Premenstrual syndrome and associated skin diseases related to hypersensitivity to female sex hormones.

Objective: To study skin diseases and hypersensitivity to female sex hormones in patients with the premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

Study Design: Thirty women answered a questionnaire related to PMS and underwent gynecologic, dermatologic and laboratory examinations. Intradermal testing was performed with estradiol valerate, progesterone and placebo.

Gene frequencies of the HPA-1 and HPA-2 platelet antigen alleles among the Amerindians.

Background And Objectives: Platelet-specific alloantigens are important in neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia, posttransfusion purpura, refractoriness to platelet transfusions, and population genetics. Data are scarce on allele frequencies in ethnic groups other than whites and Asians.

Materials And Methods: Using allele-specific restriction enzyme analysis, we studied the distribution of HPA-1 and HPA-2 alleles in six Brazilian Amazon tribes of Amerindians, belonging to five different language stocks.

Segregation analysis of microcephaly.

Microcephaly is a heterogeneous disorder with genetic and environmental causes. However, there is little information on what proportion of cases are caused by inherited susceptibility, or the mode of inheritance in familial cases. To address these questions, we have performed classical and complex segregation analyses for microcephaly on 2 sets of family data collected from genetic counseling clinics in Vancouver and Jerusalem.

Effects of ovarian hormone treatment on Ca(2+)-induced contractions and Ca(2+)-antagonism in the depolarized rat myometrium.

The effects of estrogen (E), progesterone (P) and estrogen plus progesterone (E+P) treatment on Ca-induced contraction in the KCL-depolarized uterine muscle, and the influences on the Ca2+ antagonism induced by reserpine and verapamil "in vitro" were studied. Uterine muscles from rats in estrus were taken as controls. Uteri from spayed untreated rats showed the same sensitivity to Ca2+ as those from estrus rats, but castration decreased maximal contractile tension to Ca2+ and Ca2+ threshold.

Prenatal diagnosis of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A) using molecular genetic techniques.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A) is a frequent hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy of the peripheral nerves. In most cases, the disease is associated with a 1.5 Mb tandem duplication at 17p11.

Estimating the risk of a fetal autosomal trisomy at mid-trimester using maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein and age: a retrospective study of 142 pregnancies.

Risks appropriate for mid-trimester prenatal screening for autosomal trisomies have been estimated from a combination of maternal age and maternal serum (MS) alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels at 16-20 weeks gestation. Published data on the frequency of Down's syndrome births relative to maternal age were modified to include the additional age-related frequency of trisomy 18 and trisomy 13 cases to provide an overall risk for an autosomal trisomy at mid-trimester. MSAFP results from a retrospective study of 142 affected (114 trisomy 21, 19 trisomy 18, and 9 trisomy 13) and 113,000 unaffected pregnancies were converted to multiples of the appropriate gestational median (MOM).

Screening for Down's syndrome in older women based on maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein levels and age: preliminary results.

We report the results of screening for Down's syndrome (DS) in older women using published rate schedules based on maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP) and age. Five hundred and seventeen patients aged 35 years and older, who were referred for a mid-trimester genetic amniocentesis, were first tested for MSAFP and then underwent an amniocentesis. Individual risks for DS, combining MSAFP and age, were derived using three different published rate schedules.

Reserpine non-selectively inhibits rat uterus contraction in vitro.

1. Reserpine produced a direct in vitro non-selective inhibitory effect on smooth muscle contraction of endometrium-free rat uterus. 2.

Specific opiate effects on dextran-induced inflammation in rats.

The effects of opiates were investigated in two models of acute inflammation in rats. Morphine (0.1-10 mg/kg, i.

Amniotic fluid findings in women with high levels of chlamydial antibody.

A study was undertaken to examine possible transplacental passage of Chlamydia trachomatis from pregnant women who were seropositive for chlamydia, but with no cervical C. trachomatis infection. Forty asymptomatic pregnant women, scheduled for diagnostic amniocentesis at 15-19 weeks of gestation, were tested for the presence of high serum IgA and IgG chlamydial specific antibodies and for cervical chlamydia infection.

Amniotic fluid alpha-fetoprotein, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase, and autosomal trisomies.

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) concentration and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) activity have been analysed in amniotic fluid from a series of 65 pregnancies with autosomal trisomies. AFP values were reduced on average to 60 per cent of normal in cases of trisomy 21, but were not significantly different from normal in cases of trisomies 18 and 13. GGT activities were uniformly lower (44 per cent of normal) for all types of autosomal trisomy.

Prenatal diagnosis of the pterygium syndrome.

We report two second trimester pregnancy terminations in the same woman following intrauterine ultrasonic findings of hydrops fetalis, polyhydramnios, lack of fetal movements, and short, fixed malformed limbs. One fetus also showed a cystic mass at the back of the head. Radiographic and anatomic studies of the fetuses demonstrated multiple pterygia, flexion contracture of multiple joints, abnormal facial appearance, cleft palate, pulmonary hypoplasia, and gracile bones.