November 13, 2009, 8:16 AM CT

Exercising up to the end of pregnancy

Contrary to more conservative customs, exercising up to the end of pregnancy has no harmful effect on the weight or size of the foetus. This is what has been indicated in a study carried out by scientists of the Universidad Politcnica de Madrid (Polytechnic University of Madrid), which also shows the positive relationship between the weight of sedentary mothers before pregnancy and the body size of their babies. The conclusions appear in the International Journal of Obesity

"Partaking in low-level physical activity has beneficial effects on materno-foetal health". These findings have recently been reported in the International Journal of Obesity and highlight the benefits for the health of the baby and the mother when a physically-active lifestyle is maintained throughout pregnancy.

"An exercise regime carried out during the second and third trimester of pregnancy does not harm the health of the foetus", Jonatan R. Ruiz, researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, and principal author of this study, who has coordinated a team from the Polytechnic University of Madrid in collaboration with the Swedish centre, explains to SINC.

160 healthy women between the ages of 25 and 35 participated in the study, all of whom had sedentary habits and no risk of premature birth. Of this group of women, half followed an exercise regime under the supervision of experts in Physical Activity and Sports Science in collaboration with the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Unit of Hospital Severo Ochoa in Madrid......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

November 11, 2009, 8:18 AM CT

Healthy Babies by the Numbers

When a fetus is smaller than expected for the number of weeks of pregnancy, due to associated problems like a poorly developed heart, health concerns as severe as brain damage can result.

The condition, known as Intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR), prompts doctors to use ultrasound to track a baby's health and determine the best time for delivery. But these measurements are often incomplete, and obstetricians have had to rely on educated guesses about the strength of a fetus's circulatory system.

Now, thanks to new research from Tel Aviv University, IUGR babies will have a better chance for a healthy life.

Prof. Ofer Barnea of TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering, in collaboration with Prof. Jacob Bar from the Wolfson Medical Center, couples mathematical models with information about a baby's physiology inside the womb. Combining ultrasound with powerful algorithms based on real-life data, pediatricians get critical data on the development of the fetal circulatory system, so they can determine when the baby is strong enough to survive on its own.

"Babies with IUGR experience stress and growth restrictions inside the womb," says Prof. Barnea. "Doctors need to assess their growth, but currently have to rely on partial data from ultrasound systems. If they leave the baby inside too long, she may suffer from brain damage. Conversely, we need to be sure her heart is strong enough to survive outside the womb"......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

November 5, 2009, 8:22 AM CT

Women with asthma may benefit from oral contraceptives

New research shows that during natural menstrual cycles, women with asthma who were not taking oral contraceptives (OC) had lower exhaled nitric oxide levels (eNO), a marker of airway inflammation linked to asthma, than women who were taking OC.

Scientists from McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, Canada, studied 17 women with asthma during their menstrual cycles. Results showed that individuals not using oral contraceptives (OC) had higher mean eNO levels than women using OC.

Furthermore, among women not using oral contraceptives, an increase in estrogen levels was linked to a decrease in eNO, while an increase in progesterone was significantly linked to an increase in eNO. Scientists speculate that OC may have a potential role in the management of premenopausal women with asthma......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

November 2, 2009, 11:35 PM CT

Flu vaccine to women during pregnancy

Infants born to women who received influenza vaccine during pregnancy were hospitalized at a lower rate than infants born to unvaccinated mothers, as per preliminary results of a research study that's ongoing by scientists at Yale School of Medicine. The team presented the study October 29 at the 47th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in Philadelphia.

Influenza is a major cause of serious respiratory disease in pregnant women and of hospitalization in infants. Eventhough the flu vaccine is recommended for all pregnant women and children, no vaccine is approved for infants less than six months of age. Preventive strategies for this age group include general infection control and vaccination of those coming in close contact with them. Few studies have examined the effectiveness of the flu vaccine during pregnancy.

Led by Marietta Vzquez, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, this newly released study is a case-control trial of the effectiveness of vaccinating pregnant women to prevent hospitalization of their infants. During nine flu seasons from 2000 to 2009, Vzquez and his colleagues identified and tracked over 350 mothers and infants from 0 to 12 months of age who were hospitalized at Yale-New Haven Hospital. They compared 157 infants hospitalized due to influenza to 230 influenza-negative infants matched by age and date of hospitalization. The team interviewed parents to determine risk factors for influenza and evaluated medical records of both infants and their mothers to determine rates of vaccination with the influenza vaccine......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 29, 2009, 10:04 PM CT

Pregnant women using psychiatric medications

The odds triple for premature child delivery pregnant women with a history of depression who used psychiatric medication, as per a newly released study.

