Defining quality assurance and quality control measures in connection with ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation: a call to action.

Freezing of ovarian tissue for fertility preservation has been gaining ground as a valid method in recent years. More than 100 children have been born from this procedure worldwide. As a result, many fertility clinics are now implementing this method.

Searching for new biomarkers in ovarian cancer patients: Rationale and design of a retrospective study under the Mermaid III project.

Ovarian cancer is a silent killer and, due to late diagnosis, the primary cause of death amongst gynecological cancers, killing approximately 376 women annually in Denmark. The discovery of a specific and sensitive biomarker for ovarian cancer could improve early diagnosis, but also treatment, by predicting which patients will benefit from specific treatment strategies. The Mermaid III project is consisting of 3 parts including "Early detection, screening and long-term survival," "Biomarkers and/or prognostic markers" and "The infection theory.

Psychological adaptation after peripartum cardiomyopathy: A qualitative study.

Background: Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a rare and potentially life-threatening condition of heart failure affecting women with no previous heart disease in the last months of pregnancy and up to six months after childbirth.

Objective: To explore women's experiences of the process of regaining psychological balance and wellbeing (i.e.

Endocrine mechanisms and assay issues in premature progesterone elevation in assisted reproductive technology.

Progesterone elevation occurring in the late phases of controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) has been reported for over 25 years. Yet doubts remain regarding the mechanisms at play in this phenomenon and its net consequences on assisted reproductive technology outcome, which is known to occur in poor and good assisted reproductive technology responders. The pathophysiology of end-COS progesterone elevation encountered in gonadotropin-suppressed cycles is different from that prevailing at the time of, and just after, ovulation.

Improved migration of tumor ascites lymphocytes to ovarian cancer microenvironment by CXCR2 transduction.

Chemokines are essential mediators of cellular trafficking, interactions and tumor development. Though adoptive cell therapy (ACT) has been a tremendous success in the treatment of metastatic melanoma (MM), a major obstacle for successful ACT, is limited homing of effector T cells to immune suppressive tumor sites. We hypothesized that equipping T cells with chemokine receptors matching the chemokines of the tumor microenvironment, could improve tumor homing of T cells.

Daytime Variation in Serum Progesterone During the Mid-Luteal Phase in Women Undergoing Fertilization Treatment.

Objective: To investigate whether mid-luteal serum progesterone (P) exhibits significant fluctuations during a 12-h daytime period in women undergoing fertilization (IVF) and to explore whether the extent of these fluctuations could impact the interpretation of luteal progesterone levels in a clinical setting.

Design: Explorative pilot study.

Setting: Public hospital-based fertility unit.

Transplantation of frozen-thawed ovarian tissue: an update on worldwide activity published in peer-reviewed papers and on the Danish cohort.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to review all peer-reviewed published reports of women receiving ovarian tissue transplantation (OTT) with frozen/thawed tissue (OTC) with respect to age, diagnosis, transplantation site, fertility outcome, and potential side effects, including data from all women in the Danish program.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature was performed in PubMed combined with results from all patients who had received OTT in Denmark up to December 2017.

Results: OTT has been reported from 21 different countries comprising a total of 360 OTT procedures in 318 women.

Hallmarks of Human Small Antral Follicle Development: Implications for Regulation of Ovarian Steroidogenesis and Selection of the Dominant Follicle.

Regulation of human ovarian steroidogenesis differs from other species and precise knowledge on how human small antral follicles (hSAF) develop and acquire competence for continued growth and steroid output is still incomplete. The present study has characterized almost 1,000 normal hSAF collected in connection with cryopreservation of ovarian tissue for fertility preservation. The antral follicles (ranging from 3 to 13 mm) were generally aspirated from one ovary surgically removed during the natural cycle, and the follicular fluid (FF) and the granulosa cells (GC) were isolated and snap-frozen.

Tibolone and risk of gynecological hormone sensitive cancer.

Risk of ovarian cancer with hormone therapy is associated with use of both unopposed estrogen therapy and combined estrogen-progestin therapy, whereas for endometrial cancer addition of continuous progestin decreases the estrogen induced increased risk. Less is known about risk with use of tibolone; a synthetic steroid with estrogenic, progestagenic and androgenic properties. We assessed these associations in a prospective cohort study, including all Danish women 50-79 years of age and followed 1995-2009.

What should be included in the assessment of laypersons' paediatric basic life support skills? Results from a Delphi consensus study.

Background: Assessment of laypersons' Paediatric Basic Life Support (PBLS) skills is important to ensure acquisition of effective PBLS competencies. However limited evidence exists on which PBLS skills are essential for laypersons. The same challenges exist with respect to the assessment of foreign body airway obstruction management (FBAOM) skills.

Parental Rheumatoid Arthritis and Autism Spectrum Disorders in Offspring: A Danish Nationwide Cohort Study.

Objective: Maternal rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the offspring. We assessed the potential influence of both maternal and paternal RA on the risk of ASD in offspring to disentangle the influence of genetic inheritance from other conditions potentially leading to fetal programming.

Method: The nationwide cohort study included all children born alive from 1977 to 2008 in Denmark (N = 1,917,723).

Changes in first trimester fetal CYP1A1 and AHRR DNA methylation and mRNA expression in response to exposure to maternal cigarette smoking.

