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<recommendedContent xmlns="http://api.mspoke.com">
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_412"
                     title="Depression During Pregnancy Linked to Kids&apos; Behavior Problems (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.011"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Depression/tb/18321?impressionId=1265792540046"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;Children born to mothers who were depressed during pregnancy were more than twice as likely to display antisocial behavior by age 16 as children whose mothers had not been depressed, researchers found.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Of 120 mothers from South London who were followed from pregnancy through their children&apos;s teen years, 31% had depression during pregnancy, according to Dale Hay, PhD, of Cardiff University in Wales, and colleagues.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Children born to these women were significantly more likely to display antisocial behavior (OR 2.46, 95% CI 1.10 to 5.48) and commit violent acts (OR 4.36, 95% CI 1.54 to 12.41) before age 16, the researchers reported in the January/February issue of &lt;em&gt;Child Development&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The associations were magnified in women who also had a history of behavior problems when they were children.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;A focus on mothers&apos; history of conduct problems and depression during pregnancy, as opposed to broader measures of the social environment, would hold promise for more targeted early interventions to prevent the development of serious antisocial behavior,&quot; Hay&apos;s group wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Previous studies have linked mothers&apos; mental health problems in pregnancy with disruptive behaviors in their children, but it&apos;s unclear what explains the relationship, according to the researchers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To explore the issue, they turned to the South London Child Development Study, which prospectively followed 120 pregnant women and their children into the teenage years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All families came from a relatively disadvantaged urban area. These families were more likely to belong to the working class and to be from ethnic minority groups than the general U.K. population.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One-third of the children had been arrested or diagnosed with a conduct disorder by age 16. Of these 88.9% had been arrested and 45% had committed violent acts, including theft from a person, violent disorder, fighting, carrying a weapon, and assault.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The association between maternal depression during pregnancy and risk of antisocial behavior remained relatively constant in analyses controlling for family environment, a child&apos;s exposure to maternal depression after birth, mothers&apos; substance use during pregnancy, and parental antisocial behavior.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;None of the factors fully explained the relationship. Neither did the arrest history of the biological father.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, the researchers wrote in the paper, &quot;it would be unwise to conclude that paternal risk factors are unimportant, given that we did not have more detailed information about the father&apos;s own history of conduct disorders.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They explored several potential mechanisms for the link between maternal depression and a child&apos;s behavior problems: &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Direct effects on the fetus from biological correlates of the mothers&apos; depressive symptoms&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Depression in pregnancy as a sign of environmental adversity&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Re-exposure to maternal depression after birth&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Indirect effects of depression on the developing fetus driven by mothers&apos; smoking, drinking, and drug taking during pregnancy &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;A genetic explanation whereby women who experience depression in pregnancy may also have a greater genetic risk for antisocial behavior, which they pass on to their offspring &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hay and her colleagues noted that these explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They also acknowledged some limitations of the study, including the lack of information about fetal growth and neuroendocrine measures on the mother and child and the relatively small sample size.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The SLCDS has been funded by U.K. project grants from the Medical Research Council, by the Psychiatric Research Trust, and by the South West G.P. Trust. The current analysis was partially supported by an Economic and Social Research Council studentship to one of Hay&apos;s co-authors and by a Medical Research Council U.K. Program Grant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The authors did not report any conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_393"
                     title="SMFM: Gene Variants Linked to Preterm Labor (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.011"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/SMFM/tb/18295?impressionId=1265792540046"
                     
