Pregnancy complicated by opiate addiction and fetal growth restriction.

This case describes recovery of fetal growth restriction in utero after treatment for opiate addiction with the long-acting agent methadone. It is followed by discussions by an addiction medicine specialist followed by a maternal-fetal medicine specialist.

Management of addiction disorders in pregnancy.

In this article, we will review the prevalence of addiction disorders in pregnancy and the impact that it has on perinatal morbidity and mortality. We will then review effective screening techniques and propose a management scheme for achieving short-term abstinence leading to the ultimate goal of long-term recovery. The various medical and obstetric complications unique to this patient population will be discussed as well as the specific adverse effects of substance abuse on placentation and the developing fetus.

Dyssegmental dysplasia Silverman-Handmaker type in a consanguineous Druze Lebanese family: long term survival and documentation of the natural history.

We report on a male infant born with clinical and radiographic evidence of a lethal form of dyssegmental dysplasia not comparable to Silverman-Handmaker type, who had a prolonged survival of more than eight months. He had ocular and central nervous system abnormalities which have not been previously described. His course included significant feeding and respiratory difficulties, severe physical and psychomotor retardation, and recurrent fever of unknown etiology believed to be of central origin.

L-arginine reverses the adverse pregnancy changes induced by nitric oxide synthase inhibition in the rat.

Objective: Inhibition of nitric oxide synthase with N omega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) induces a preeclampsia-like syndrome of hypertension, proteinuria, intrauterine growth restriction, and renal glomerular capillary endothelial lesions in pregnant rats. We attempted to reverse these changes with late-pregnancy administration of L-arginine.

Study Design: Sprague Dawley rats with timed pregnancies received infusions of either saline solution (n = 12) (group SC) or L-NAME (n = 12) (group LC) (160 mg/kg per day) on gestational day 10 through term.