The EVAPIL scale, a new tool to assess tolerance of oral contraceptives.

Background: The EVAPIL scale is a self-questionnaire aimed to assess tolerability of oral contraceptives (OC).

Methods: For initial development: a list of questions addressing the more frequent or more unpleasant minor side effects of OC was developed by a group of gynecologists and submitted to several sets of OC users. A final version with 14 questions was issued with scoring rules.

Low-molecular-weight heparin versus low-dose aspirin in women with one fetal loss and a constitutional thrombophilic disorder.

The prospective evaluation of the effect of thromboprophylaxis in women with one unexplained pregnancy loss from the 10th week of amenorrhea was performed. A total of 160 patients with heterozygous factor V Leiden mutation, prothrombin G20210A mutation, or protein S deficiency were given 5 mg folic acid daily before conception, to be continued during pregnancy, and low-dose aspirin 100 mg daily or low-molecular-weight heparin enoxaparin 40 mg was taken from the 8th week. Twenty-three of the 80 patients treated with low-dose aspirin and 69 of the 80 patients treated with enoxaparin had a healthy live birth (odds ratio [OR], 15.

French multicentric survey of outcome of pregnancy in women with pregestational diabetes.

Objective: To evaluate perinatal outcome in pregnancies in women with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and the influence of preconception care 10 years after the St. Vincent's declaration.

Research Design And Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 12 perinatal centers in France in 2000-2001.

Antiphospholipid/antiprotein antibodies, hemostasis-related autoantibodies, and plasma homocysteine as risk factors for a first early pregnancy loss: a matched case-control study.

Maternal hypercoagulability is a possible cause of miscarriage during the eighth and ninth weeks of pregnancy, when the placenta replaces the yolk sac. We thus examined associations between putative markers of an acquired hypercoagulable state and the risk of first miscarriage. We conducted a case-control study comparing 743 women who miscarried in weeks 8 and 9 with 743 women who underwent a first provoked abortion, matched for age, number of pregnancies, and time elapsed since abortion.

Anti-protein Z antibodies in women with pathologic pregnancies.

Protein Z deficiencies have recently been described in women with unexplained early fetal loss. Using a new, specifically elaborated, commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), we performed a case-control study on anti-protein Z immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM antibodies in 191 nonthrombotic, nonthrombophilic women with consecutive pathologic pregnancies. Levels of anti-protein Z antibodies were categorized in 3 strata (percentiles 1 through 74, 75 through 97, 98 through 100 among controls).

High frequency of protein Z deficiency in patients with unexplained early fetal loss.

The protein Z-protein Z-dependent inhibitor complex is a factor Xa inhibitor. Protein Z deficiencies have recently been described in patients with ischemic stroke. As placenta infarction leads to poor pregnancy outcome, we studied protein Z plasma concentrations in nonthrombotic, nonthrombophilic consecutive patients with unexplained pregnancy wastage.