Scientists at the University of Washington, University of Michigan and Michigan State University observed that a combination of medicine use and depression either before or during pregnancy was strongly associated with delivery before 35 weeks' gestation.

Amelia Gavin, main author and UW assistant professor of social work, said the findings highlight the need for carefully planned studies that can clarify associations between depression, psychiatric medications and preterm delivery.

"Women with depression face difficult decisions regarding the benefits and risks of using psychotropic medications in pregnancy," Gavin said. "Therefore, a focus on disentangling medicine effects and depression effects on mother and offspring health should be a major clinical priority".

"Medication use appears to be an indicator of depressive symptom severity, which is a direct or indirect contributing factor to pre-term delivery," added Kristine Siefert, co-author and a Michigan professor of social work.

Most physicians initiated preterm deliveries after the women suffered complications, such as pre-eclampsia, poor fetal growth or acute hemorrhage......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 29, 2009, 7:21 AM CT

Hormone replacement therapy decreases mortality in some women

Hormone replacement treatment (HRT) to treat menopausal estrogen deficiency has been in widespread use for over 60 years. Several findings based on observation over the years showed that HRT use by younger postmenopausal women was linked to a significant reduction in total mortality; available evidence supported the routine use of HRT to increase longevity in postmenopausal women. However, the 2002 publication of a major study, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), indicated increased risk for certain outcomes in older women, without increasing mortality. This sparked debate regarding potential benefits or harm of HRT. In an article reported in the November 2009 issue of The American Journal of Medicine, scientists conducted a meta-analysis of the available data using Bayesian methods and concluded that HRT almost certainly decreases mortality in younger postmenopausal women.

Bayesian analysis uses previous data, updated with new information, to make statistical inferences. The authors pooled results from 19 randomized trials that included age-specific data from the WHI, with 16,000 younger postmenopausal women (mean age 55 years) followed for 83,000 patient-years, and showed a mortality relative risk of 0.73. When data from 8 findings based on observation were added to the analysis, the resultant relative risk was 0.72. Using Bayesian analysis to synthesize the available data, the probability of a mortality benefit in this population was 1.0. This means that the probability of the hypothesis that hormone treatment reduces total mortality in younger women is essentially 1......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 28, 2009, 6:31 AM CT

Vegetables can protect unborn child against diabetes

New evidence is emerging for how important it is for pregnant women to eat good, nutritious food. Expecting mothers who eat vegetables every day seem to have children who are less likely to develop type 1 diabetes, a newly released study from the Sahlgrenska Academy has revealed.

The study waccording toformed in collaboration with Linkoping University, which is conducting a population study called ABIS (All Babies in Southeast Sweden). The results have been reported in the journal Pediatric Diabetes.

"This is the first study to show a link between vegetable intake during pregnancy and the risk of the child subsequently developing type 1 diabetes, but more studies of various kinds will be needed before we can say anything definitive," says researcher and clinical nutritionist Hilde Brekke from the Sahlgrenska Academy.

Blood samples from almost 6,000 five year-olds were analysed in the study. In type 1 diabetes, certain cells in the pancreas gradually get worse at producing insulin, leading to insulin deficiency. Children at risk of developing type 1 diabetes have antibodies in their blood which attack these insulin-producing cells.

Of the 6,000 children tested, three per cent had either elevated levels of these antibodies or fully developed type 1 diabetes at the age of five. These risk markers were up to twice as common in children whose mothers rarely ate vegetables during pregnancy. The risk was lowest among children whose mothers stated that they ate vegetables every day......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

October 1, 2009, 6:48 AM CT

Smoking during pregnancy is risky

Mothers who smoke during pregnancy put their children at greater risk of developing psychotic symptoms in their teenage years.

New research reported in the recent issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry shows a link between maternal tobacco use and psychotic symptoms.

Scientists from Cardiff, Bristol, Nottingham and Warwick Universities studied 6,356 12-year-olds from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. All the children completed an interview for psychotic-like symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions. Just over 11% of the children (734) had suspected or definite symptoms of psychosis.

Smoking during pregnancy was found to be linked to an increased risk of psychotic symptoms in the children. The scientists observed a 'dose-response effect', meaning that the risk of psychotic symptoms was highest in the children whose mothers smoked the most heavily during pregnancy.

