Using Middle Cerebral Artery Doppler Ultrasound to Predict Clinical Chorioamnionitis After Preterm Prelabor Rupture of Membranes.

Background: In neonates, blood flow to the brain as measured by peak systolic velocity (PSV) in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) is altered in pregnancies affected by chorioamnionitis.

Objective: We aim to determine whether PSV and other measures of flow in the MCA in the fetus are altered prior to the development of clinical chorioamnionitis following preterm prelabor rupture of membranes (PPROM).

Methods:  This was a prospective observational study.

Quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment: Modifications for Identifying Maternal Morbidity and Mortality in Obstetrical Patients.

Objective: Screening tools, including the Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) criteria and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) criteria, have not been validated in the pregnant population. We aimed to determine if pregnancy-specific modifications to the quick SOFA (qSOFA) can improve prediction of severe maternal morbidity in pregnant women with serious infections.

Study Design: We performed a retrospective cohort study of pregnant patients with severe infections admitted to a single institution from January 1, 2011, through December 31, 2017.

Risk factors for needing postpartum antihypertensive medications with hypertensive disorders: Timing of diagnosis, presence of proteinuria, and severity of disease.

Objectives: Evaluate the association between the need for post-partum antihypertensive medications in patients with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and the following: timing of disease onset (antepartum vs. intrapartum), presence of proteinuria, and severity of disease.

Study Design: This was a retrospective cohort study.

Epigenetics and the vaginal microbiome: influence of the microbiota on the histone deacetylase level in vaginal epithelial cells from pregnant women.

Background: Histone deacetylase (HDAC) influences the acetylation status of histones at gene promotor loci, providing an epigenetic mechanism that regulates gene expression.

Methods: We determined if variations in the composition of the vaginal microbiome in pregnant women were associated with alterations in the level of HDAC1 in vaginal epithelial cells and whether this influenced the concentration of compounds present in vaginal fluid. Vaginal epithelial cells were obtained from 150 women in their first trimester of pregnancy, lysed and assayed for HDAC1 by ELISA.

Chlamydia trachomatis: the Persistent Pathogen.

is an obligate intracellular bacterium whose only natural host is humans. Although presenting as asymptomatic in most women, genital tract chlamydial infections are a leading cause of pelvic inflammatory disease, tubal factor infertility, and ectopic pregnancy. has evolved successful mechanisms to avoid destruction by autophagy and the host immune system and persist within host epithelial cells.

Properties of Epithelial Cells and Vaginal Secretions in Pregnant Women When Lactobacillus crispatus or Lactobacillus iners Dominate the Vaginal Microbiome.

Objective: Our objective was to determine differences in properties of vaginal epithelial cells and the composition of vaginal secretions when Lactobacillus crispatus or Lactobacillus iners are numerically dominant in the vaginal microenvironment of pregnant women.

Methods: The vaginal microbiomes of 157 first-trimester pregnant women were identified by classifying partial 16S gene sequences amplified from the V1 to V3 region of bacterial ribosomal 16S RNA genes. The extent of autophagy and cell stress in vaginal epithelial cells was determined by measuring the intracellular levels of p62 and the inducible 70-kDa heat shock protein (hsp70).