INTRODUCTION: Renal transplantation offers the best hope for those women with end-stage renal disease who wish to have children. However, pregnancy after renal transplantation is associated with increased maternal and fetal morbidity. The aim of this retrospective study was to review the outcome of pregnancy in renal transplant patients in ...

BACKGROUND: Microchimerism from fetal or maternal cells transferred during pregnancy has been implicated in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc). OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a prior pregnancy influenced disease progression and cause of death in patients with SSc. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The patients comprised a retrospective study cohort of 111 ...

Congenital heart disease in pregnancy is increasingly common because of the advances in surgery and medical therapy which have taken place over the last 30 years, which means that more affected women are surviving into the reproductive age. Antenatal counselling needs to be tailored to the specific lesion, with pulmonary ...

A rare, so far unpublished, case of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 26-year-old pregnant woman is presented. As X ray examination and other investigations were avoided during her pregnancy, the discrete signs of spinal cord compression led to sudden severe neurological deterioration after delivery. This necessitated emergency decompression and stabilization of the ...

It is now well recognized that cells traffic in both directions between fetus and mother during pregnancy. Moreover, fetal cells have been found to persist for years, probably for a lifetime, in the circulation of healthy women. Harboring of cells from another individual at low levels is called microchimerism. Women ...

The peak age of onset for IBD coincides with the peak age for conception and pregnancy. Women with inactive IBD who become pregnant do not have increased complications compared with age-matched controls. Most medications for IBD are safe in pregnancy. The greatest danger to a normal conception and pregnancy is ...

Asthma, a chronic inflammatory disease of the airway system, is the most common respiratory complication that can impact pregnancy. Various physiologic changes in gestation may variably affect this pulmonary disease. The cornerstone of management involves implementing strategies and treatments that assist in maintaining normal maternal pulmonary function, thereby preventing fetal ...

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) acts as a mitogen, motogen, morphogen, anti-apoptotic factor, and scatter factor for various kinds of epithelial cells. It is a protein secreted by mesenchymal cells such as fibroblasts, and promotes motility and matrix invasion of epithelial cells. To clarify whether HGF is involved in periodontal disease, ...

Twelve premenopausal women diagnosed with pregnancy-associated breast cancer between May 1985 and October 1999 were reviewed. Three patients were diagnosed in the first trimester of pregnancy, five in the second trimester, and three during the third trimester. There was one patient who was five weeks postpartum. At the time of ...

To gain further knowledge about rare genetic diseases, a world wide method for data collection via the Internet has been established. This new approach will improve collecting valuable data from single case reports. Ramedis saves standardised patient data which will be usable for statistics, longitudinal examinations and cooperative studies in ...

Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy is considered the most common pruritic skin condition seen in pregnancy, and its classic presentation and treatment options have been well described. However, the exact etiologic factor of this condition remains obscure. This article presents an unusual case to demonstrate a variation in ...

Undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD) is a group of systemic autoimmune conditions not fulfilling the classification criteria for a definite connective tissue disease (CTD). While an average of 20% of UCTD patients develop a defined CTD during follow-up, the remaining patients maintain an undefined disease. Since pregnancy is considered to ...

The pregnant woman is susceptible to a variety of respiratory complications. When a pregnant patient presents with an abnormal chest x-ray or a pulmonary complaint, an understanding of the pathophysiology of pregnancy will guide the clinician in establishing a diagnosis. Pregnancy brings about many changes to a woman's body. One ...

Coeliac disease (CD) is one of the most frequent chronic diseases in childhood. The clinical spectrum has changed; in addition to the classical gastrointestinal form, other clinical manifestations have been described, such as hypogonadism and the consequent delay in onset of puberty. Recent studies reported not only a significantly retarded ...

Little is known about pregnancy in patients with vasculitis because of the nature of these diseases and the potential for infertility to occur from effective treatments. However, with the expanding armamentarium of therapeutic options that do not affect reproductive function, it is anticipated that more vasculitis patients will entertain the ...

The peak age ranges for pregnancy and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) coincide, and many women develop IBD during their reproductive years. This contribution reviews the major studies on the subject, and is sub-divided into two broad considerations: the effects of the disease on fertility, pregnancy and other factors related to ...

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an increasingly common immunobullous disease of the elderly, and, due to the late age of onset, is rarely seen in women of fertile age. Consequently, to the best of our knowledge no cases of BP in pregnancy have been described. We present two cases of BP ...

