Pain sensitivity of and pain radiation from the internal female genital organs.

The aim of this study was to determine the sensitivity and the localization of pain from the internal female genital organs. In 28 women undergoing a ring sterilization, the internal genital organs were pinched with a 3 mm forceps and the pain sensitivity and localization were recorded. Pain localization was vague, and pinching of the medial and distal end of the oviduct, or of the anterior, posterior or left or right uterosacral ligament could not be discriminated.

[Considerations on education and formation in health care ethics in Belgium].

Codes of medical ethics summarize the most important duties of the medical profession; but the field of medical ethics encompasses more problems than are treated in the codes, and the management of many health care problems necessitates the collaboration of non-medical personnel. This state of affairs has led to the broader notion of health care ethics. All important problems of health care have ethical aspects, and during the last decennia progress in many branches of biology and medicine has brought with it new ethical problems.

History of prenatal care in Belgium.

The history of the national mother and child care organization is reviewed up to 1980. The organisation originates in the efforts made during the First World War to provide food for mothers and children. Free prenatal visits have been organized since 1919.

Thrombosis of the right umbilical artery, presumably related to the shortness of the umbilical cord: an unusual cause of fetal distress.

This case report concerns a late pregnancy complication, clinically apparent as severe variable decelerations in the first stage of labor. Emergency cesarean section delivered a mildly asphyxiated full-term newborn infant. Examination of the umbilical cord revealed a thrombus of the right umbilical artery, near the fetal side, confirmed by histological examination.

Thyroid function in patients with hyperemesis gravidarum.

An increased free thyroxine (T4) index was observed in 73% of 33 consecutive pregnancies complicated by severe hyperemesis gravidarum. The free triiodothyronine (T3) index was increased in only four of 11 hyperthyroxinemic patients. In five hyperthyroxinemic patients tested, no increase in serum thyrotropin was observed after the injection of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (THR).

Decidual vasculopathy and extensive placental infarction in a patient with repeated thromboembolic accidents, recurrent fetal loss, and a lupus anticoagulant.

Evidence exists of an association between the presence of a "lupus" anticoagulant in plasma, recurrent fetal loss, and repeated thromboembolic accidents, also in the absence of systemic lupus erythematosus. Presented is an example of this association, with morphologic and biologic studies to elucidate its pathogenesis. In the case reported, the placenta showed massive infarction.

Fetal growth retardation and the maternal arterial supply of the human placenta in the absence of sustained hypertension.

In five patients with fetal growth retardation in pregnancies with no or only a moderate and transient rise in blood pressure, vascular lesions in the placental bed spiral arteries were found. These lesions are characterized by less well developed physiological morphological changes, by extensive intimal thickening, by fibrinoid degeneration of the media and by acute atherosis. the recurrent fetal growth retardation in these pregnancies may be the first clinical manifestation of underlying reno-vascular disease.

Origin of peritoneal fluid in women: an ovarian exudation product.

The volume of peritoneal fluid was measured after laparoscopic aspiration in 303 women. Contamination with blood was estimated at 4.2 per cent by haemoglobin assay.

Pain in gynecologic practice.

This paper has given a general discussion of the spectrum of pain complaints presented to the gynecologist. Specific information about pain sensation and localization has been reviewed together with the gynecologic causes of acute abdominal pain. Chronic pain has been classified as episodic or continuous, and the causes, mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of episodic and chronic pelvic pain have been presented.

[Radioimmunoassay of HCG and HCG beta in blood during pregnancy and trophoblastomas].

This work was carried out on 151 estimations of the radioimmune levels of hCG-hCG beta in the first half of normal pregnancy and 390 levels estimated in 10 molar pregnancies, in 4 choriocarcinomata following moles and 1 primary choriocarcinoma of the ovary using homologous hCG beta. In normal pregnancy the level of hCG-hCG beta rises rapidly. The levels are highest between the 8th and 9th weeks of pregnancy, and then gradually decrease.

Massive feto-maternal hemorrhage as a cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity.

11 cases of massive feto-maternal hemorrhage (FMH) detected at the Leuven Blood Transfusion Center are described. Based on these case reports, a review is given of the various theoretical and practical problems related to this complication, e.g.