Changes in lymphocyte subsets during normal pregnancy.

Peripheral blood lymphocytes from healthy women were studied during pregnancy and postnatally, and were compared with lymphocytes from an age-matched non-pregnant control group. Compared with non-pregnant women, the total white cell count was significantly increased at all pregnancies and also post-partum. In pregnancy the absolute number and percentage of T lymphocytes was slightly elevated while almost no changes in B cells were found.

[Diagnosis of fetal ovarian cysts. Follow-up or differential diagnosis?].

Aim: To find better diagnostic and prognostic criteria for the prenatal evaluation of suspected fetal ovarian cysts.

Method: 13 abdominal tumors were diagnosed sonographically and evaluated. The ultrasound equipment was an Acuson Computer Sonograph XP 128 with 3.

Protease levels in breast, ovary, and other gynecological tumor tissues: prognostic importance in breast cancer.

Proteolytic destruction of basement membrane and tumor surrounding is a prerequisite of invasion and metastasis. In 587 frozen samples of malignant and nonmalignant tissue of breast, uterus, vulva, and ovary, levels of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) were examined with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and cathepsin D (cath D) with radioimmunoassay. UPA, PAI-1 and cath D were raised in malignant tissue with significantly higher levels in breast cancer (uPA, PAI-1) and ovarian cancer (cath D).

Elevated placental cytokine release, a process associated with preterm labor in the absence of intrauterine infection.

Objective: To investigate the role of cytokines in normal term and preterm labor in the absence of intrauterine infection.

Methods: Cytokine (interleukin [IL]-1 beta, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-alpha]) release was estimated from placental and decidual cell cultures from 22 nonlaboring women at term with cesarean deliveries, 18 women with spontaneous labor at term, and 21 women with preterm labor (19-36 weeks gestation) who delivered vaginally or by cesarean, according to gestational age. Eight of 21 women delivering preterm had clinical evidence of intrauterine infection, and 13 were not infected.

[Prenatal chromosome analysis using the FISH technique allows fetal aneuploidy detection within a few hours].

Last years evaluation of fluorescence-in-situ-hybridization (FISH) allowed detection of chromosomal abnormalities by using DNA probes, binding to chromosomes in the nucleus. Because it is possible to directly examine interphase nuclei, FISH-technique, in contrast to traditional cytogenetic analysis has the advantage of small loss of time in case of urgent decisions on perinatal management. Karyotyping was performed on fetal cells, obtained from 72 pregnancies after amniocentesis, by both classical cytogenetics and fluorescence in situ hybridization using commercially available kits which utilise the alpha satellite probes for chromosomes 13 + 21 and 18.