Uterine myomectomy in pregnant women.

Objective: To determine whether myomectomy during pregnancy in selected patients improves outcome.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 18 patients who underwent myomectomy between the 6th and 24th week of gestational age. Surgical management of tumors was required on the basis of the characteristics of the myomas and symptoms.

Recurrent spontaneous abortion and intrauterine fetal growth retardation as symptoms of coeliac disease.

Women having recurrent miscarriages or intrauterine growth retardation could have subclinical coeliac disease, which can be detected by serological screening tests.

Emergency cerclage in the presence of protruding membranes: is pregnancy outcome predictable?

Background: The aim of this retrospective study is to verify whether some maternal features are related to pregnancy outcome in cases of emergency mid-trimester cerclage when membranes are protruding through the dilated cervix.

Methods: Between 1988 and 1996 twenty-three pregnant patients with dilated cervix and protruding membranes were treated with emergency cerclage. At the time of cerclage, gestational age ranged from 17 to 27 weeks (median 22).

Pregnancy outcome and total parenteral nutrition in malnourished pregnant women.

Objective: We evaluated pregnancy outcome and fetal growth in women requiring total parenteral nutrition (TPN).

Methods: Eleven malnourished pregnant women were treated with TPN in a single institution, starting at a mean gestational age of 20+/-8 weeks (+/- SD). Serial ultrasound evaluations of fetal growth (biparietal diameter, femur length, abdominal circumference) were performed.

Double shunt in a case of fetal low-level obstructive uropathy.

This report describes a pregnant woman at 22 weeks of gestation examined for fetal bilateral dilated renal pelvis and oligohydramnios. Ultrasound evaluation confirmed the diagnosis of low-level obstructive uropathy. At 26 weeks of gestation, the increase in hydronephrosis prompted us to introduce a vesicoamnionic shunt.

Coenzyme Q10 in pregnancy.

Our objectives were to assess the plasma coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) levels in normal pregnancy, in pregnancy with a spontaneous contractile event, in spontaneous abortion and in threatened abortion. Six hundred and fifteen CoQ10 levels were analyzed in 483 pregnant women: 350 patients were employed to design a normal curve; 66 patients with spontaneous contractile activity underwent two or more CoQ10 analyses in different trimesters; 49 patients presented spontaneous abortion, and 18 patients threatened abortion. The normal curve of plasma CoQ10 levels rises during each trimester of pregnancy, while there is a correspondence between a low CoQ10 level and spontaneous abortion.

Drug addiction in pregnancy: the HIV infection.

From January 1986 to December 1990 70 HIV-seropositive pregnant women were seen at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rome, Italy. All of them delivered in our Hospital Center and their babies were enrolled in pediatric follow-up. Sixty-five patients (93%) were drug-addicted, only 6 of them showing signs of HIV infection (lymphoadenopathy).

Drug addiction in pregnancy: 13 years of experience.

In this retrospective study, we review our data on 203 drug-addicted pregnant patients, considering two different aspects of the question: maternal and fetal. We report the findings relative to maternal metabolic, endocrinological, neuroendocrinological and immunological studies performed in our department over the past 13 years. Moreover, we study fetal involvement in drug-addicted pregnancy and report the findings of our fetal behavior and urodynamic studies.

Immune thrombocytopenic purpura and percutaneous umbilical blood sampling: an open question.

We performed a retrospective study of 26 pregnancies with chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) or incidental ITP. Thirteen pregnancies were followed without the use of percutaneous umbilical blood sampling (PUBS) and 13 were followed sampling PUBS at 36-40 weeks of gestation. The overall prevalence of neonatal thrombocytopenia was 27%: 50% in chronic ITP, 12.

[Conservative treatment of tubal pregnancy with parenteral administration of methotrexate. Case contribution].

Three subjects with tubal ectopic pregnancy were treated with intravenous administration of methotrexate followed by oral administration of folinic acid. The treatment was effective in obtaining the resolution of ectopic pregnancies in all cases. Tubal patency was also preserved.