Comparison of cardiac indices during pregnancy between noninvasive automated device and two-dimensional echocardiography: a longitudinal study.

Objective: To determine the correlation, precision, mean percentage difference and agreement between cardiac indices (stroke volume [SV], cardiac output [CO], SV index [SVI], and cardiac index [CI]) measured by noninvasive cardiac output monitor (NICOM, Cheetah Medical, Boston, MA, USA) and 2-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (2D-TTE) across gestations in Chinese pregnant women.

Methods: This was a prospective longitudinal study performed in women with singleton pregnancy at 11-14 ( = 152), 19-24 ( = 152), 30-34 ( = 141), and 35-37 ( = 103). Cardiac indices, including CO and SV, were obtained by NICOM, which uses thoracic bioreactance, and 2D-TTE.

Molecular evidence that GBS early neonatal sepsis results from ascending infection: comparative hybrid genomics analyses show that microorganisms in the vaginal ecosystem, amniotic fluid, chorioamniotic membranes, and neonatal blood are the same.

Objectives: , or Group B (GBS), is a leading cause of neonatal sepsis. Materno-fetal transmission of the microorganisms present in the lower genital tract/perineum is considered to be the most frequent mode for acquisition of infection. It has also been proposed that, in a subset of cases, GBS causes acute chorioamnionitis, intraamniotic infection, and fetal/neonatal sepsis.

Quantitative cervicovaginal fluid fetal fibronectin: A liquid biopsy for intra-amniotic inflammation.

Introduction: Intra-amniotic inflammation is causally linked to spontaneous preterm labor. The gold standard for the diagnosis of intra-amniotic inflammation is the determination of an amniotic fluid profile obtained from transabdominal amniocentesis, which is invasive. Cervicovaginal fluid fetal fibronectin (fFN) is a widely-used predictive biomarker for spontaneous preterm labor.

Biomarkers in the prediction of complications in pregnancy after assisted reproductive technology.

Objectives: To compare the temporal changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP), uterine artery pulsatility index (UtA-PI), placental growth factor (PlGF), and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) across gestation between assisted reproductive technology (ART) pregnancies complicated with great obstetrical syndromes (GOS) or gestational diabetes (GDM) ± large-for-gestational-age (LGA) fetus, and uncomplicated ART pregnancies.

Methods: This was a prospective longitudinal study of 143 women with singleton pregnancies who conceived through ART at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Prince of Wales Hospital, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR between December 2017 and January 2020. The participants were followed up at 6-6, 11-13, 20-24, 30-34, and 35-37 weeks for the measurement of MAP, UtA-PI, PlGF, and sFlt-1.