Refugees and Covid-19: Beyond Health Risks to Insecurity.

The Covid-19 pandemic severely threatens refugees: Most refugees live in developing countries with poor health care systems, the lockdowns left many refugees without income, border closures prevented forced migrants from their right to seek asylum and anti-refugee sentiment as well as insecurity in refugee settlements increased. Building on past refugee research and reports on refugee-related challenges during the Covid-19 crisis, we explain how bad sanitation, inadequate accommodation, additional restrictions of movement and employment and language barriers increase grievances among refugees and tensions between refugees and host populations. Particularly in large and overcrowded settlements these issues can lead to violent conflict, as we demonstrate with a case study of the Moria refugee camp in Greece.

Monitoring of Thyroid Malfunction and Therapies in Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period: A Systematic Updated Critical Review of the Literature.

Purpose: From the very beginning of pregnancy, the maternal thyroid has to adapt to increased thyroid hormone secretion of up to 50%. This is paralleled by changes in thyroid-stimulating hormone secretion and by the thyroid-topic action of human chorionic gonadotropin. Thus, hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism may occur.

Human Cervical Motion Segment Flexibility and Facet Capsular Ligament Strain under Combined Posterior Shear, Extension and Axial Compression.

The cervical facet capsular ligaments are thought to be an important anatomical site of whiplash injury, although the mechanism by which these structures may be injured during whiplash remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to quantify the intervertebral flexibility and maximum principal strain in the facet capsular ligament under combined shear, bending and compressive loads similar to those which occur during whiplash loading. Two motion segments (C3-4 and C5-6) from seven female donors (50 +/- 10 years) were exposed to quasi-static posterior shear loads of 135 N applied to the superior vertebra on four occasions while under compressive axial preloads of 0 N, 45 N, 197 N and 325 N.

Mechanical evidence of cervical facet capsule injury during whiplash: a cadaveric study using combined shear, compression, and extension loading.

Study Design: A comparison of cervical facet capsule strain fields in cadaveric motion segments exposed to whiplash-like loads and failure loads.

Objectives: To compare the maximum principal strain in the facet capsular ligament under combined shear, bending, and compressive loads with those required to injure the ligament.

Summary Of Background Data: The cervical facet capsular ligament is thought to be an anatomic site for whiplash injury, although the mechanism of its injury remains unclear.

Continuous, combined hormone replacement: randomized comparison of transdermal and oral preparations.

Objective: To compare two new transdermal, continuous, combined formulations and an oral regimen of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with respect to endometrial hyperplasia, bleeding patterns, and climacteric symptoms in postmenopausal women.

Methods: This was a randomized, open, parallel-group trial during 1 year in 441 postmenopausal women who received either a 10-cm2 patch of 0.025 mg estradiol (E2) and 0.

Stiffness index identifies patients with osteoporotic fractures better than ultrasound velocity or attenuation alone.

Objectives: To compare a composite ultrasonometry variable, the stiffness index (SI), with its two component variables of speed of sound (SOS) and broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA), in identifying post-menopausal women with low bone mineral density (BMD) and/or osteoporotic fracture.

Methods: A cross sectional sample of 1217 women (mean (S.D.

[Personality markers, physical complaints and microsomal thyroid antibody titer in postpartum women].

Objective: To define the relation between mood, anxiety, puerperal-depression and autoimmune-thyroid-disfunction.

Patients And Methods: We screened 292 mothers 2 to 3 days after delivery for anxiety, depression and mood disturbances as well as thyroid-function and microsomal antithyroid-antibody status. Ten autoantibody positive woman were compared with an equal number of age-matched controls.

Morphometric characteristics of endometrial biopsies after different types of ovarian stimulation for infertility treatment.

Objective: To investigate whether various types of ovarian stimulation induce differences in endometrial development at the midluteal phase in infertile women.

Design: Assessment of stromal and glandular compartments in endometrial biopsies using morphometric criteria.

Setting: Institute for Hormone and Fertility Research, Hamburg, Germany.

Decidual-type prolactin expression by the human myometrium.

The human myometrium, in addition to the decidualized endometrium of the late luteal phase and of pregnancy, has been proposed as a second source of uterine PRL, since immunoreactive PRL was found in supernatants from myometrial explant cultures. We demonstrate here that: 1) the human (h) PRL gene is expressed in the myometrium in vivo; 2) myometrial PRL is identical to pituitary hPRL; 3) the encoding transcript differs from pituitary hPRL messenger (m) RNA but is homologous to decidual and IM-9-P3 lymphoid hPRL mRNA; and 4) the expression of myometrial hPRL mRNA is inhibited by progestin. hPRL mRNA was detected in freshly isolated myometrium by Northern blot hybridization and was larger than the pituitary message.

Morphometric analysis of the endometrium of infertile patients in relation to peripheral hormone levels.

In an attempt to identify factors that may be responsible for reproductive failure, we compared endometrial biopsies taken from infertile patients during the luteal phase of spontaneous cycles (n = 18) with those taken after ovarian stimulation (n = 18). Morphometric analyses were performed and compared with peripheral estradiol (E2) and progesterone levels at the time of supposed implantation. In stimulated cycles the number of glands per square millimeter was positively correlated to the E2 level.

Patterns of serum-luteinizing hormone surges in stimulated cycles in relation to injections of human chorionic gonadotropin.

Endogenous-luteinizing hormone (LH) surges may complicate the management of in vitro fertilization cycles. To investigate the effects of LH surges after hormonal stimulation 53 IVF cycles were analyzed by assessing LH levels three times daily until egg collection. In 43% the LH rise started before the planned exogenous trigger for ovulation was given, in 11% the rise occurred simultaneously with and in 45% after the injection of human chorionic gonadotropin.

