Interpregnancy weight change and risk for adverse perinatal outcome.

Objective: To examine the association between interpregnancy weight change and the risk for adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Methods: All live-born singleton births delivered at 21-42 weeks of gestation in women who had their first two consecutive births between 2009 and 2011 in Flanders (the northern part of Belgium) and who were included in the Study Center for Perinatal Epidemiology database (N=7,897) were included. Interpregnancy weight change was calculated as the difference between the prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) of the first pregnancy and the prepregnancy BMI of the second pregnancy.

Anxiety and depressed mood in obese pregnant women: a prospective controlled cohort study.

Background: The psychological health in obese women during pregnancy has been poorly studied.

Objective: To compare levels of anxiety and depressed mood during pregnancy in obese versus normal-weight women.

Methods: 63 obese pregnant women and 156 normal-weight controls were included prospectively before 15 weeks of gestation.

Obesity in pregnancy: altered onset and progression of labour.

Background: the incidence of obesity increases in all developed countries to frightful percentages, also in women of reproductive age. Maternal obesity is associated with important obstetrical complications; and this group also exhibits a higher incidence of prolonged pregnancies and labours.

Objective: to review the literature on the pathophysiology of onset and progression of labour in obese woman and translate this knowledge into practical recommendations for clinical management.

Anxiety during early pregnancy predicts postpartum weight retention in obese mothers.

Objective: We aimed to describe the weight status of obese mothers 6 months after delivery and examine its relationship to important sociodemographical, behavioral, and psychological variables.

Design And Methods: Postpartum data from an interventional trial in obese pregnant women (n = 197), conducted in three regional hospitals, between March 2008 and June 2012, were available from 150 mothers. Obesity was defined as body mass index (BMI) ≥ 29 kg/m2.

Fetal body volume: use at MR imaging to quantify relative lung volume in fetuses suspected of having pulmonary hypoplasia.

Purpose: To retrospectively determine an algorithm based on fetal body volume (FBV) by using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to calculate relative lung volume in fetuses with normally developed lungs and prospectively assess the use of this algorithm in predicting pulmonary hypoplasia in the late second and early third trimesters for fetuses at risk for pulmonary hypoplasia.

Materials And Methods: Oral informed consent was obtained for the prospective component of this ethics committee-approved study. MR imaging lung volumetry was performed in 36 fetuses with normally developed lungs between 18 and 39 weeks gestational age by using T2-weighted single-shot fast spin-echo imaging in fetal transverse and sagittal planes.

Fetal magnetic resonance imaging of an intracranial venous thrombosis. Case report.

Objective: To describe the magnetic resonance imaging findings of an antenatal intracranial venous thrombosis.

Methods: Prenatal ultrasound (US) at 22 weeks' gestational age (GA) in a 27-year-old patient (G2 P1) revealed a nonspecific avascular echogenic mass above the cerebellum evaluated with MRI at 23 weeks' GA.

Results: With MRI an enlarged occipital pericerebral space with a layered ovoid mass at the torcular herophili was demonstrated and MRI characteristics suggested a subacute cloth.

Positive maternal serum triple test screening in severe early onset hypophosphatasia.

Objectives: Hypophosphatasia is a rare heritable inborn error of metabolism characterized by a liver/bone/kidney alkaline phosphatase defective bone mineralization due to mutations in the tissue-non-specific alkaline phosphatase (TNS-ALP) gene. To date 128 mutations are described in the TNS-ALP gene located on the short arm of chromosome 1. The clinical presentation of hypophosphatasia is variable ranging from early onset lethal short-limb dwarfism to a late-onset presentation with fractures in childhood or adulthood.

Monochorionic diamniotic twins: complications and management options.

Purpose Of Review: Monochorionic compared with dichorionic twins have disproportionately high fetal loss rates, perinatal mortality and morbidity. This is because of the unpredictable vascular anastomoses and the often asymmetrical distribution of the single placenta between both twins.

Recent Findings: The pathophysiology of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome is usually explained on an angioarchitectural basis, although certain hemodynamic and hormonal factors also may be involved.

Benign multiple diffuse neonatal hemangiomatosis after a pregnancy complicated by polyhydramnios and a placental chorioangioma.

A male newborn with multiple cutaneous hemangiomatosis is described. Pregnancy was complicated by polyhydramnios and a large placental chorioangioma. After an initial outburst of the hemangiomas in the first two weeks of life, spontaneous and almost complete regression occurred before the age of 3 months.

Fetal akinesia deformation sequence: a study of 30 consecutive in utero diagnoses.

The etiology of the fetal akinesia deformation sequence (FADS) is heterogeneous and can be the result of neurogenic and myopathic disorders, restrictive dermopathy, teratogen exposure, and intrauterine constraint. We present the prenatal and fetopathological findings in a consecutive series of 30 affected fetuses with normal chromosomal results. According to the in utero time of onset of the fetal akinesia, the severity of the phenotype varied from a severe, generalized FADS in the early-onset group to milder defects, as isolated distal arthrogryposis in the late-onset group.

Rapid prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 21 in 5049 consecutive uncultured amniotic fluid samples by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH).

Objectives: This was a retrospective study on the results of interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), performed routinely for chromosome 21 and on ultrasonographic indications for chromosomes 13, 18, X and Y in a series of 5049 amniotic fluid samples.

Methods: Interphase FISH for chromosome 21 was performed in 5049 consecutive amniotic fluid samples for the rapid prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Aneuploidy for four other chromosomes (13, 18, X and Y) was tested following ultrasonographic indications.