Blood lead and cadmium and birth weight among sub-arctic and arctic populations of Norway and Russia

BACKGROUND: Delivering women and their newborns in the Kola Peninsula of Russia and the neighboring arctic area of Norway were studied to explore relationships between maternal cadmium and lead status and birth weight as a pregnancy outcome. METHODS: Life-style information, maternal blood and cord blood specimens were collected from 50 consecutive mother-infant pairs from hospital delivery departments in three Russian and three Norwegian communities. Pregnancy outcomes were verified by consulting medical records. Lead and cadmium were determined in the blood samples by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. RESULTS: The median blood-cadmium concentration for the Russian mothers was 2.2 nmol/L (n = 148) versus 1.8 nmol/L in the Norwegian group (n = 114, p = 0.55). A weak association was observed between maternal cadmium and amount smoked (r = 0.30, p<0.001); no correlation was found between maternal blood cadmium and birth weight. The corresponding maternal lead values were 0.14 (Russia) and 0.06 micromol/L (Norway), p<0.001. The latter lead concentration constitutes one of the lowest adult population values reported to date. Maternal and cord blood lead levels were strongly correlated (r = 0.88, p<0.001). In a multivariate linear regression model, maternal blood lead was recognized as a negative explanatory variable (p<0.05) for birth weight and child's body mass index (BMIC), with or without adjustment for gestational age. A similar association was suggested by ANOVA-analysis of maternal blood lead by quartiles. CONCLUSION: Maternal blood-lead level as an environmental factor is an apparent predictor of low birth weight and BMIC. It reduced substantially the contribution of a country factor in explaining the observed differences in birth weight.     

Toll样受体与子宫内膜及子宫内膜异位症

子宫内膜异位症(EMs)发病机制尚未完全阐明.大量研究表明,免疫因素在EMs的发病机制中起重要作用.EMs免疫应答异常主要是巨噬细胞数量和活性增加及其分泌产物,如生长因子、细胞因子和血管生成因子的改变.Toll样受体(TLRs)识别特异性的病原体相关分子模式,启动和介导免疫应答,在固有免疫中发挥重要作用,并诱导产生适应性免疫反应.TLRs在正常子宫内膜中的生理作用以及在EMs中的相关研究已逐步开展,对其深人认识和研究将为EMs诊断、治疗和预后判断提供新思路和手段.     

Anonymous and non-anonymous gamete and embryo donations: pros and cons

Consequences of legal restrictions concerning gamete and embryo donation have been increasingly discussed during the last three decades, partly dependent upon the fact that assisted reproductive technologies have opened up new medico-technical possibilities. In the present communication we want to elucidate some of the problems and consequences of a Swedish law from 1985 requiring that all sperm donors should be non-anonymous. A similar law was passed in 2003 for oocyte donation. Such legal restrictions do not seem to be in the interest of the infertile couple who, to a large extent, seek treatment abroad where the laws are more liberal or non-restrictive (reproductive tourism). Whether or not the Swedish law is in the best interest for the offspring remains to be seen.     

Adiposity and Endometriosis Severity and Typology

Study ObjectivePrior research has collectively shown that endometriosis is inversely related to women's adiposity. The aim of this study was to assess whether this inverse relationship holds true by disease severity and typology.DesignCross-sectional study among women with no prior diagnosis of endometriosis.SettingFourteen clinical centers in Salt Lake City, UT, and San Francisco, CA.PatientsA total of 495 women (of which 473 were analyzed), aged 18–44 years, were enrolled in the operative cohort of the Endometriosis, Natural History, Diagnosis, and Outcomes (ENDO) Study.InterventionsGynecologic laparoscopy/laparotomy regardless of clinical indication.Measurements and Main ResultsParticipants underwent anthropometric assessments, body composition measurements, and evaluations of body fat distribution ratios before surgery. Surgeons completed a standardized operative report immediately after surgery to capture revised American Society for Reproductive Medicine staging (I–IV) and typology of disease (superficial endometriosis [SE], ovarian endometrioma [OE], and deep infiltrating endometriosis [DIE]). Linear mixed models, taking into account within-clinical-center correlation, were used to generate least square means (95% confidence intervals) to assess differences in adiposity measures by endometriosis stage (no endometriosis, I–IV) and typology (no endometriosis, SE, DIE, OE, OE + DIE) adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, and parity. Although most confidence intervals were wide and overlapping, 3 general impressions emerged: (1) women with incident endometriosis had the lowest anthropometric/body composition indicators compared with those without incident endometriosis, (2) women with stage I or IV endometriosis had lower indicators compared with women with stage II or III, and (3) women with OE and/or DIE tended to have the lowest indicators, whereas women with SE had the highest indicators.ConclusionOur research highlights that the relationship between women's adiposity and endometriosis severity and typology may be more complicated than prior research indicates.     

Pharmacokinetics and endometrial and tubal tissue penetration of cefalotin and cefazolin

The pharmacokinetics and concentrations of the two antibiotics cefazolin and cefalotin were studied during gynecologic operations in endometrial and tubal tissue. The patients received 0.05 g/kg of the antibiotics by intravenous injection. Under the given conditions, pharmacokinetic calculation of the plasma elimination gave half-lives of 24.8 min for cefalotin and of 63 min for cefazolin. Fitting of the tissue levels to the Bateman function showed that the two antibiotics diffuse rapidly into both tubal and endometrial tissue and attain peak concentration levels between 10 and 25 min. In both tissues the concentrations of cefazolin were higher than those of cefalotin. Higher tissue concentrations of cefazolin could also be demonstrated in experiments of longer duration.     

Reproductive and menstrual factors and risk of peritoneal and ovarian endometriosis

OBJECTIVE: Between 1987 and 1989 data were collected to evaluate risk factors for pelvic endometriosis. DESIGN: A case-control study was conducted on 241 cases with laparoscopically or laparotomically confirmed peritoneal or ovarian endometriosis consecutively admitted to three teaching hospitals in Northern Italy. The control group consisted of 437 women admitted to hospitals for acute conditions covering similar catchment areas. RESULTS: Compared with nulliparous women, the risk of endometriosis decreased with increasing number of births: the point estimates were 0.4 and 0.3, respectively, for those with one and two or more births (X2(1) trend = 50.3, P less than 0.001). No relation emerged with age at first birth and spontaneous miscarriages. Relative to women whose menarche occurred at age 11 or younger, the risk of endometriosis was slightly lower in those who experienced later menarche, but the trend in risk was not significant. Women with irregular menstrual cycles showed a lower frequency of the disease (relative risk, 0.3; 95% confidence interval, 0.2 to 0.5). The role of various factors was largely similar for different disease locations (ovary, peritoneum, and both) and indication for diagnostic surgery (sterility, pelvic pain, and other reasons). CONCLUSIONS: This study found that parity and irregular/long menses lower the risk of endometriosis. These findings were similar in different subgroups of disease location and indication for surgery, giving strong evidence of the consistency of the general results.