Search results for "gestational age"

Steatocrit test: Normal range and physiological variations in preterm and low-birth-weight full-term newborns

1992

Infantile postural asymmetry and osteopathic treatment: a randomized therapeutic trial

2005

The aim of this study was to assess the therapeutic efficacy of osteopathic treatment in infants with postural asymmetry. A randomized clinical trial of efficacy with blinded videoscoring was performed. Sixty-one infants with postural asymmetry aged 6 to 12 weeks (mean 9wks) were recruited. Thirty-two infants (18 males, 14 females) with a gestational age of at least 36 weeks were found to be eligible and randomly assigned to the intervention groups, 16 receiving osteopathic treatment and 16 sham therapy. After a treatment period of 4 weeks the outcome was measured using a standardized scale (4-24 points). With sham therapy, five infants improved (at least 3 points), eight infants were uncha…

Expression of the α4 isoform of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in the fetal human cerebral cortex

2001

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are likely to play an important role in neuronal migration during development. Furthermore, the alpha4 receptor subunit gene is related to a hereditary juvenile form of epilepsy. Only little information is available, however, on the expression of cerebrocortical nicotinic acetylcholine receptors during human fetal development. Using non-isotopic in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, we have studied the distribution of the alpha4 subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor mRNA and protein in the human frontal cortex at middle (17-24 weeks of gestation) and late (34-42 weeks of gestation) fetal stages. Both, alpha4 receptor mRNA and alpha4 rece…

Delayed neonatal visual evoked potentials are associated to asymmetric growth pattern in twins

2020

Abstract Objectives To study the association between intrauterine growth and visual pathways maturation by neonatal visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in twins, in view of a possible prognostic role. Methods Seventy-four twin neonates from 37 pregnancies were selected based on gestational age of more than 30 weeks and uneventful perinatal clinical course. Flash VEPs were recorded at the same postmenstrual age in each twin pair. The association between P2 latency and anthropometric variables at birth was analyzed by comparison within each twin pair and regarding each variable as ordered difference between the two twins. Results Analysis of differences within each twin pair highlighted that inte…

Congenital \textittoxoplasma infection: monthly prenatal screening decreases transmission rate and improves clinical outcome at age 3 years

2013

Background. Toxoplasma infection during pregnancy exposes the fetus to risks of congenital infection and sequelae that depend heavily on gestational age (GA) at time of infection. Accurate risk estimates by GA are necessary to counsel parents and improve clinical decisions. Methods. We analyzed data from pregnant women diagnosed with acute Toxoplasma infection in Lyon (France) from 1987 to 2008 and assessed how the risks of congenital toxoplasmosis and of clinical signs at age 3 years vary depending on GA at the time of maternal infection. Results. Among 2048 mother-infant pairs, 93.2% of mothers received prenatal treatment and 513 (24.7%) fetuses were infected. Because of a significant red…

Is it possible to predict late antepartum stillbirth by means of cerebroplacental ratio and maternal characteristics?

2019

Objective: To examine the potential value of fetal ultrasound and maternal characteristics in the prediction of antepartum stillbirth after 32 weeks’ gestation. Methods: This was a retrospective multicenter study in Spain. In 29 pregnancies, umbilical artery pulsatility index (UA PI), middle cerebral artery pulsatility index (MCA PI), cerebroplacental ratio (CPR), estimated fetal weight (EFW), and maternal characteristics were recorded within 15 days prior to a stillbirth. The values of UA PI, MCA PI, and CPR were converted into multiples of the normal median (MoM) for gestational age and the EFW was expressed as percentile according to a Spanish reference range for gestational age. Data fr…

Reading and math abilities of Finnish school beginners born very preterm or with very low birth weight

2017

Reading and math skills of preterm born (birth weight 1500 g or gestational age:532 weeks) children and full term (FT) children were compared during the first weeks of grade 1. The participants were 194 preterm born and 175 FT children born between 2001 and 2006. There were more precocious readers among FT than among preterm students, but even the latter performed close to the national norm. FT and preterm group differences among non-readers were minor with only rapid naming showing a robust difference. Math performance showed a stable difference in favor of FT students and the difference was sustained in the full-scale IQcontrol. Major brain pathology increased the likelihood of poor schol…

Anomalous alterations affecting microglia in the central nervous system of a fetus at 12 weeks of gestation: case report.

2003

We report here on the first documented case of profound alterations specifically affecting the microglial population within the nervous system during the fetal period. This case, derived at gestational week 12, was one amongst a series of second trimester brains currently being investigated with respect to microglial colonization of the human fetal brain. No significant pathological alterations could be identified upon gross macroscopy or following microscopic analysis of serial brain sections stained with cresyl fast violet (Nissl). By contrast, sections stained immunohistochemically to detect MHC class II (CR3/43) and CD68 (PG-M1) antigens revealed a marked pathological change in the morp…

Monoclonal antibodies SMI 311 and SMI 312 as tools to investigate the maturation of nerve cells and axonal patterns in human fetal brain

1998

Neurofilaments, which are exclusively found in nerve cells, are one of the earliest recognizable features of the maturing nervous system. The differential distribution of neurofilament proteins in varying degrees of phosphorylation within a neuron provides the possibility of selectively demonstrating either somata and dendrites or axons. Non-phosphorylated neurofilaments typical of somata and dendrites can be visualized with the aid of monoclonal antibody SMI 311, whereas antibody SMI 312 is directed against highly phosphorylated axonal epitopes of neurofilaments. The maturation of neuronal types, the development of area-specific axonal networks, and the gradients of maturation can thus be …

Unpredicted ovulations and conceptions during early pregnancy: an explanatory mechanism of human superfetation

2012

In this bioessay, a literature review on human superfetation was performed in order to find epidemiological variables associated with this phenomenon. Thereafter, an explanatory mechanism of superfetation compatible with the endocrinological, histological and physiological changes undergone by women during early pregnancy is proposed. Superfetation can be defined as the ovulation, fertilisation and implantation of a second or additional embryo(s) during pregnancy. The literature review evidences a small discordance in gestational age between dizygotic twins in humans (range: 2–4 weeks; mean ± s.e.m.: 3.3 ± 0.3 weeks). This difference is compatible with a luteal out-of-phase (LOOP; i.e. atyp…