Obesity in pregnant women: a 20-year analysis of the German experience.

Background/objective: To investigate the longitudinal development of maternal body weight and analyze the influence of obesity on obstetrics during more than two decades in Germany.

Subjects/methods: Data collected from the Federal state of Schleswig-Holstein (German Perinatal Survey) were analyzed with regard to the dynamics of maternal anthropometric variables (body weight, BMI) between 1995-7 and 2004-17. In total 335,511 mothers substantiated the presented study-collective.

Minipuberty: Why Does it Happen?

Minipuberty describes the transient sex-specific activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis during the first 6 months of life in boys and during the first 2 years in girls. It leads to a rise of luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, estradiol, and testosterone. The existence of minipuberty has been known for >40 years, but we still do not fully understand why it takes place.

[Influence of Parental Body Measurements on Birth Weight of Eutrophic Term Newborns with Special Consideration of Paternal Body Measurements].

A significant influence of maternal body height and weight on neonatal birth outcome has been confirmed before, whereas the influence of paternal traits is rather unknown. In order to analyze the correlation between parental body measurements and the birth weight of newborns, data of 1312 eutrophic term newborns and their parents were collected based on a multicenter study in 10 participating German maternity clinics. The collected data included the birth weight of the infants and the body height and weight of their parents.

The Esophageal Manometry with Gas-perfused Catheters.

Background: The well-established methods for esophageal manometry have some disadvantages: the-water-perfused catheters needs calibration by gravity and measuring in supine position, and the solid-state catheters are very expensive. Manometry using gas-perfused catheters is a suitable alternative. There have been only a few publications about this.

From melody to words: The role of sex hormones in early language development.

Contribution to Special Issue on Fast effects of steroids. Human infants are the most proficient of the few vocal learner species. Sharing similar principles in terms of the generation and modification of complex sounds, cross-vocal learner comparisons are a suitable strategy when it comes to better understanding the evolution and mechanisms of auditory-vocal learning in human infants.

Dyslexia risk variant rs600753 is linked with dyslexia-specific differential allelic expression of DYX1C1.

An increasing number of genetic variants involved in dyslexia development were discovered during the last years, yet little is known about the molecular functional mechanisms of these SNPs. In this study we investigated whether dyslexia candidate SNPs have a direct, disease-specific effect on local expression levels of the assumed target gene by using a differential allelic expression assay. In total, 12 SNPs previously associated with dyslexia and related phenotypes were suitable for analysis.

Standard values for gas-perfusion manometry of the esophagus.

The manometry with water-perfused or solid-state catheters is the predominant diagnostic procedure to detect motility disorders of the esophagus. Another method is the manometry using gas-perfused catheters. Although the high-resolution manometry is the method of first choice, the conventional manometry with helium has some advantages: the simple and hygienically unproblematic use and the absence of any artefacts by the perfusion medium compared with water-perfusion, and the considerably lower costs compared with the solid-state catheters.

External skeletal robusticity of children and adolescents - European references from birth to adulthood and international comparisons.

In our modern world, the way of life in nutritional and activity behaviour has changed. As a consequence, parallel trends of an epidemic of overweight and a decline in external skeletal robusticity are observed in children and adolescents. We aim to develop reference centiles for external skeletal robusticity of European girls and boys aged 0 to 18 years using the Frame Index as an indicator and identify population specific age-related patterns.

Inspiratory Phonation in Baby Voice.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the developmental occurrence of inspiratory phonations (IPs) in the spontaneous cries of healthy infants across the first 10 weeks of life.

Study Design: This is a populational retrospective study.

Participants: The spontaneous crying of 17 healthy infants (10 were male) was retrospectively investigated.

Cross-sectional analysis of universal vitamin D supplementation in former East Germany during the first year of life.

Background: Universal vitamin D supplementation is controversial. Preventative examinations and public health initiatives in former East Germany that included vitamin D prophylaxis for children were regulated by official recommendations and guidelines. The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of a standardised nationwide guideline for universal supplementation with 400 International Units (IU) vitamin D3/day during the first year of life on clinical and biochemical parameters and the influence of surrounding factors.

Fundamental Frequency Variation in Crying of Mandarin and German Neonates.

Objectives: This study examined whether prenatal exposure to either a tonal or a nontonal maternal language affects fundamental frequency (fo) properties in neonatal crying.

Study Design: This is a population prospective study.

Participants: A total of 102 neonates within the first week of life served as the participants.

Baby babbling at five months linked to sex hormone levels in early infancy.