Clonal derivatives of a human B-lymphoblastoid cell line producing prolactin--a cytogenetic characterization.

The IM-9-P cell line is a variant of the human B-lymphoblastoid cell line IM-9 which ectopically secretes prolactin (hPRL). The heterogeneous line IM-9-P and three sublines of clonal origin, two of them positive and one negative for PRL gene expression, were subjected to cytogenetic analysis and compared with the reference line IM-9 which showed a normal female diploid karyotype. G-banding revealed several rearrangements in the chromosomes.

Regulation of prolactin secretion in the human B-lymphoblastoid cell line IM-9-P3 by dexamethasone but not other regulators of pituitary prolactin secretion.

We examined whether the ectopic production of human(h) PRL by the human B-lymphoblastoid cell line IM-9-P3 is under hormonal control. We demonstrate that PRL secretion in this cell line is regulated by dexamethasone but not by other hormones known to modulate PRL secretion in the pituitary or decidua. Dexamethasone caused a reduction of secretion rates to 30% of control values after 3 day paralleled by a decrease in hPRL mRNA levels, without affecting cell viability.

Evaluation of endocrine parameters and semen samples: pregnancies following conservative infertility treatment versus IVF therapy.

IVF techniques have recently attracted interest as a possible treatment of male subfertility. In order to clarify if semen profiles of men fathering a child after IVF differ significantly from those patients initiating a pregnancy after timed intercourse or AIH, we retrospectively compared sperm parameters in 67 males whose female partners were treated by IVF with those of 102 couples treated conservatively. In all male partners stimulation tests for FSH and LH, TSH and prolactin (PRL) had been performed as well as measurement of testosterone (T) levels.

Phorbol ester stimulates prolactin release but reduces prolactin mRNA in the human B-lymphoblastoid cell line IM-9-P3.

The phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) stimulated prolactin (PRL) release from the PRL producing human B-lymphoblastoid cell line IM-9-P3 within 30 min with an EC50 of 5 x 10(-9) M. Increased release was entirely attributable to a loss from intracellular PRL pools. No change in hPRL mRNA was observed during 8 h of exposure to TPA.

Prolactin (PRL) mRNA from human decidua differs from pituitary PRL mRNA but resembles the IM-9-P3 lymphoblast PRL transcript.

The expression of the human prolactin (hPRL) gene is normally restricted to the anterior pituitary and the decidualized endometrium of the uterus. The human B-lymphoblastoid cell line IM-9-P3 ectopically expresses a PRL mRNA which is about 150 nucleotides larger than its pituitary counterpart even though the mature protein products appear identical. In the present study we show that human decidual and IM-9-P3 PRL mRNAs are similar in size, both being elongated relative to the pituitary transcript.

A human B-lymphoblastoid cell line produces prolactin.

A variety of cell lines were examined by Northern blot hybridization for the expression of PRL or PRL-related mRNAs. We found that a human B-lymphoblast cell line transcribed a mRNA which hybridized to human PRL cDNA under high stringency conditions. The human lymphoblast cell line of interest is a variant subline of the IM-9 line that we have designated IM-9-P.

Prolactin stimulation tests: different response patterns after bromocriptine, lisuride, and metergoline treatment of puerperal women.

To elucidate different mechanisms by which bromocriptine, lisuride, and metergoline may inhibit prolactin (PRL) secretion and lactation in puerperal women, the PRL secretion patterns were examined by means of a stimulation test using an intravenous bolus of metoclopramide. After seven and 14 days of treatment, no significant difference in basal serum PRL levels was observed. However, women subjected to metergoline treatment had significantly higher responses of PRL to metoclopramide as compared with those treated with either bromocriptine or lisuride.

Evaluation of basal hormone levels in hirsute women.

Serum concentrations of 10 hormones in 162 hirsute women were examined. Mean testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and DHEA sulfate (DHEA-S) concentrations in these patients were 0.7 ng/ml, 10.

[A pregnancy without detectable human placental lactogen (hPL)].

During a pregnancy of a 35 year old woman, we could not detect HPL in the peripheral serum, whereas other hormones showed normal values. Fetal growth ceased in the 36th week and a live neonate was delivered by caesarean section. The histological findings of the placenta and the perinatal record were not so unusual that they could account for the absence of HPL.

Human placental lactogen and unconjugated estriol concentrations in twin pregnancy: monitoring of fetal development in intrauterine growth retardation and single intrauterine fetal death.

Human placental lactogen and unconjugated estriol concentrations in maternal serum were evaluated in 100 uneventful twin pregnancies, and these values were compared with those observed in 16 twin pregnancies associated with intrauterine growth retardation or single intrauterine fetal death. In pregnancies associated with intrauterine growth retardation (n = 8), human placental lactogen levels were at the lower limit of normal range for singleton pregnancies, whereas estriol levels were normal in most cases. When one of the fetuses had died before week 33 of pregnancy (n = 5), both human placental lactogen and estriol levels were low and they were almost at the levels in singleton pregnancy.

New aspects of oestrogen/gestagen-induced growth and endocrine changes in individuals with Turner syndrome.

Patients with Turner syndrome (n = 33) were subjected to a sequential oestrogen/gestagen replacement therapy (21 days 2 mg oestradiol valerate plus 0.5 mg norgestrel for 10 days) for 1-4 years. In individuals aged 12-17 years, growth velocities before treatment ranged between 2.