Non-employment over the working life: Implications for cognitive function and decline in later life.

Objectives: Disuse theory predicts that cognitive function is vulnerable to transitions that remove factors that support cognitive skills. We sought to investigate whether non-employment over the working life was associated with cognitive function and decline in later life (≥60 years old), and possible gender differences in the association.

Study Design: Longitudinal study.

Long-term trends in educational inequalities in alcohol-attributable mortality, and their impact on trends in educational inequalities in life expectancy.

Background: Previous studies on socio-economic inequalities in mortality have documented a substantial contribution of alcohol-attributable mortality (AAM) to these inequalities. However, little is known about the extent to which AAM has contributed to time trends in socio-economic inequalities in mortality.

Objective: To study long-term trends in educational inequalities in AAM and assessed their impact on trends in educational inequalities in life expectancy in three European countries.

Enabling the examination of long-term mortality trends by educational level for England and Wales in a time-consistent and internationally comparable manner.

Background: Studying long-term trends in educational inequalities in health is important for monitoring and policy evaluation. Data issues regarding the allocation of people to educational groups hamper the study and international comparison of educational inequalities in mortality. For the UK, this has been acknowledged, but no satisfactory solution has been proposed.

Outpatient paracentesis for the management of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome: study protocol for the STOP-OHSS randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) is the most significant short-term complication of pharmacological ovarian stimulation. Symptoms range from mild abdominal discomfort to rare complications such as renal failure, thromboembolism and respiratory distress syndrome.Currently, clinical practice typically involves monitoring the patient until the condition becomes severe, at which point they are admitted to hospital, where drainage of ascitic fluid (paracentesis) may take place.

Reversals in past long-term trends in educational inequalities in life expectancy for selected European countries.

Background: Across Europe, socioeconomic inequalities in mortality are large and persistent. To better understand the drivers of past trends in socioeconomic mortality inequalities, we identified phases and potential reversals in long-term trends in educational inequalities in remaining life expectancy at age 30 (e30), and assessed the contributions of mortality changes among the low-educated and the high-educated at different ages.

Methods: We used individually linked annual mortality data by educational level (low, middle and high), sex and single age (30+) from 1971/1972 onwards for England and Wales, Finland and Italy (Turin).

Endometrial scratch to increase live birth rates in women undergoing first-time in vitro fertilisation: RCT and systematic review.

Background: In vitro fertilisation is a widely used reproductive technique that can be undertaken with or without intracytoplasmic sperm injection. The endometrial scratch procedure is an in vitro fertilisation 'add-on' that is sometimes provided prior to the first in vitro fertilisation cycle, but there is a lack of evidence to support its use.

Objectives: (1) To assess the clinical effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of endometrial scratch compared with treatment as usual in women undergoing their first in vitro fertilisation cycle (the 'Endometrial Scratch Trial') and (2) to undertake a systematic review to combine the results of the Endometrial Scratch Trial with those of previous trials in which endometrial scratch was provided prior to the first in vitro fertilisation cycle.

Experiences of trial participants and site staff of participating in and running a large randomised trial within fertility (the endometrial scratch trial): a qualitative interview study.

Objectives: To explore the experiences of endometrial scratch (ES) trial participants and site staff of trial recruitment and participation, in order to improve the experience of participants in future trials.

Design: Qualitative study of a subset of participants in the ES randomised controlled trial and a subset of trial site staff.

Setting: A purposeful sample of 9 of the 16 UK Fertility Units that participated in the trial.

TET2 Protects Against Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Apoptosis and Intimal Thickening in Transplant Vasculopathy.

Background: Coronary allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a devastating sequela of heart transplant in which arterial intimal thickening limits coronary blood flow. There are currently no targeted therapies to prevent or reduce this pathology that leads to transplant failure. Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) phenotypic plasticity is critical in CAV neointima formation.

Identifying the lifetime cognitive and socioeconomic antecedents of cognitive state: seven decades of follow-up in a British birth cohort study.

Objectives: The life course determinants of midlife and later life cognitive function have been studied using longitudinal population-based cohort data, but far less is known about whether the pattern of these pathways is similar or distinct for clinically relevant cognitive state. We investigated this for Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination third edition (ACE-III), used in clinical settings to screen for cognitive impairment and dementia.

Design: Longitudinal birth cohort study.

Levothyroxine in Women with Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies before Conception.

Background: Thyroid peroxidase antibodies are associated with an increased risk of miscarriage and preterm birth, even when thyroid function is normal. Small trials indicate that the use of levothyroxine could reduce the incidence of such adverse outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to investigate whether levothyroxine treatment would increase live-birth rates among euthyroid women who had thyroid peroxidase antibodies and a history of miscarriage or infertility.

LMO7 Is a Negative Feedback Regulator of Transforming Growth Factor β Signaling and Fibrosis.

Background: Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) synthesize extracellular matrix (ECM) that contributes to tissue remodeling after revascularization interventions. The cytokine transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) is induced on tissue injury and regulates tissue remodeling and wound healing, but dysregulated signaling results in excess ECM deposition and fibrosis. The LIM (Lin11, Isl-1 & Mec-3) domain protein LIM domain only 7 (LMO7) is a TGF-β1 target gene in hepatoma cells, but its role in vascular physiology and fibrosis is unknown.

Postpartum posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) in a twin pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia-eclampsia: case report.

This is the second case in literature of posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) in a twin pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia-eclampsia. A 27-year-old primigravida with dichorionic diamniotic twin pregnancy was admitted at 36 weeks of gestation for induction of labour due to preeclampsia. On the second day postpartum, the patient developed severe hypertension, visual symptoms, confusion, headache, and eclamptic fits.

Arousal and continuous attention during Ramadan intermittent fasting.

During the month of Ramadan, practicing Muslims abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset. We aimed to investigate the effect of Ramadan fasting on arousal and continuous attention. The electrodermal activity and cancellation test of students were measured in fasting and non-fasting conditions after the conclusion of the Ramadan fast period.

The rise in obstetric intervention with maternal age: a continuous phenomenon.

Population-based data from the Cardiff Births Survey has been used to examine the trends in obstetric intervention with increasing maternal age. As maternal age increases, spontaneous vaginal delivery rates fall, instrumental delivery rates, elective and emergency caesarean section, induction of labour and epidural rates rise. Induction of labour and epidural in labour are both associated with decreased spontaneous vaginal delivery rates and an increase in instrumental delivery rates and emergency caesarean section.

Induction to delivery time interval in patients with and without preeclampsia: a retrospective analysis.

Background: Anecdotally, it is suggested that patients with preeclampsia have a shorter induction to delivery interval than patients without preeclampsia, despite there being no good objective evidence.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of 136 primiparous, singleton, cephalic, nonassisted vaginal deliveries between January 1997 and January 2000. Sixty-eight women had induction of labor for preeclampsia and 68 women without preeclampsia had induction of labor for other reasons.

Occipitoposterior position: associated factors and obstetric outcome in nulliparas.

Objective: To determine factors associated with term delivery in the occipitoposterior position and examine obstetric outcomes from that delivery position in nulliparas.

Methods: We did a retrospective analysis of population-based data of 16,781 nulliparas who delivered at term (37-42 weeks) with singleton, cephalic presentations. Factors examined for possible association with occipitoposterior position were fetal weight, maternal age, completed weeks of gestation, epidural analgesia in labor, labor induction, and oxytocin augmentation.