Gender-dependent differentiation of the brain at morphological, neurochemical and functional levels of organization have been shown to be primarily controlled by sex differences in gonadal hormone concentrations during pre- and early postnatal development. Indeed, previous studies have reported that pre- and perinatal hormonal environments influence brain development and, consequently, affect sex specific long-term language outcomes. Herein, we investigated whether postnatal surges of estrogen (estradiol) and androgen (testosterone) may predict properties of pre-speech babbling at five months.

[Percentile Values for the Anthropometric Dimensions of Triplet Neonates - Analysis of German Perinatal Survey Data of 2007-2011 from all States of Germany].

Aim: We aimed to develop national reference values for birth weight, length, head circumference, and weight for length for newborn triplets based on data from the German perinatal survey of 2007-2011.

Material And Methods: Perinatal survey data of 3,690 newborn triplets from all the states of Germany were kindly provided to us by the AQUA Institute in Göttingen, Germany. Data of 3,567 newborn triplets were included in the analyses.

Fundamental Frequency of Crying in Two-month-old Boys and Girls: Do Sex Hormones During Mini-puberty Mediate Differences?

Objective: To evaluate whether the puberty-like sex hormone surge during the first months of life (mini-puberty) affects fundamental frequency (fo) in infant crying as one would derive from hormone influences on voice in adults.

Study Design: Populational prospective study.

Participants: Twenty healthy normal-hearing infants (nine boys) were recruited for participation.

Hormonal 'minipuberty' influences the somatic development of boys but not of girls up to the age of 6 years.

Objective: Hormonal 'minipuberty' refers to a transient sex-specific surge of LH, FSH, testosterone (T) and estradiol (E2) in the first few months of life. We hypothesized a potential long-term effect of this hormonal surge on somatic parameters in the following years and therefore designed this longitudinal study.

Design: A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the potential influence of hormone concentrations during minipuberty on anthropometric measurements conducted in the first 6 years of life.

The influence of physical strain on esophageal motility in healthy volunteers studied with gas-perfusion manometry.

Background: The influence of physical strain on the esophageal motility has already been examined in a number of studies. It was found that high physical strain compromises the sufficient contractility of the esophagus. However, it needs more examinations to verify these findings.

Sex hormones in early infancy seem to predict aspects of later language development.

Sex differences in the development of cognitive behavior such as language have long been of great research interest. Lately, researchers have started to associate language function and brain differences with diverse sex hormones (e.g.

[New percentile values for the anthropometric dimensions of twin neonates: analysis of perinatal survey data of 2007-2011 from all 16 states of Germany].

Aim: The aim of this study was to develop new national standards for birth weight, length, head circumference, and weight for length for newborn twins based on the German perinatal survey of 2007-2011. We also assessed trends in anthropometric measurements by comparing these new percentile values with the percentile values of 1990-1994.

Material And Methods: Perinatal survey data of 110,313 newborn twins from all the states of Germany collected in the years 2007-2011 were kindly provided by the AQUA Institute in Göttingen, Germany.

[New percentile values for the anthropometric dimensions of singleton neonates: analysis of perinatal survey data of 2007-2011 from all 16 states of Germany].

Aim: The aim of this study was to derive percentile values for birth weight, length, head circumference, and weight for length for singleton neonates based on the German perinatal survey of 2007-2011 (using data from all 16 states of Germany). We also compared these new percentile values with the percentile values of 1995-2000 that so far have been considered standard values.

Material And Methods: Data of 3 187 920 singleton neonates from the German perinatal survey of the years 2007-2011 were kindly provided to us by the AQUA Institute in Göttingen, Germany.

Sex hormone influence on human infants' sound characteristics: melody in spontaneous crying.

The specific impact of sex hormones on brain development and acoustic communication is known from animal models. Sex steroid hormones secreted during early development play an essential role in hemispheric organization and the functional lateralization of the brain, e.g.

Maternal Weight Gain during Pregnancy and Somatic Classification of Neonates According to Birth Weight and Duration of Pregnancy Taking Account of Maternal Body Weight and Height.

The classification of weight gain during pregnancy and the somatic classification of neonates according to birth weight and duration of pregnancy can be done using percentile values. We aimed to compare such classifications using percentiles of the overall study population with classifications using percentiles that were calculated taking account of maternal height and weight. Using data from the German Perinatal Survey (1995-2000, over 2.

Analysis of the German Perinatal Survey of the Years 2007-2011 and Comparison with Data From 1995-1997: Maternal Characteristics.

We have previously presented analyses of data obtained from the German Perinatal Survey for the years 1995-1997. Here we present an analysis of data from the years 2007-2011 and compare the data to the previous data from the 1990s. For the years 1995-1997, the data on 1 815 318 singleton pregnancies were provided by the Chambers of Physicians of all the states of Germany except Baden-Württemberg.