The study also examined whether alcohol use and cannabis use during pregnancy was linked to a higher risk of psychotic symptoms.

Drinking during pregnancy was linked to increased psychotic symptoms, but only in the children of mothers who had drunk more than 21 units of alcohol a week in early pregnancy. Only a few mothers in the study said they had smoked cannabis during pregnancy, and this was not found to have any significant association with psychotic symptoms......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 24, 2009, 7:14 AM CT

Pregnant women need flu shots

Pregnant women should be sure to get all their flu shots as soon as the vaccines become available this year to protect them against both the seasonal flu and the H1N1 (swine) flu, as per eight leading national maternal and infant health organizations.

The eight organizations the March of Dimes, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Nurse-Midwives, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses, the Infectious Disease Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine today partnered to issue a joint statement because the H1N1 virus has proven to be particularly dangerous to pregnant women.

"The normal changes of pregnancy make pregnant women at increased risk of the harmful effects of flu infection," the groups say.

Some pregnant women appears to be reluctant to take these shots. But Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president of the March of Dimes, says, "We urge every pregnant woman to discuss influenza immunization with her health care provider because the risk of serious illness during pregnancy is substantial. It is important to note that the vaccine has been shown to be safe and effective in clinical trials"......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 23, 2009, 7:15 AM CT

Childbearing Increases Chance of Developing the Metabolic Syndrome

Childbearing is associated directly with future development of the metabolic syndrome - abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, insulin resistance and other cardiovascular disease risk factors - and for women who have had gestational diabetes, the risk is more than twice greater, as per a co-author of studyed by University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) scientists reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

UAB Professor of Preventive Medicine Cora E. Lewis, M.D., M.S.P.H., and his colleagues used data collected in the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) study to determine the connection between a higher occurence rate of the metabolic syndrome among women ages 18-30 at the start of the study who bore at least one child during the 20-year period following.

"Pregnancy can have lasting, adverse physiological effects and may result in behavioral changes," Lewis said. "Some prior studies have shown an association between childbearing and the metabolic syndrome, and some have shown that a history of gestational diabetes is a strong predictor of Type 2 diabetes.

"However, these studies lacked the preconception measurements to establish a baseline with which to measure the changes brought on by pregnancy," she said. "A number of have not had control groups of women who had not had pregnancies, and thus they have rarely provided conclusive evidence linking pregnancy-related risk factor changes to disease onset. CARDIA began following participants ages 18-30 years in 1985-1986 and continues today, and we had the necessary information to track women both before and after pregnancy and to compare women with pregnancies to those without"......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

September 20, 2009, 6:56 PM CT

Key factor in regulating placenta and fetal growth

Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have shown that a common biological protein molecule called SHP-2 is crucial for encouraging placenta growth. The research is published recently in Endocrinology

Dr Melissa Westwood, one of the team at the University of Manchester said: "For fetuses to grow well in the womb they need to get nutrients and oxygen from their mother. These come via the placenta and so as the fetus grows and its demand on mum increases, the placenta also must increase in size. If the placenta doesn't grow properly, the fetus is unable to receive all it needs from the mother and its growth is restricted. This can impact seriously on the health of the newborn. Furthermore we have learned recently that it dramatically increases the risk of ill health in adult life".

The scientists have investigated a group of proteins called the insulin-like growth factors (IGF). They have discovered that SHP-2, a molecule within placental cells, is a crucial mediator of the effects of IGFs in stimulating the placenta to grow.

Dr Westwood continued: "We know that placentas need an array of factors to support their growth, but until now we didn't realise that SHP-2 was so important for ensuring that these factors do their job......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

August 20, 2009, 6:40 AM CT

Women with abnormal paps

Less than half of Ontario women with abnormal Pap tests receive recommended and potentially life-saving follow-up care, as per a new women's health study by scientists at St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). What's more, low-income women are less likely to be screened for cancer in comparison to their high-income counterparts.

"Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable forms of cancer, yet in Ontario more than one million women have not been screened, and a disproportionate number of these are women living in lower-income communities," says Dr. Arlene Bierman, a doctor at St. Michael's Hospital and principal investigator of the Project for an Ontario Women's Health Evidence-Based Report (POWER). "We need to make special efforts to reach women who are screened, but do not receive the necessary follow-up and may eventually fall through the cracks. To improve surveillance and therapy, we need a system that ensures all abnormal Pap tests are followed-up so that Ontario women can receive the best care possible," added Dr. Bierman, a researcher at ICES.