      Genetic variants involved in regulating inflammation and the extracellular matrix may increase the risk of preterm birth, researchers say.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in fetal interleukin-6 (&lt;em&gt;ILR6&lt;/em&gt;) and another in maternal tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 (&lt;em&gt;TIMP2&lt;/em&gt;) were each associated with a twofold increased risk of spontaneous preterm birth.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Roberto Romero, MD, of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and colleagues reported the findings at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine meeting in Chicago.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The genetic makeup of both mother and fetus can contribute to the risk of premature labor,&quot; Romero told &lt;em&gt;MedPage Today&lt;/em&gt;. &quot;Our discovery . . . helps explain why some mothers have premature labor and delivery despite having optimal prenatal care.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Inflammatory hormones have been shown to play a role in the labor process, and previous studies have found that a third of preterm infants are born to mothers with a silent amniotic infection.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now, the findings suggest that individual genetic variation involved in that inflammatory response may account for discrepancies in preterm births.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;We have a large body of evidence that proves silent infections are a frequent and important cause of premature labor,&quot; Romero said. &quot;These infections can also attack the fetus before it is born.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He explained that the mother&apos;s hormones initiate the onset of labor to get rid of the infected tissue, and the fetus seeks to exit a hostile intrauterine environment that threatens its survival.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To look at the mechanisms by which this process occurs, Romero and colleagues conducted a case-control study of mothers in Chile to assess genetic factors that could predispose women to spontaneous preterm labor and delivery.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Patients who delivered prior to 37 weeks gestation served as cases, while women who delivered a normal neonate at term served as controls. There were 223 mothers and 179 fetuses in the case group, and 599 mothers and 628 fetuses in the control group.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers subsequently examined 190 candidate genes and 775 SNPs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They found that the strongest fetal single-locus association with risk of spontaneous preterm birth was in &lt;em&gt;ILR6&lt;/em&gt;, (OR 2.07, 95% CI 1.42 to 3.02,&lt;em&gt; P&lt;/em&gt;=0.0001).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The strongest maternal single-locus association with spontaneous preterm labor and delivery was in tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase &lt;em&gt;TIMP2&lt;/em&gt; (OR 1.98, 95% CI 1.38 to 2.83, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.0002). This gene is involved in regulating the extracellular matrix, which holds cells within tissues.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The associations remained significant after controlling for multiple comparisons, Romero said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Global haplotype analysis also indicated an association between a fetal DNA variant in insulin-like growth factor 2 (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.004) as well as maternal alpha 3 type IV collagen isoform 1 (&lt;em&gt;COL4A3&lt;/em&gt;) (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.007).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Some women and fetuses carry gene variants that predispose them to the early onset of labor,&quot; Romero said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The researchers reported no conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_366"
                     title="Placental Infection Could Spur Asthma (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.009"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/Asthma/tb/18252?impressionId=1265792540046"
                     
      Preterm birth complicated by chorioamnionitis may modestly increase a child&apos;s risk of later asthma, researchers found.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Children born preterm after a pregnancy complicated by the bacterial infection of placenta and amniotic fluid (chorioamnionitis) were significantly more likely to develop asthma by age eight than preemies without such exposure, according to Darios Getahun, MD, MPH, of Kaiser Permanente Department of Research and Evaluation in Pasadena.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Asthma diagnosis was nearly threefold more common among chorioamnionitis-exposed children who had been born preterm than those carried to term, they wrote in the February &lt;em&gt;Archives of Pediatrics &amp;amp; Adolescent Medicine&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Premature birth may not give an infant&apos;s lungs a chance to fully develop, leading to early infection and inflammation that elevate risk of chronic lung disease, such as asthma.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, in utero exposures could be an important contributor as well, Getahun explained in an interview.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Chorioamnionitis is thought to be associated with more than half of all preterm births.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Fetal lungs stay in contact with the amniotic fluid which, when infected, may expose the developing lung to microorganisms, toxic substances, and inflammatory mediators, the researchers wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Animal model evidence suggests the condition may lead to scarring and fibrosis in the lung and damage to other fetal organs &quot;during a very critical time at preterm gestation,&quot; Getahun told &lt;em&gt;MedPage Today&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So, his group retrospectively studied Kaiser&apos;s matched perinatal records on 510,216 singleton children born at the managed care group&apos;s hospitals in Southern California between 1991 and 2007.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Physician-diagnosed asthma incidence by age 8 years, as expected, was significantly higher overall for preemies born at 23 to 36 weeks&apos; gestation than for those carried full-term (60.2 versus 40.0 per 1,000 person-years).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But chorioamnionitis diagnosed during pregnancy substantially boosted this risk.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Incidence of asthma rose to 100.7 per 1,000 person-years in exposed children born preterm, versus 39.6 per 1,000 among exposed, full-term children (IR 2.9, 95% CI 2.6 to 3.3).