Hypertension in pregnancy as an early sex-specific risk factor for cardiovascular diseases: evidence and awareness.

Despite being a physiological condition, human pregnancy is known to cause numerous complications that can endanger the life of the mother and the fetus alike. While the majority of complications are mostly limited within the peripartum period, more and more information is available about persistently higher short- and long-term cardiovascular risk after a pregnancy complicated by a hypertensive disorder. There is evidence that women after gestational hypertension or preeclampsia are more likely to develop arterial hypertension, coronary atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, peripheral artery disease, and even diabetes mellitus and venous thromboembolism years after the target pregnancy.

High-sensitivity CRP levels in women with gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and in normotensive pregnant women and its correlations.

Introduction: Gestational hypertension is a less investigated hypertensive disorder of pregnancy than preeclampsia, but evidence exists of an unfavourable cardiovascular profile for women after such a pregnancy.

Aim: To determine serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels in women with preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, and in normotensive pregnancy in order to assess the cardiovascular implications and to examine its correlations with some characteristics of women.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-six women with gestational hypertension, thirty-seven with preeclampsia, and fifty maternal and gestational age-matched controls were included in a single-center prospective clinical-epidemiological study.

Mermaid syndrome associated with VACTERL-H syndrome.

Mermaid syndrome or sirenomelia is an extremely rare congenital malformation with an incidence between 1.5 and 4.2 per 1,000,000 pregnancies.

Vulvovaginal Candidiasis in Pregnant Women and its Importance for Candida Colonization of Newborns.

Unlabelled: Vulvovaginal candidiasis is the second most common cause of vaginitis worldwide (after bacterial candidiasis). Maternal vulvovaginal candidiasis is a major risk factor for Candida colonization and infection of the infant where prognosis depends on different predisposing factors. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and the etiological structure of vulvovaginal candidiasis in pregnant women and its impact on Candida colonization of newborns.

Estrogen receptors--known and unknown biological functions.

The present literature review includes the data available from 1995 to 2005 about the biological functions of estrogen receptors (ERs) and their role in tumorigenesis. The domain organisation,and cell and tissue localization of two estrogen receptors are described. The article reviews the well known function of these receptors as transcription factors and their less familiar extracellular "non-genome" effects.

Changes in haemostasis during normal pregnancy.

Objectives: (1) To study the changes in the haemostatic variables during normal pregnancy, and (2) to compare them with the corresponding variables in a control group of nonpregnant women.

Setting: University Hospital.

Subjects: The study involves two groups of women: pregnant women (in 35th-40th gestational weeks (GW)) (N = 35) and a control group of nonpregnant women (N = 35).

Small bowel obstruction by the silicone tube of the gastric band.

A wide range of operations are used today for morbid obesity. Adjustable gastric banding (AGB) is one of the most widespread. Numerous complications after AGB are known, namely gastric perforation, band slippage, penetration of the band into stomach, port disconnection, port-site infection, etc.