The joint study titled POWER (the Project for an Ontario Women's Health Evidence-Based Report), from St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), is the first in the province to provide a comprehensive overview of women's health in relation to gender, income, education, ethnicity and geography. The findings are detailed in the report titled Cancer the second to be released this year as part of the study. Findings can be used by policymakers and health-care providers to improve access, quality and outcomes of care for Ontario women. Dr. Monika Krzyzanowska, a medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Hospital/University Health Network is the main author on the cancer chapter. The POWER Study is funded by Echo: Improving Women's Health in Ontario, an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

August 2, 2009, 11:00 PM CT

Gas gauge to prevent pregnancy loss

New Haven, Conn. To combat the a number of fetal deaths that occur annually because the placenta is too small, scientists at Yale School of Medicine have developed a method to measure the volume of the placenta, which provides nourishment to the fetus.

Limits in current technology keep doctors from being able to monitor the growth of the placenta, which, like the gas tank of a car, is the source of fuel for the fetus. The placenta can be so small that the fetus literally runs out of food and oxygen and dies, as per main author Harvey J. Kliman, M.D., a research scientist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. He and colleagues published the results of their findings in the August 3 issue of the American Journal of Perinatology

Fetal death, or intrauterine fetal demise (IUFD), affects 30,000 women each year in the United States. Until now, there has been no easy way to determine how much gas is left in the placentas tank.

Kliman decided to study this issue after noting that a number of late-term pregnancy losses were linked to very small placentas. He theorized that in much the same way that an obstetrician uses ultrasounds to follow the growth of the fetus, or a pediatrician weighs and measures children to ensure they are growing normally, the growth of the fetus placenta could be monitored......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 31, 2009, 0:21 AM CT

Summer heat increases risk of amniotic fluid level deficiency

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL -- July 30, 2009 Pregnant women have a higher occurence rate of insufficient amniotic fluid levels (oligohydramnios) in the summer months due to dehydration, as per a research studyconducted by scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).

The retrospective population-based study was reported in the recent issue of Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics The main objective of the study was to determine whether the summer season is a risk factor for oligohydramnios, by comparing the frequency of amniotic fluid loss during the summer months versus its frequency during the rest of the year.

In the study at Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel, the scientists reviewed pregnancies of patients with oligohydramnios that delivered from May to August during the years 1988-2007.

After excluding other causes of fluid loss, such as premature rupture of membranes, intra-uterine growth restriction or malformations, the study determined that higher rates of oligohydramnios were found in the summer months as in comparison to the rest of the year.

During the study period, there were 191,558 deliveries of which 4,335 were diagnosed with idiopathic oligohydramnios. Of these, a proportionally higher number, 1,553 deliveries (36 percent), occurred during these four summer months, while 2,782 deliveries occurred during the other eight months of the year (64 percent)......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 29, 2009, 11:12 PM CT

Mothers need infant feeding information

A systematic literature review of mothers' experiences with bottle-feeding observed that while mothers recognize the benefits of breastfeeding, those who bottle-feed with infant formula do not receive adequate information and support from their healthcare providers and thus, ultimately put their baby's health at risk. "While it is important to promote breastfeeding," the authors conclude, "it is also necessary to ensure that the needs of bottle-feeding mothers are not overlooked".

To help meet this need, the International Formula Council* (IFC) provides helpful online resources, including video and print information that review the basics of safe infant formula preparation (available through the www.infantformula.org website). "One of our goals as an association is to help parents make informed infant feeding choices. Infant formula manufacturers have long provided their own brand-specific information on infant formula labels and websites. Our online tools build on these resources and offer parents practical tips that help them prepare and store infant formula appropriately," said Mardi Mountford, IFC Executive Vice President.

The literature review the first of its kind appears in the July 2009 Archives of Disease in Childhood, a publication of the peer-evaluated British Medical Journal, and was conducted by scientists at the University of Cambridge. A major finding of the review, which examined 23 studies (seven from the United States, 14 from the United Kingdom, one from New Zealand, and one from Australia) with over 13,000 participants, was that mothers who did not receive bottle-feeding information from their healthcare providers often turned to family and friends for guidance a trend which can perpetuate errors in infant formula preparation and handling......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 27, 2009, 10:48 PM CT

Anesthesia not harmful for babies during birth process

Mayo Clinic scientists have observed that children exposed to anesthesia during Cesarean section are not at any higher risk for learning disabilities during the later part of life than children not delivered by C-section. These findings are published in the current issue of the journal Anesthesiology

"We observed that the occurence rate of learning disabilities was equal between children who were delivered vaginally and those who were delivered via C-section but with general anesthesia," says Juraj Sprung, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist who led the study. "It's reassuring that the anesthetics mandatory for Cesarean delivery do not appear to cause long-term brain problems".