Gastrointestinal diseases in pregnancy can be divided into diseases specific to pregnancy, for example, hyperemesis gravidarum, obstetric cholestasis, HELLP syndrome and acute fatty liver of pregnancy, and diseases incidental to pregnancy, for example, inflammatory bowel disease, dyspepsia, peptic ulcer disease and viral hepatitis. Disorders in the second category may present ...

We reviewed the world literature concerning the reproductive effects of Lyme disease (LD). Borrelia burgdorferi, which is the etiology of LD, is a spirochete and, as such, may share the potential for causing fetal infection, which may occur in the setting of maternal spirochetemia. Information concerning the effects of gestational ...

BACKGROUND: Fetal subdural hematoma is a rare condition not considered a complication of Crohn disease in pregnancy. CASE: A young woman with a diagnosis of Crohn disease presented at 22 weeks' gestation with diarrhea and melena for 3 weeks. Dietary and medicinal therapies were begun. At 28 weeks' gestation, fetal ...

The endometrium demonstrates a wide spectrum of normal and pathologic appearances throughout menarche as well as during the prepubertal and postmenopausal years and the first trimester of pregnancy. Disease entities include hydrocolpos, hydrometrocolpos, and ovarian cysts in pediatric patients; gestational trophoblastic disease during pregnancy; endometritis and retained products of conception ...

We describe two pregnancies of a young woman with mixed connective tissue disease. In June 1983, she was diagnosed as having Raynaud's phenomenon, arthralgia, and proteinuria. She then developed nephrotic syndrome. Methylprednisolone was initially prescribed at a large dose of 1 g/day which was slowly tapered to 5 mg/day. The ...

BACKGROUND: A significant decrease of maternal mortality related to improvement in diagnosis and prevention of disorders in pregnancy has been observed without a similar reduction of puerperal morbidity. Objective of this study was to identify risk factors and outcome of patients, which required intensive care during puerperium. METHODS: During the ...

Peripartum cardiomyopathy is an under-recognized form of dilated cardiomyopathy of unknown cause and is associated with excess morbidity and mortality in women of childbearing age. Incidence of peripartum cardiomyopathy ranges from 1 in 1,300 to 1 in 15,000 pregnancies. The diagnostic criteria are onset of heart failure in the last ...

OBJECTIVE: To study female reproduction, i.e., number of births, subsequent pregnancy rate, and interpregnancy interval after diagnosis of inflammatory rheumatic disease. METHODS: In a national population based cohort study, reproduction in mothers with rheumatic disease, registered with the Medical Birth Registry of Norway 1967-1995, were compared to mothers without such ...

The peak age of onset for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) coincides with the peak age for conception and pregnancy, and gastroenterologists will frequently be called on to treat pregnant IBD patients. The greatest threat to a normal conception and pregnancy is active disease, not active medicine. The majority of IBD ...

BACKGROUND: Proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory events may eventually trigger host response, which acting via a broad spectrum of complex biological processes and molecular interactions may either enhance or resolve the symptoms of acute surgical illness (ASI). Staging the sequence of biological events that take place at the cellular level during the ...

Women with renal disease who conceive and continue a pregnancy are at significant risk for adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. Risk is inversely related to the degree of renal insufficiency. Pregnancy-induced changes in the urinary tract can temporarily increase renal function compromise, such as nephrosis, but most often results in ...

The clinicopathological and biological significance of Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which are infrequently encountered in women of childbearing age, remains to be clarified. We recently reviewed 4 cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the T/natural killer (T/NK)-cell phenotype, all of which were associated with pregnancy and characterized by the expression ...

The management of both male and female patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who wish to have a baby is challenging. For women, the most important factor to bear in mind is that the outcome of pregnancy is largely influenced by disease activity at the time of conception. Women with ...

Dyspepsia with or without nausea is common during pregnancy. Known ulcer disease, gastritis, and GERD may improve during pregnancy. Many women have a stoic and long-suffering posture during pregnancy owing to an unrealistic expectation concerning the teratogenicity of commonly used drugs. It is appropriate in medicine to alleviate pain and ...

Wilson's disease is an autosomal recessive disorder of copper metabolism characterized mainly by liver cirrhosis and neurological disorders. Appropriate treatment with chelating agents allows normal fertility function. We report five consecutive successful pregnancies of the same woman, treated in the high-risk unit at our medical center. The management dilemmas and ...

Of the numerous physiological changes associated with pregnancy that may have effects on various diseases, the marked increase in blood volume probably exerts the most pronounced effect. This increase may affect the serum level of many medications, as well as affecting various laboratory tests. Other important changes occur in the ...