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This association between chorioamnionitis and asthma in preemies persisted (HR 1.68, 95% CI 1.52 to 1.87) after adjustment for important confounding variables, including maternal age, race or ethnicity, smoking during pregnancy, prenatal care, and maternal asthma.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although the asthma risk appeared to rise with greater prematurity in exposed children, the elevated risk associated with chorioamnionitis exposure in utero was seen in every category of prematurity: &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt; 1.23 times higher risk in children born at 23 to 28 weeks (95% CI 1.02 to 1.49)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; 1.51 times higher risk in children born at 28 to 33 weeks (95% CI 1.26 to 1.80)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; 1.20 times higher risk in children born at 34 to 36 weeks (95% CI 1.03 to 1.47)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Additional adjustment for bronchopulmonary dysplasia  --  &quot;one of the mechanisms through which preterm birth is presumably associated with respiratory problems in early childhood&quot;  --  had little impact on the findings.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thus, the bacterial infection appeared to be an independent risk factor for asthma in prematurely born children, the researchers concluded.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The risks were particularly high for children born to African-American women who developed chorioamnionitis, suggesting this may be an at-risk group to single out for attention clinically, they suggested.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Getahun cautioned, though, that his group&apos;s study could not prove causality. The researchers also noted that the study was limited by lack of data on parental atopy and smoking.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was supported by Kaiser Permanente Direct Community Benefit funds. The researchers reported no conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_328"
                     title="Novel Contraceptive Matches Plan B (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.006"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Pregnancy/tb/18201?impressionId=1265792540046"
                     
      A novel emergency contraceptive is as effective as levonorgestrel when taken within three days of unprotected intercourse, researchers said.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;And ulipristal acetate was significantly more effective than the older drug when taken between 72 and 120 hours after intercourse, according to Anna Glasier, DSc, MD, of National Health Service Lothian in Edinburgh, and colleagues.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;The finding, from a large randomized single-blind study, establishes ulipristal as an effective alternative to levonorgestrel, which is available in more than 140 countries, Glasier and colleagues said online in &lt;em&gt;The Lancet&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The study is the second in recent days to report that ulipristal is effective up to 120 hours after unprotected sex, about two days longer than levonorgestrel is expected to work. (See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Pregnancy/18091&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Pregnancy/18091&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Novel &apos;Morning-After&apos; Pill Works for Five Days&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ulipristal is made by HRA Pharma of Paris, which supported the study. Ulipristal has been given marketing authorization in Europe (under the brand name ellaOne) but is not yet approved in the U.S. Levonorgestrel is marketed here as Plan B One-Step.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The study enrolled 2,221 women who came to one of 35 participating family planning clinics, requesting emergency contraception within five days after unprotected intercourse.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The primary endpoint was the pregnancy rate in women who received emergency contraception within the first 72 hours.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Analysis excluded women lost to follow-up, those over 35, women with unknown follow-up pregnancy status, and those who had re-enrolled in the study  --  leaving a total of 1,696 participants in the so-called efficacy-evaluable population.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In that group, the researchers found, there were 37 pregnancies  --  15 among those getting 30 milligrams of ulipristal and 22 among those given 1.5 milligrams of levonorgestrel.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The proportions  --  1.8% for ulipristal versus 2.6% for levonorgestrel  --  differed by 0.8 percentage points, less than the preset noninferiority margin of a one percentage-point difference between the groups, Glasier and colleagues said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Outside the primary efficacy-evaluable population, there were 203 women who were treated between 72 and 120 hours after unprotected intercourse.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Among those women, there were three pregnancies, all in the levonorgestrel group. The difference was significant at &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.037.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Adverse events were reported by 54% of women in the ulipristal group and 56% in the levonorgestrel group, with headache, dysmenorrhea, and nausea being most common, but not significantly different, between the groups.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Two serious events were thought to be possibly related to medication  --  a case of dizziness in the ulipristal group that cleared up within a day, and a molar pregnancy in the levonorgestrel group.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers also conducted a meta-analysis, combining the groups in this study with those from a previous head-to-head test of the two drugs to get a combined dataset of 3,445 women, in which there were 60 pregnancies.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The analysis showed ulipristal prevented more pregnancies at all time points than the older drug. Specifically: &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;For the first 24 hours, the odds ratio was 0.35 in favor of ulipristal, (95% CI 0.11 to 0.93,&lt;em&gt; P&lt;/em&gt;=0.035).