The study was conducted with data from the Rochester Epidemiology Project. Scientists analyzed the medical records of 5,320 children born between 1976 and 1982 to mothers living in Olmsted County. They compared birth records with scholastic achievement and IQ tests administered to the children during the later part of life as part of their schooling.

The study builds on a prior project, reported in March, which observed that children exposed to a single dose of anesthesia during the first three years of life had no increased risk for learning disabilities, but those exposed multiple times had an almost doubled risk for later identification of learning disabilities......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

July 21, 2009, 11:18 PM CT

Weight guidelines for women pregnant with twins

Healthy, normal-weight women pregnant with twins should gain between 37 and 54 pounds, as per research from a Michigan State University professor who helped shape the recently released national guidelines on gestational weight gain.

Barbara Luke, a professor in the College of Human Medicine's Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology and Department of Epidemiology, helped create the guidelines for the Institute of Medicine. Her research also found overweight women should gain between 31 and 50 pounds, while obese women should gain 25 to 42 pounds.

The parameters are based on a woman's prepregnancy body mass index.

"This amount and pattern of weight gain has been shown to be linked to the best growth before birth and the healthiest mothers throughout pregnancy," Luke said. "By setting weight gain goals based on a woman's prepregnancy BMI, it will be possible to maintain a trajectory of fetal growth for twins that results in more optimal birth weight with lower neonatal morbidity.

"With twin pregnancies continuing to rise every year, these new guidelines will be very beneficial".

The guidelines are important, Luke said, because while only 3 percent of live births involve twins, they do make up a disproportionate number of premature, low-birth-weight and growth-retarded births. Twins are seven times more likely to die before their first birthday......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

June 11, 2009, 5:11 AM CT

Depressed mood may lead to premature birth

Scientists trying to uncover why premature birth is a growing problem in the United States and one that disproportionately affects black women have observed that pre-pregnancy depressive mood may be a risk factor in preterm birth among both blacks and whites.

Black women, however, have nearly two times the odds of having a preterm birth in comparison to white women, as per Amelia Gavin, a University of Washington assistant professor of social work and main author of a newly released study that appears online in the recent issue of the Journal of Women's Health.

"Preterm births are one of the most significant health disparities in the United States and the overall number of these births increased from 10.6 percent in 2000 to 12.8 percent in 2005," she said.

While there may be some sort of link between giving birth prematurely and depressed mood, the study found no cause and effect, said Gavin, who studies health disparities. She believes the higher preterm birth rate among blacks appears to be the result of declining health over time among black women.

For this study, premature birth referred to any child born after less than 37 weeks of gestation. Normal gestation ranges from 38 to 42 weeks. Data for the study was drawn from a larger longitudinal investigation looking at the risks for cardiovascular disease among more than 5,000 young adults in four metropolitan areas. The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study also collected information about mental health and pregnancy outcomes. Between 1990 and 1996, 555 women in the larger study gave birth. These women were the subjects in the depression-premature birth study......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

June 11, 2009, 5:03 AM CT

Snoring pregnant women

If you are pregnant and your mate complains your frequent snoring is rattling the bedroom windows, you may have bigger problems than an annoyed, sleep-deprived partner.

A newly released study from scientists at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has observed that women who reported frequent snoring during their pregnancy were more likely to develop gestational diabetes -- a condition than can cause health problems for the mother and baby. The study also found pregnancy increases the likelihood that a woman will snore.

This is the first study to report a link between snoring and gestational diabetes.

For the study, 189 healthy women completed a sleep survey at the time of enrollment (six to 20 weeks gestation) and in the third trimester.

Pregnant women who were frequent snorers had a 14.3 percent chance of developing gestational diabetes, while women who did not snore had a 3.3 percent chance. Even when scientists controlled for other factors that could contribute to gestational diabetes such as body mass index, age, race and ethnicity, frequent snoring was still.

linked to the disease.

