Antenatal fear of childbirth and emergency cesarean section delivery: a systematic narrative review.

Background: Fear of childbirth is a common feeling among expectant mothers. Although it represents a physiological expression of women's concerns, it can become a clinical condition compromising the woman's daily activities as well as her coping strategies during labour and delivery. Research has focused on adverse intrapartum and postpartum outcomes of fear of childbirth.

Single region of interest versus multislice T2* MRI approach for the quantification of hepatic iron overload.

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of the single ROI approach for the detection of hepatic iron burden in thalassemia major (TM) patients in respect to a whole liver measurement.

Materials And Methods: Five transverse hepatic slices were acquired by a T2* gradient-echo sequence in 101 TM patients and 20 healthy subjects. The T2* value was calculated in a single region of interest (ROI) defined in the medium-hepatic slice.

Cardiac iron and cardiac disease in males and females with transfusion-dependent thalassemia major: a T2* magnetic resonance imaging study.

Background: It has been repeatedly reported that female patients with thalassemia major survive longer than males and that the difference is due to a lower rate of cardiac disease in females.

Design And Methods: We compared the cardiac iron load as measured by T2* magnetic resonance imaging in 776 patients (370 males) examined at the National Research Council as part of an Italian cooperative study. We also established normal left ventricular ejection fraction values for our population.

Myocardial scarring by delayed enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance in thalassaemia major.

Background: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) by delayed enhancement (DE) enables visualisation of myocardial scarring, but no dedicated studies are available in thalassaemia major.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence, extent, clinical and instrumental correlates of myocardial fibrosis or necrosis by DE CMR in patients with thalassaemia major.

Patients: 115 Patients with thalassaemia major consecutively examined at an MRI laboratory.

A critical review of non invasive procedures for the evaluation of body iron burden in thalassemia major patients.

It is evident that different non invasive methodologies have been implemented for the detection of organ specific iron burden in patients with thalassemia major. Among these MR relaxometry has the potential to become the method of choice for non-invasive, safe and accurate assessment of organ-specific iron load, although further theoretical research, along with studies monitoring wider age groups of patients, is needed. Moreover, the possibility of detecting organ-specific iron burden is relevant for tailoring specific chelation treatment in different patients or in the same patient during different periods of life.