Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy and Fetal Growth Restriction: Clinical Characteristics and Placental Lesions and Possible Preventive Nutritional Targets.

Background: The purpose of this study was to describe the placental lesions in pregnancies complicated by hypertensive disorders (HDP) and/or fetal growth restriction (FGR) and in uneventful control pregnancies.

Methods: This is a case control study that included singleton pregnancies with HDP and normally grown fetus (HDP-AGA fetus), with HDP and FGR, early FGR, late FGR, and uneventful pregnancies. Feto-placental Doppler velocimetry and sFlt-1/PlGF ratio were performed.

Second trimester uterine arteries pulsatility index is a function of placental pathology and provides insights on stillbirth aetiology: A multicenter matched case-control study.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between maternal vascular malperfusions (MVM) and second trimester uterine arteries pulsatility index (UtA-PI) in cases of stillbirth (SB), compared to live-birth (LB) matched controls.

Methods: This was a multicentre, observational, matched case-control study performed at five referral maternity centres over a 4-year period including SB and LB control pregnancies at high-risk for preeclampsia (PE) and/or fetal growth restriction (FGR), matched and stratified for UtA-PI MoM quartiles values of the SB cases. Logistic regression was used to assess the rates of each MVM finding, within each increasing MoM quartile subcategory in SB and matched LB controls.

Higher rate of early-onset preeclampsia in pregnancies following oocyte donation according to increasing maternal age.

Objective: To assess the influence of maternal age on the incidence of early-onset preeclampsia requiring delivery before 34 weeks of gestation in pregnancies obtained after oocyte donation.

Methods: We carried out a prospective cohort analysis of 431 single and twin pregnancies, admitted to 3 Tertiary Referral Hospital in Northern Italy between 2008 and 2017. The rate of early-onset PE was calculated and stratified according to maternal age (from 30 to 49 years).

Comparison of two "a priori" risk assessment algorithms for preeclampsia in Italy: a prospective multicenter study.

Purpose: To compare the performance of the algorithms proposed by the Fetal Medicine Foundation in 2012 and BCNatal in 2013 in an Italian population.

Methods: A multicentric prospective study was carried out which included pregnancies at 11-13 weeks' gestation from Jan 2014 through May 2017. Two previously published algorithms were used for the calculation of the "a priori" risk of preeclampsia (based on risk factors from medical history) in each individual.

Italian Advisory Board: sFlt-1/PlGF ratio and preeclampsia, state of the art and developments in diagnostic, therapeutic and clinical management.

Extensive research has been published, showing the usefulness of angiogenic markers in both diagnosis and subsequent prediction and management of preeclampsia and placenta-related disorders. Recent evidence provides a helpful cut off for the Elecsys ratio sFlt-1 to PlGF, that predicts preeclampsia development in women with sign and symptoms, before its clinical onset in the short term. In Europe, no accordance exists for the use of such kind of test in clinical practice; only German guidelines have recently taken it into account, as a diagnostic aid for preeclampsia, in conjunction with other clinical findings.