Pelvic inflammatory disease, a common gynecologic problem with an estimated 1 million cases annually, results in serious sequelae. Endometritis, a common obstetric problem occurring in more than 15% of all pregnancies, is the leading cause of maternal mortality. Risk factors are numerous. Diagnosis is not always definitive and relies heavily ...

Pregnancy is associated with immunological, endocrine, metabolic and vascular changes that may adversely affect the skin. The specific dermatoses of pregnancy are disease entities almost exclusively related to the pregnancy or the puerperium. Learning objective: At the conclusion of this learning activity, participants should be aware of the main entities ...

Most women with inflammatory bowel disease who desire to become pregnant can expect to conceive successfully, carry to term, and deliver a healthy infant. However, the management of inflammatory bowel disease during pregnancy remains challenging, and some women with ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease will have difficulty becoming pregnant or ...

The frequency and types of congenital heart disease in offspring from pregnancies in women with hyperphenylalaninemia were examined in the international prospective Maternal Phenylketonuria Collaborative Study. Relationships of congenital heart disease in offspring to the basal blood phenylalanine level in the mother, metabolic control through diet during pregnancy, and phenylalanine ...

In the last few years Cupressus sempervirens has been identified as the cause of an increasing number of cases of late winter-early spring pollinosis in Mediterranean countries. We conducted a 4-year retrospective study of a large group of subjects with documented allergic respiratory disease in order to determine the prevalence, ...

This fifth article in the series looks at the long tradition of using herbal treatment for managing complications during pregnancy and with the menstrual cycle. Despite widespread use there has been surprisingly little research into the outcomes or the potential risks of using herbal therapies during pregnancy. Similarly phytoestrogens have ...

BACKGROUND: Caution should be exercised in treating patients with autoimmune diseases during pregnancy. CASES: We successfully treated three cases of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada's disease (VKH disease) during pregnancy. OBSERVATIONS: In the second trimester (14-27 weeks) of 1 patient, inflammation was mild and could be treated by topical corticosteroid. There is the possibility ...

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to assess the impact of new consensus guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics to prevent perinatal group B streptococcal disease. STUDY DESIGN: We performed a descriptive analysis and a ...

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in pregnancy presents a special challenge for the clinician, predominantly because of the potential side effects of pharmacologic interventions on the fetus. Lifestyle and dietary modifications, change in sleeping posture, and antacid medications are emphasized, as these options pose little risk to the fetus. When these ...

BACKGROUND: Cyclic neutropenia is characterized by regularly recurring episodes of neutropenia. It has been reported that pregnancy often has a mitigating effect on the symptoms. However, there have been no detailed studies on changes in the neutrophil count before, during and after pregnancy. CASE: A 24-year-old woman with cyclic neutropenia ...

Mycosis fungoides complicating pregnancy is rarely encountered. As it is a form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, some of the treatment options are contraindicated in pregnancy, and the disease may become unresponsive to safer conventional therapies. We report a patient who, in her third trimester of pregnancy, failed to respond to ...

It is necessary to adopt a proactive, prevention-based strategy for addressing gynecologic and obstetric issues in the adolescent with heart disease. Pregnancy carries known cardiovascular alterations, manifestations and risks. The nature of the underlying cardiac disease needs to be considered in preconception counseling and in the prevention of pregnancy. Specific ...

Congenital disorders of neuromuscular transmission are commonly referred to as congenital myasthenia gravis because of their clinical similarity to the immune-mediated disease. Differentiation between the immune-mediated and congenital forms of the disease is important, because therapy established for the former may not be appropriate for patients with the latter presentation. ...

BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of data in the literature on the risks associated with, and optimal management of, pregnancy in patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). AIMS: To assess maternal and fetal outcomes in relation to clinical management of pregnancy in a large cohort of patients with well defined AIH. ...

Pregnancies in women suffering from advanced chronic renal failure are frequently associated with deterioration of maternal renal function, premature births and low birth weights. Prophylactic dialysis is sometimes instituted since this intervention ameliorates the uremic milieu and improves maternal status and fetal uterine environment. This report describes a successful pregnancy ...

Ischemic bowel disease is generally considered a disease of the elderly and usually consists of reversible colopathy. Nonocclusive causes of ischemic colitis include low-flow states due to cardiac dysfunction and hypovolemia and use of certain medications including progestational medication. We report 2 cases of ischemic colitis in young women. The ...

von Willebrand's disease (VWD) is now recognised to be the most common inherited bleeding disorder and is due to defects and/or deficiencies in von Willebrand factor (VWF). The latex immuno-assay (LIA) procedure has become a popular VWF:Ag detection methodology because of the ability to automate testing. In this report, we ...