Principal investigator Francesca Facco, M.D., a fellow at Northwestern's Feinberg School, will present her findings at the SLEEP 2009 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies June 11......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

May 20, 2009, 6:54 PM CT

Risk of Gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes happens in more than three per cent of pregnancies in Ontario. Commonly the condition resolves itself after delivery, but a number of studies have shown that these women are at a very high risk for developing "regular" type 2 diabetes during the later part of life. New research out of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) has observed that even women with mild abnormalities in their blood sugar during pregnancy, previously thought not to have any clinical significance, are 2.5 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes in comparison to those who had completely normal glucose testing.

• To test for gestational diabetes, women receive a glucose challenge test (GCT) in the late second trimester of pregnancy. If the result of this test is abnormal, they go on to have a diagnostic test, called the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). If this test does not show gestational diabetes, women are reassured their glucose levels are normal and that no further testing is needed.
• However, recent studies have suggested that women who have even mild abnormalities on either the GCT or the OGTT do actually have subtle differences in their metabolism after pregnancy.
• The study examined 15,000 pregnant women aged 20-49 in Ontario who had a mild abnormality on their GCT but did not ultimately get diagnosed with gestational diabetes. They were in comparison to about 60,000 pregnant women who did not have abnormalities on their GCT. The women were followed for 6.4 years after delivery, and those who had had an abnormal GCT were 2.5 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes in comparison to those who had not had an abnormal GCT.

........ Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

May 20, 2009, 5:22 AM CT

Post menopausal hormone replacement and breast cancer

The risk of developing breast cancer due to taking hormone replacement treatment may be the same for women with a family history of the disease and without a family history, a University of Rochester Medical Center study concluded.

The study, published online this week in the journal Epidemiology, adds to the evolving picture of what factors, either alone or in combination, boost breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women. It also refutes the notion, held by a number of in the medical community, that a familial predisposition to breast cancer enhances the carcinogenic effects of estrogen.

"Eventhough we know that family history is a risk factor, we don't know yet what it is about family history that conveys the risk," said Robert E. Gramling, M.D., D.Sc., assistant professor of Family Medicine and of Community and Preventive Medicine at URMC. "Some have proposed that it might be an increased sensitivity to estrogen, but our data did not support that notion. In fact, this study suggests the causal pathway based on family history is probably not estrogen sensitivity".

Scientists analyzed data from the Women's Health Initiative randomized trial, which followed 16,608 postmenopausal women, ages 50 to 79, who took hormone replacement treatment (HRT) or a placebo pill between 1993 and 2002. Among the participants, 349 cases of invasive breast cancer occurred during a mean follow-up period of 5.6 years......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

May 18, 2009, 5:30 AM CT

Genetic links to age of first menstrual period and menopause

Newly identified gene variants linked to the age at which females experience their first menstrual period and the onset of menopause may help shed light on the prevention of breast and endometrial cancer, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease.

In a newly released study, scientists from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT report that they have identified 10 genetic variants in two chromosomal regions linked to age at menarche (the first menstrual period), and 13 genetic variants in four chromosomal regions linked to age at natural menopause. The paper, "Genome-wide association studies identify loci linked to age at menarche and at natural menopause," will publish online in Nature Genetics on May 17, 2009 ( http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/index.html ).

Menarche and natural menopause are two important physiological events in a woman's life. An early onset of menarche and later menopause are well-established risk factors for the development of breast cancer and endometrial cancer, the scientists explain. Conversely, early menopause increases risk of osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.

Prior studies have suggested both menarche and menopause appears to be partially under genetic control. To identify common genetic variants influencing these states, the scientists analyzed more than 317,000 gene variants in a total of 17,438 women from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and the Women's Genome Health Study (WGHS) based at BWH......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

May 15, 2009, 5:29 AM CT

Quitting smoking during pregnancy?

Scientists from the Peninsula Medical School and the University of Bristol, using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children and the Exeter Family Study of Childhood Health, have identified a common genetic variant that explains why some women may find it more difficult to quit smoking during pregnancy.

Their paper, "A common genetic variant in 15q24 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor gene cluster (CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4) is linked to a reduced ability of women to quit smoking in pregnancy", is published in Human Molecular Genetics

Maternal smoking during pregnancy is linked to low birth weight and problems at birth. Statistically, women are more likely to quit smoking during pregnancy that at any other time in the lives, but some pregnant women continue to smoke despite a strong and direct public health message.

The study tested whether a genetic variant that is correlation to greater cigarette consumption was also responsible for a reduced likelihood of quitting smoking during pregnancy.

The research team studied 7,845 women of European descent from the South West of England. Using 2,474 women who smoked regularly immediately before they became pregnant, the association between the variant and smoking cessation and smoking quantity during pregnancy was analysed......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source