Giving women WOICE postpartum: prevalence of maternal morbidity in high-risk pregnancies using the WHO-WOICE instrument.

Background: There are no accurate estimates of the prevalence of non-severe maternal morbidities. Given the lack of instruments to fully assess these morbidities, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed an instrument called WOICE. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of non-severe maternal morbidities in puerperal women and factors associated to impaired clinical, social and mental health conditions.

[Meningococcal purpura fulminans: treatment with recombinant protein C activator in 3 cases].

Purpura fulminans is a serious disease associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. It usually leads to disseminated intravascular coagulation and septic shock related to reduced levels of protein C. Recombinant protein C (rPC) activator has been used successfully to inhibit this process.

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in the structural characterization of some diphenyllead(IV) thiosemicarbazonates.

The behavior in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) conditions of some complexes formed by Pb(C6H5)2(OAc)2 with salicylaldehyde, 2-ketobutyric acid, pyridine-2-carbaldehyde, 2-acetylpyridine, and 2-benzoylpyridine thiosemicarbazones, was studied in detail with the aid of collisional experiments performed by ion trap. The homoleptic complexes of tridentate thiosemicarbazonate dianions (TSC2-) lose the phenyl groups first, destabilizing the high oxidation state of the metal and leading to Pb(II) complexes in which the TSC2- ligand or a part of it remains coordinated to the metal. The main difference among the complexes derives from the presence of a carboxylate group on the 2-ketobutyric acid thiosemicarbazonato ligand, which probably interacts with a Na+ cation leading to ESI-generated [M+Na]+ species.