&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;For the first 72 hours, the odds ratio was 0.58 (95% CI 0.33 to 0.99, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.046).&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;And for the first 120 hours, the odds ratio was 0.55 (95% CI 0.32 to 0.93, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.025).&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers cautioned that the findings might not generalize to all groups of women. The study took place, they noted, in settings where emergency contraception is available without prescription.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Also, women on hormonal contraception were excluded from the study, but emergency contraception is often used to treat women who have missed oral contraceptive pills, they noted.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was supported by HRA Pharma, which was involved in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, and writing of the report. Glasier reported lecture honoraria from HRA Pharma. Several authors are employees of the company.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_319"
                     title="Internal Monitoring During Induced Labor of Little Help (CME/CE)"
                     score="0.005"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Pregnancy/tb/18186?impressionId=1265792540046"
                     
      &lt;p&gt;Internally monitoring the progress of induced labor may not improve outcomes for mother or baby, Dutch researchers found.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Internal tocodynamometry did not reduce the rate of operative delivery compared with external monitoring (31.3% versus 29.6%, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.50) in a study led by Jannet J.H. Bakker, MSc, of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nor did it significantly reduce risk of adverse neonatal outcomes, Bakker&apos;s group reported in the Jan. 28 &lt;em&gt;New England Journal of Medicine&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Some obstetrical professional associations recommend routine internal monitoring to assess contractions accurately. Others, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, suggest it only in special circumstances, such as when induction response is limited, or if the mother is obese.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Researchers had hoped that internal monitoring might improve doctors&apos; ability to effectively dose labor-inducing oxytocin, leading to less distress for babies and fewer operative deliveries, the investigators noted.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Given the limited power of the only three prior studies comparing monitoring methods, the researchers undertook a randomized, controlled trial in six hospitals in the Netherlands.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overall, 1,456 women who agreed to participate in the study and required intravenous oxytocin for induction or augmentation of labor were randomized to &quot;open-label&quot; internal tocodynamometry with a sensor-tipped intrauterine catheter system (Koala) or monitoring with an external tocodynamometer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Crossover to internal monitoring was allowed if women had no cervical progression for two hours, if uterine contractions were insufficient, or if doctors were considering cesarean section.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For the primary endpoint by intention-to-treat, women were no less likely to have cesarean or instrumented vaginal delivery with internal monitoring (RR 1.1 versus external monitoring, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.2).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For cesarean section alone, the confidence interval ranged from a 17% risk reduction to a 30% increase with internal tocodynamometry. Researchers said this would fit in with the prior small trials  --  all of which showed a nonsignificant increase in cesarean delivery.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nor were there significant benefits seen with internal monitoring for any secondary outcome. These included: &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;A composite of adverse neonatal outcomes  --  defined as an Apgar score at five minutes of less than 7, umbilical-artery pH of less than 7.05, or neonatal hospital stay longer than 48 hours (RR 0.95, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.70) &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Use of antibiotics during labor (RR 0.81, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.10) &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Use of analgesia (RR 1.0, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.75) &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Time from randomization to delivery (313 minutes versus 358 for induced labor, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.93) and (299 minutes versus 386 for augmented labor, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.94) &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The findings remained similar between groups when outcomes were considered according to actual treatment.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Notably, some of the patient subgroups specifically recommended for internal uterine activity monitoring  --  such as those with high body mass index  --  showed no benefit, either.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There were no treatment interactions by type of labor, parity, or body mass index.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers recommended cautious interpretation of these post hoc results, with limited power.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, while there were no reported complications associated with the monitoring and no deaths occurred in either group, Bakker and colleagues noted that the study was not powered to detect some risks. These included placental or fetal-vessel damage, infection, and anaphylactic reaction, which in prior studies have an incidence of 1 in 300 to 1 in 1,400.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The researchers reported no conflicts of interest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
</recommendedContent>