Association between First Trimester Exposure to Ambient and and Congenital Heart Defects: A Population-Based Cohort Study of 1,342,198 Live Births in Canada.

Background: The extent to which ambient air pollution contributes to the pathogenesis of congenital heart defects remains uncertain.

Objective: We investigated whether first trimester exposure to ambient fine particulate matter () and nitrogen dioxide () was associated with the risk of critical and noncritical heart defects in a large population-based cohort of births.

Methods: We carried out a retrospective cohort study of children conceived between 2000 and 2016 in Quebec, Canada.

Black-White Inequality in Outcomes of In Vitro Fertilization: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

This study aims to systematically review disparities in outcomes of in vitro fertilization between Black and White patients. We searched CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Global Health, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science for observational studies published before August 2021. Outcomes included implantation, clinical pregnancy, spontaneous abortion, and live birth following in vitro fertilization in Black versus White patients.

The Calorie and Nutrient Density of More- Versus Less-Processed Packaged Food and Beverage Products in the Canadian Food Supply.

The association between the degree of processing and healthfulness of foods remains unclear. Most evidence of this relationship is based on dietary intake surveys rather than individual products and varies depending on the food processing classification system used. This study aimed to compare the nutritional quality of more- versus less-processed packaged foods and beverages in Canada, using a large, branded food database and two processing classification systems.

Quantitation and comparison of anti-Gal-alpha-1,3-Gal antibodies in sera of healthy individuals and patients waiting for kidney transplantation.

Highly sensitized patients have poor prospects of being offered an allogeneic donor transplant, therefore, they could become primary candidates for xenogeneic organ transplantation. Hyperacute rejection is initiated by anti-Gal-(alpha)-1,3-Gal antibodies (xenoAb) and this rejection will have to be avoided if xenotransplantation is introduced into clinical practice. Hence, the aim of the study was to determine if sensitized patients against HLA antigens have higher titers of xenoAb than nonsensitized individuals.