Regional Birth Outcomes after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Miyagi Prefecture.

Objectives: This study was aimed to analyze post-disaster birth outcomes in coastal and inland regions of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.

Methods: Primary data sets were compiled from birth records of obstetric facilities and 12,808 patients were analyzed for baseline birth outcomes by region. Regional risk analysis of the low-birth-weight rate and premature birth rate were conducted using multi-level logistic regression analysis.

Potential New Non-Invasive Therapy Using Artificial Oxygen Carriers for Pre-Eclampsia.

The molecular mechanisms of pre-eclampsia are being increasingly clarified in animals and humans. With the uncovering of these mechanisms, preventive therapy strategies using chronic infusion of adrenomedullin, vascular endothelial growth factor-121 (VEGF-121), losartan, and sildenafil have been proposed to block narrow spiral artery formation in the placenta by suppressing related possible factors for pre-eclampsia. However, although such preventive treatments have been partly successful, they have failed in ameliorating fetal growth restriction and carry the risk of possible side-effects of drugs on pregnant mothers.

Impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake on Regional Obstetrical Care in Miyagi Prefecture.

Objectives: The authors report the results of surveys on the emergency transport or evacuation status of obstetric patients conducted in Miyagi prefecture, one of the major disaster areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

Methods: The surveys examined the damages to maternity institutions, evacuation status and transport of pregnant women, and prehospital childbirths and were conducted in 50 maternity institutions and 12 fire departments in Miyagi.

Results: Two coastal institutions were destroyed completely, and four institutions were destroyed partially by the tsunami, forcing them to stop medical services.

Artificial oxygen carriers rescue placental hypoxia and improve fetal development in the rat pre-eclampsia model.

Pre-eclampsia affects approximately 5% of all pregnant women and remains a major cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. The hypertension associated with pre-eclampsia develops during pregnancy and remits after delivery, suggesting that the placenta is the most likely origin of this disease. The pathophysiology involves insufficient trophoblast invasion, resulting in incomplete narrow placental spiral artery remodeling.

Safety of induced abortions at less than 12 weeks of pregnancy in Japan.

Objective: To assess the safety of various methods of induced abortion when used before 12 weeks of pregnancy in Japan.

Methods: A retrospective study was undertaken of induced abortions conducted between January 1 and December 31, 2012. Questionnaires were sent to 4154 institutions that employed doctors who were licensed to conduct induced abortions.

Surveys of postpartum depression in Miyagi, Japan, after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

This study explores the correlation between the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the incidence of postpartum depression in Miyagi prefecture, Japan. The design used was a cross-sectional study with self-administered questionnaires, 6-9 months after the disaster. The results showed the prevalence of postnatal women with Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) score of ≥9 to be 21.

Liposome-encapsulated hemoglobin (hemoglobin-vesicle) is not transferred from mother to fetus at the late stage of pregnancy in the rat model.

Aims: Liposome-encapsulated hemoglobin (hemoglobin vesicles: HbV; diameter 250 nm) is reconstructed from human hemoglobin and developed as an artificial oxygen carrier for use as a transfusion alternative. Previous studies using rodent models closely investigated the safety of daily repeated infusions (DRI) of HbV and reported that the reticuloendothelial system was physiologically capable of degrading HbV to maintain plasma clinical chemistry within normal ranges. The present study examined the effect of DRI of HbV on the pregnant rat mother and fetal development, focusing on placental transfer of HbV in pregnancy.

Assessment of maternal heart-rate variability during labor using wavelet-based power spectral analysis.

Objective: Changes in the maternal cardiac autonomic nervous system were assessed in the presence and absence of uterine contractions by analyzing maternal heart-rate variability during labor using wavelet-based power spectral analysis.

Methods: We assessed the heart-rate variability in 20 pregnant women during labor and in 15 pregnant women with threatened premature labor with the use of wavelet-based power spectral analysis.

Results: There was no significant difference in high-frequency components between the uterine contraction and non-contraction periods.

Maternal undernutrition induces the expression of hypoxia-related genes in the fetal brain.

Maternal undernutrition during pregnancy is a risk factor for cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases in adulthood. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF1α) plays an essential role in cellular hypoxic responses, and its increased expression is associated with cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases. However, it is not known whether maternal undernutrition influences HIF1α expression in the fetal brain.

Successful detection of the fetal electrocardiogram waveform changes during various states of singletons.

Accurate assessment of fetal well-being is one of the most important tasks for obstetricians. It is still difficult to measure fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) during fetal movements. Recently, a new method, blind source separation with reference signals, was proposed for stable measurements.

Aberrant expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α in the fetal heart is associated with maternal undernutrition.

Maternal undernutrition during pregnancy is a risk factor that impairs fetal growth and causes cardiovascular diseases. However, the underlying mechanism is still unknown. In this study, we evaluated the effect of maternal undernutrition on the expression levels of transcription factors in the fetal heart.

Maternal undernutrition with vaginal inflammation impairs the neonatal oligodendrogenesis in mice.

Maternal undernutrition and infection during pregnancy may impair development of oligodendrocytes, thereby increasing risks of neuropsychiatric disorders of their children. We analyzed the effects of those risk factors on oligodendrogenesis in fetal and neonatal brains. Female mice were given low-protein or regular food for 2 weeks before their pregnancy.

Understanding congenital heart defects through abdominal fetal electrocardiography: case reports and clinical implications.

