Decreased maternal serum leptin in pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia.

Objective: To determine whether circulating levels of leptin differed between women with preeclampsia and women who had an uncomplicated pregnancy.

Methods: Maternal and umbilical venous plasma leptin concentrations obtained at delivery were compared in 36 pairs of women with either preeclampsia or normal pregnancy, matched 1:1 for prepregnancy body mass index and fetal gestational age at delivery.

Results: Prepregnancy body mass index was 21.

Serum leptin concentration in cord blood: relationship to birth weight and gender in pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia.

The aim of the study was to investigate cord blood leptin concentrations and their relationship to birth weight and gender in term pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia. Cord blood samples were obtained from 52 women, identified as having pre-eclampsia, and their newborns (31 males and 21 females) immediately after birth. Specimens were analyzed using a human leptin 125I radioimmunoassay.

Maternal serum leptin concentrations do not correlate with cord blood leptin concentrations in normal pregnancy.

Objective: To determine whether there is a difference in maternal leptin concentration and cord blood concentration, consistent with the hypothesis of a noncommunicating, two-compartement model of fetoplacental leptin regulation.

Methods: Blood samples were collected from 139 women, identified as having an uncomplicated pregnancy, from an antecubital vein at delivery. Cord blood samples were taken from the umbilical vein.

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), IGF-1 density, and IGF-1/PSA ratio for prostate cancer detection.

Objectives: Recent studies suggest an association between increased serum levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and an increased risk of prostate cancer (PCa). We prospectively analyzed the value of IGF-1, IGF-density (IGFD), and IGF-1/prostate-specific antigen (PSA) ratio for early detection of prostate cancer.

Methods: IGF-1, IGFD, and IGF-1/PSA ratio were determined prospectively during an 11-month period in the serum from 245 consecutive white men with PSA levels between 2.

Evaluation of laboratory data by conventional statistics and by three types of neural networks.

Sixty-three patients with lung (34 small-cell, 18 squamous, 11 adeno-) carcinomas and 43 patients with benign lung diseases were characterized with seven tumor markers: neuron-specific enolase (NSE); cancer antigens CA 19-9, CA 125, CA 15-3, and CA 50; carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA); and tissue polypeptide antigen. Diagnosis had been established by histological examination after surgery and used for classification. After vector transformation, the tumor marker data were fed into neural networks (NNs) based on three different types of learning algorithms: backpropagation (BP), competitive learning (CL), and Hopfield (H).