Prenatal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking increases the risk of intrauterine growth retardation, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and diseases later in life. Exposure can result in postnatal global and gene-specific DNA methylation changes, with the latter well documented for the CYP1A1 and AHRR genes involved in the detoxification of xenobiotic substances. This study assessed the impact of exposure to maternal smoking on first trimester fetal CYP1A1 and AHRR mRNA expression and DNA methylation for CpG-sites displaying maternal smoking during pregnancy-mediated methylation changes at birth.

Temporal expression pattern of genes during the period of sex differentiation in human embryonic gonads.

The precise timing and sequence of changes in expression of key genes and proteins during human sex-differentiation and onset of steroidogenesis was evaluated by whole-genome expression in 67 first trimester human embryonic and fetal ovaries and testis and confirmed by qPCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC). SRY/SOX9 expression initiated in testis around day 40 pc, followed by initiation of AMH and steroidogenic genes required for androgen production at day 53 pc. In ovaries, gene expression of RSPO1, LIN28, FOXL2, WNT2B, and ETV5, were significantly higher than in testis, whereas GLI1 was significantly higher in testis than ovaries.

The effects of an unsupervised water exercise program on low back pain and sick leave among healthy pregnant women - A randomised controlled trial.

Background: Low back pain is highly prevalent among pregnant women, but evidence of an effective treatment are still lacking. Supervised exercise-either land or water based-has shown benefits for low back pain, but no trial has investigated the evidence of an unsupervised water exercise program on low back pain. We aimed to assess the effect of an unsupervised water exercise program on low back pain intensity and days spent on sick leave among healthy pregnant women.

Women's experiences of self-reporting health online prior to their first midwifery visit: A qualitative study.

Background: Information and communication technologies are increasingly used in health care to meet demands of efficiency, safety and patient-centered care. At a large Danish regional hospital, women report their physical, mental health and personal needs prior to their first antenatal visit. Little is known about the process of self-reporting health, and how this information is managed during the client-professional meeting.

'Now she has become my daughter': parents' early experiences of skin-to-skin contact with extremely preterm infants.

Background: Based on the Family-Centred Care philosophy, skin-to-skin contact is a key activity in neonatal care, and use of this practice is increasing also with extremely preterm infants. Little is known about parents' immediate experiences of and readiness for skin-to-skin contact, while their fragile infant may still not be 'on safe ground'. Knowledge about parents' experiences might reduce doubt and reluctance among healthcare professionals to use skin-to-skin contact with extremely preterm infants and thus increase its dissemination in practice.

Learning to practise the Guided Self-Determination approach in type 2 diabetes in primary care: A qualitative pilot study.

Aim: To describe how diabetes nurses in primary care experience the process of learning to practise the person-centred counselling approach Guided Self-Determination among adults with type 2 diabetes.

Design: A descriptive qualitative design.

Method: Data were collected in 2014-2015 by means of individual interviews with four diabetes nurses at two points in time.

Delirium after fast-track hip and knee arthroplasty - a cohort study of 6331 elderly patients.

Background: Postoperative delirium (PD) is a well-known complication among elderly surgical patients and associated with increased morbidity, mortality and length of stay (LOS). In elective orthopedic surgery, including hip and knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA), most studies report incidences between 5% and 10%. The multimodal optimization of perioperative care (fast-track) aims to enhance recovery and reduce morbidity and LOS, but limited data are available on the effect on PD.

The Common Follicle-Stimulating Hormone Receptor (FSHR) Promoter Polymorphism FSHR -29G > A Affects Androgen Production in Normal Human Small Antral Follicles.

Follicle-stimulating hormone receptors (FSHRs) are almost exclusively expressed on granulosa cells, and FSH action is probably most clearly reflected in intrafollicular hormone milieu of antral follicles. Little is known about the possible effects of the common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) FSHR -29G > A (rs1394205) on hormonal conditions in humsan small antral follicles (hSAFs) obtained from women in the natural menstrual cycle. This study investigated the follicle fluid (FF) concentrations of anti-Müllerian hormone, estradiol, progesterone, androstenedione, and testosterone in hSAF in relation to the different genotypes of FSHR -29G > A.

Development of a written assessment for a national interprofessional cardiotocography education program.

Background: To reduce the incidence of hypoxic brain injuries among newborns a national cardiotocography (CTG) education program was implemented in Denmark. A multiple-choice question test was integrated as part of the program. The aim of this article was to describe and discuss the test development process and to introduce a feasible method for written test development in general.

Comparative pharmacology of a new recombinant FSH expressed by a human cell line.

Recombinant FSH proteins are important therapeutic agents for the treatment of infertility, including follitropin alfa expressed in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells and, more recently, follitropin delta expressed in the human cell line PER.C6. These recombinant FSH proteins have distinct glycosylation, and have distinct pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles in women.

Concentration of perfluorinated compounds and cotinine in human foetal organs, placenta, and maternal plasma.

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are bio-accumulative pollutants, and prenatal exposure to PFASs is believed to impact human foetal development and may have long-term adverse health effects later in life. Additionally, maternal cigarette smoking may be associated with PFAS levels. Foetal exposure has previously been estimated from umbilical cord plasma, but the actual concentration in foetal organs has never been measured.