Season of birth influences the timing of menopause.

Background: Seasons may influence prenatal growth and future fertility. This study investigated whether season and month of birth influenced the timing of menopause in a group of women attending three Italian menopause clinics.

Methods And Results: Age at menopause of 2822 post-menopausal women (>12 months of amenorrhoea) was stratified by month and season of birth.

Prenatal diagnosis of isolated limb defects: an updated review.

Abnormalities of bone segments, either isolated or in combination with others, may affect any single bone. Given the relatively low incidence of such defects and the relevance of the clinical issues involved, it could be useful to evaluate all the diagnostic and procedural aspects that should be considered at prenatal diagnosis, when obstetricians are confronted with an event that is certainly unfamiliar to most of them: a fetus with an isolated limb defect. In fact, with comparatively infrequent abnormalities investigators often tend to neglect some diagnostic aspects that could be useful both in terms of prenatal counseling and of optimum management of the affected fetus.

Meconium-stained amniotic fluid and fetal oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximetry during labour.

Background And Aim Of The Work: The high false-positive rate of electronic fetal heart rate monitoring is the major obstacle to the correct prediction and diagnosis of intrapartum fetal distress. Fetal pulse oximetry is a safe and accurate indicator of fetal oxygenation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical use of this technique for the diagnosis of fetal hypoxia and for prevention of fetal metabolic acidosis and asphyxia during labour, in the presence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid with or without abnormal fetal heart rate patterns, using a threshold value of 30% oxygen saturation.

Ultrasound evaluation of amniotic fluid volume: methods and clinical accuracy.

Ultrasound evaluation of amniotic fluid volume (AFV) is frequently used to detect fetuses at high risk for an adverse outcome - an event that is often correlated with AFV abnormalities. As is well known, ultrasound is a non invasive procedure, which makes it ideal for application on a very large scale: in practice, it can be used for routine monitoring of all pregnancies and, not infrequently, for repeat AFV determination in those cases where there is the suspect of amniotic fluid abnormalities. Sonographic quantification of AFV, whether it is performed through a simple visual estimation or through biometric measurement of one or more amniotic fluid pockets, can never represent a true "quantitative" method and its actual reliability has not consistently been proved by scientific evidence.

Chemically assisted dissection of tissues in laparoscopic excision of endometriotic cysts.

Study Objective: To evaluate the capacity of chemical dissection of tissues using a mucolytic substance, Mesna, in improving laparoscopic excision of endometriotic cysts.

Design: Randomized, double-blind, controlled trial (Canadian Task Force classification I).

Setting: University-affiliated training hospital.

Transvaginal sonographic cervical length changes during normal pregnancy.

Objective: To examine the relationship between cervical length and gestational age in normal pregnancy in nulliparous versus parous women.

Methods: We studied a cross-sectional sample of 321 pregnant women, including 185 nulliparous and 136 multiparous women. The inclusion criteria were sonographic confirmation of gestational age within the 12th week, the absence of any risk factors for preterm birth, and uncomplicated pregnancy with expected delivery during the 38th to 42nd weeks.