Placental mesenchymal dysplasia, a case of intrauterine sudden death of fetus with rupture of cirsoid periumbilical chorionic vessels.

We report a 32-year-old woman (1-gravid, 1-para) with a vesicular lesion in her uterus that was pointed out on ultrasound at 8 weeks' gestation. Amniocentesis at 15 weeks' gestation showed a normal female karyotype, 46XX. As the pregnancy advanced, the mole-like lesion became relatively reduced.

Estrogen receptor alpha polymorphism as a genetic marker for bone loss, vertebral fractures and susceptibility to estrogen.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the possible roles of PvuII and XbaI polymorphisms of the estrogen receptor alpha (ER(alpha)) in bone mineral density (BMD), vertebral fracture, bone loss rate after menopause and response to hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

Methods: All 286 women were grouped according to the genotypes of PvuII or XbaI polymorphisms of the ER(alpha) gene. We compared the BMD Z-score, incidence of vertebral fracture, changes in Z-score after menopause and response of BMD to HRT among the genotypes.