocial and pain characteristics as predictors/ moderators of sexual pain and distress following treatment at a clinic using multidisciplinary concurrent methods. We also examined the impact of baseline variables on the probability of having low sexual distress scores following treatment.

Premature Spinal Bone Loss in Women Living with HIV is Associated with Shorter Leukocyte Telomere Length.

With advances in combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), people living with HIV are now surviving to experience aging. Evidence suggests that individuals living with HIV are at greater risk for low bone mineral density (BMD), osteoporosis, and fractures. Better understanding of the pathophysiology of bone health in women living with HIV (WLWH) is important for treatment strategies.

Recruitment of reviewers is becoming harder at some journals: a test of the influence of reviewer fatigue at six journals in ecology and evolution.

Background: It is commonly reported by editors that it has become harder to recruit reviewers for peer review and that this is because individuals are being asked to review too often and are experiencing reviewer fatigue. However, evidence supporting these arguments is largely anecdotal.

Main Body: We examine responses of individuals to review invitations for six journals in ecology and evolution.

Leukocyte Telomere Length at Birth and During the Early Life of Children Exposed to but Uninfected With HIV After In Utero Exposure to Antiretrovirals.

Background: Maternal combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) during pregnancy could impact the health of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-exposed, HIV-uninfected (HEU) children, because some antiretrovirals cross the placenta and can inhibit telomerase. Our objective was to compare leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in HEU children and HIV-unexposed, HIV-uninfected (HUU) children at birth and in early life and to investigate any relationship with cART exposure.

Methods: HEU and HUU children's blood LTL was compared cross-sectionally at birth, and during the first three years of life.

Adverse perinatal outcomes associated with crown-rump length discrepancy in in vitro fertilization pregnancies.

Objective(s): To determine whether an association exists between small crown-rump length (CRL) and adverse obstetrical outcomes in pregnancies conceived by IVF and to compare a CRL reference based on IVF pregnancies to a reference based on spontaneous pregnancies.

Design: Retrospective cohort study. CRL was classified as small by comparing it with the local university hospital maternal fetal medicine standard and the Monash IVF reference chart.

Factors that support successful transition to the community among women leaving prison in British Columbia: a prospective cohort study using participatory action research.

Background: In Canada, the number of women sentenced to prison has almost doubled since 1995. In British Columbia, the rate of reincarceration is 70% within 2 years. Our aim was to identify factors associated with recidivism among women in British Columbia.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus Viral Load Rebound Near Delivery in Previously Suppressed, Combination Antiretroviral Therapy-Treated Pregnant Women.

Objective: To assess the stability of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) viral load suppression within 1 month before birth in pregnant women receiving antenatal combination antiretroviral therapy (CART).

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of a Canadian provincial perinatal HIV database from 1997 to 2015. Inclusion criteria were live birth and CART received for at least 4 weeks.