Aims: Congenital heart defects are the most common fetal structural anomalies of which a significant number remain unrecognized during postnatal life. Fetal electrocardiography (FECG) is an ideal clinical tool to complement ultrasonography for the screening and management of these cases where early and accurate diagnoses would allow definite rather than palliative treatment. The objective of this report was to correlate the particular FECG results found with the different types of congenital heart defects involved and to further demonstrate the usefulness of FECG in clinical settings.

Effects of antenatal steroid therapy on neurodevelopment in an IUGR mouse model.

Background/objective: To investigate the neurodevelopmental response in postnatal mice secondary to antenatal steroid treatment in association with maternal protein restriction.

Methods: C57BL/6N pregnant mice (n = 24; 4 per treatment group) were administered control (C) or protein-restricted (PR) diets and subjected to daily subcutaneous injection stress during late gestation (E10-E17) with either 100 microl/kg of dexamethasone sodium phosphate in normosaline (C-D/S, PR-D/S) or normosaline alone (C-S, PR-S). Non-treatment groups were also included (C, PR).

Neurobehavioral effects of prenatal exposure to methylmercury and PCBs, and seafood intake: neonatal behavioral assessment scale results of Tohoku study of child development.

As factors affecting neonatal neurodevelopment, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and maternal seafood intake reflecting n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are believed to have adverse or beneficial effects, but there are a few reports addressing such factors simultaneously. We carried out a birth cohort study to clarify the effects of these three factors on the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), administered 3 days after birth. In a total of 498 mother-neonate pairs, the total mercury level (median, 1.

The uterus sustains stable biological clock during pregnancy.

Maternal circadian information has been reported to play an important role in fetal physiology and development. Hormones and nutrition have been mainly investigated as circadian cues from mother to fetus. However, the influences of circadian properties of the pregnant reproductive organs on fetuses have not been fully investigated.

Preterm birth, infection, and inflammation advances from the study of animal models.

Inflammation is a protective response mediated by both innate and adaptive arms of the immune system following exposure to a range of harmful stimuli. Although inflammation is an essential mechanism in response to challenges including tissue injury and microbiological insult, inappropriate or excessive induction of the inflammatory response is itself a well-characterized cause of morbidity and mortality in adult populations. There is currently a growing appreciation of the potential for inflammation to play an adverse role in fetal health.

Steroid and Xenobiotic Receptor (SXR) as a possible prognostic marker in epithelial ovarian cancer.

We examined the expression of the steroid and xenobiotic receptor (SXR) and evaluated its clinical significance in human epithelial ovarian carcinoma. One hundred forty-one cases were examined using immunohistochemistry for SXR with archival specimens. All cases were scored using a semi-quantitative histological scoring (HSCORE) method.

Antepartum non-invasive evaluation of opening and closing timings of the cardiac valves in fetal cardiac cycle.

In this study, we propose a non-invasive algorithm to recognize the timings of fetal cardiac events on the basis of analysis of fetal ECG (FECG) and Doppler ultrasound signals. Multiresolution wavelet analysis enabled the frequency contents of the Doppler signals to be linked to the opening (o) and closing (c) of the heart's valves (Aortic (A) and Mitral (M)). M-mode, B-mode and pulsed Doppler ultrasound were used to verify the timings of opening and closure of these valves.

Effect of intrauterine inflammation on fetal cerebral hemodynamics and white-matter injury in chronically instrumented fetal sheep.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of intrauterine inflammation on cerebral hemodynamics and white-matter injury in premature fetal sheep.

Study Design: Fetuses were given an intravenous infusion of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and an intraamniotic infusion of endotoxin; the fetuses were then assigned randomly to an acute hemorrhage group, an exchange transfusion group, or a control group. During each insult, the cerebral hemodynamics were assessed with near-infrared spectroscopy.

Independent spatial and temporal functions of human sperm centrosomes after dispermic microinjection into bovine oocytes.

During mammalian fertilization, a centrosome is introduced by the sperm during the first cell cycle to organize a radial array of microtubules known as the sperm aster. In nature, multiple human sperm centrosomes may exist in the same egg cytoplasm during polyspermy. However, critical information concerning individual sperm centrosomal function with regards to the latter case remains unknown.

Robustness of the blind source separation with reference against uncertainties of the reference signals.

The fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) could provide clinical information concerning physiological conditions of the fetus. In order to extract fetal ECG, we proposed the novel algorithm, the blind source separation with reference (BSSR), which successfully extracts a complete waveform of QRS complex and avoids uncertainty in the order of the extracted signals. In the BSSR, the reference signal is supposed to be generated from the ultrasonic Doppler signal.

Development of human Graafian follicles following transplantation of human ovarian tissue into NOD/SCID/gammac null mice.

Problem: Transplantation of human ovarian cortex into host mice may permit various kinds of challenges in reproductive medicine. A novel immunodeficient mouse strain (NOD/SCID/gammacnull: NOG) has been developed as a host of transplantation of human tissue.

Method Of Study: Human ovarian cortex was transplanted into various sites of NOG mice and human follicular development was examined by immunohistochemistry.

Successful pregnancy after oocyte activation by a calcium ionophore for a patient with recurrent intracytoplasmic sperm injection failure, with an assessment of oocyte activation and sperm centrosomal function using bovine eggs.

Objective: To report a successful pregnancy after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with artificial oocyte activation (AOA) on a patient whose fertilization rate after ICSI was extremely low; and to report on cytologic analyses of the fertilization failure (FF) eggs after ICSI and a biologic assessment of the sperm of this patient.

Design: Case report with an assessment of gamete function.

Setting: University hospital and an experimental laboratory.