Predicting the risk of malignancy in adnexal masses based on the Simple Rules from the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis group.

BACKGROUND: Accurate methods to preoperatively characterize adnexal tumors are pivotal for optimal patient management. A recent metaanalysis concluded that the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis algorithms such as the Simple Rules are the best approaches to preoperatively classify adnexal masses as benign or malignant. OBJECTIVE: We sought to develop and validate a model to predict the risk of malignancy in adnexal masses using the ultrasound features in the Simple Rules. STUDY DESIGN: This was an international cross-sectional cohort study involving 22 oncology centers, referral centers for ultrasonography, and general hospitals. We included consecutive patients with an adnexal tumor who underwent a standardized transvaginal ultrasound examination and were selected for surgery. Data on 5020 patients were recorded in 3 phases from 2002 through 2012. The 5 Simple Rules features indicative of a benign tumor (B-features) and the 5 features indicative of malignancy (M-features) are based on the presence of ascites, tumor morphology, and degree of vascularity at ultrasonography. Gold standard was the histopathologic diagnosis of the adnexal mass (pathologist blinded to ultrasound findings). Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the risk of malignancy based on the 10 ultrasound features and type of center. The diagnostic performance was evaluated by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR+), negative likelihood ratio (LR-), positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and calibration curves. RESULTS: Data on 4848 patients were analyzed. The malignancy rate was 43% (1402/3263) in oncology centers and 17% (263/1585) in other centers. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve on validation data was very similar in oncology centers (0.917; 95% confidence interval, 0.901-0.931) and other centers (0.916; 95% confidence interval, 0.873-0.945). Risk estimates showed good calibration. In all, 23% of patients in the validation data set had a very low estimated risk (<1%) and 48% had a high estimated risk (≥30%). For the 1% risk cutoff, sensitivity was 99.7%, specificity 33.7%, LR+ 1.5, LR- 0.010, PPV 44.8%, and NPV 98.9%. For the 30% risk cutoff, sensitivity was 89.0%, specificity 84.7%, LR+ 5.8, LR- 0.13, PPV 75.4%, and NPV 93.9%. CONCLUSION: Quantification of the risk of malignancy based on the Simple Rules has good diagnostic performance both in oncology centers and other centers. A simple classification based on these risk estimates may form the basis of a clinical management system. Patients with a high risk may benefit from surgery by a gynecological oncologist, while patients with a lower risk may be managed locally.

The Drug Susceptibility of Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) in a Referral Hospital in Rome from 2018 to 2023.

Background: The treatment of non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections is challenging because of the difficulty in obtaining phenotypic (pDST) and/or molecular (mDST) drug susceptibility testing and the need of a multi-drug regimen. Objectives: The objective was to describe the in vitro susceptibility patterns of various NTM species through an analysis of susceptibility results obtained on isolates collected between 2018 and 2023. Methods: Species identification and mutations in rrs or rrl genes (mDST) were identified by a line probe assay, while the pDST was performed by broth microdilution and interpreted according to CLSI criteria. Results: We analysed 337 isolates of NTM belonging to 15 species/subspecies. The Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) was the most common (62%); other species identified included M. gordonae (11%), M. kansasii (5%), the M. abscessus complex (8%), M. chelonae (6%), and M. fortuitum (2%). The results of pDST (claritromycin and amikacin) and mDST (rrl and rrs genes) on 66 NTM strains showed that while wild-type rrl and rrs occurred in 86.3% and 94% strains, respectively, the pDST showed 88% sensitivity for clarithromycin and 57.5% for amikacin. The main incongruity was observed for macrolides. Conclusions: Most NTM are likely to be susceptible to macrolides and aminoglycosides. The molecular identification of resistant genotypes is accurate and strongly recommended for optimal patient management.

EBV infection of primary colonic epithelial cells causes inflammation, DDR and autophagy dysregulation, effects that may predispose to IBD and carcinogenesis.

EBV is a gammaherpesvirus strongly associated to human cancer. The virus has been shown to play a role also in inflammatory diseases, including IBD, in the context of which colon cancer more frequently arise. In this study, we show for the first time that EBV infects primary colonic epithelial cells (HCoEpC), promotes pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion and activates molecular pathways bridging inflammation and cancer, such as ERK1/2. These effects, occurring in the course of the lytic phase of the viral life cycle, led to DDR and autophagy dysregulation. Such cellular responses, playing a key role in the maintenance of proteostasis and genome integrity, are essential to prevent carcinogenesis. Interestingly, we found that the use of the demethylating agent 5-AZA could counteract most of the effects induced by EBV infection in HCoEpC, suggesting that DNA hyper-methylation may strongly contribute to viral-driven inflammation and colon cancer predisposition.

On Inductive-Transductive Learning With Graph Neural Networks.

Many real-world domains involve information naturally represented by graphs, where nodes denote basic patterns while edges stand for relationships among them. The graph neural network (GNN) is a machine learning model capable of directly managing graph-structured data. In the original framework, GNNs are inductively trained, adapting their parameters based on a supervised learning environment. However, GNNs can also take advantage of transductive learning, thanks to the natural way they make information flow and spread across the graph, using relationships among patterns. In this paper, we propose a mixed inductive-transductive GNN model, study its properties and introduce an experimental strategy that allows us to understand and distinguish the role of inductive and transductive learning. The preliminary experimental results show interesting properties for the mixed model, highlighting how the peculiarities of the problems and the data can impact on the two learning strategies.

Effectiveness of a Mindful Compassion Care Program in reducing burnout and psychological distress amongst frontline hospital nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have shown that nurses have been more affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than any other group of hospital workers in terms of anxiety, depression, and burnout. Several clinical studies had previously demonstrated the effectiveness of mindfulness and compassion interventions in reducing burnout and emotional distress amongst healthcare professionals. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A parallel-group randomized controlled trial will assess the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of a mindfulness and compassion-focused programme on frontline nurses who had been working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seventy-two participants will be recruited from Verona University Hospital Trust (Veneto Region, north-east Italy) and will be divided equally into an intervention group and a control group. Primary outcome will be assessed using the Emotional Exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey (MBI-GS). Secondary outcomes will be measured by the Cynicism and Professional Efficacy subscales of the MBI-GS, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), the Impact of Stressful Events (IES-R), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and the Forms of Self-Criticising/attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale (FSCRS). DISCUSSION: The study aims to fill a gap in the literature and present a scientifically validated intervention for those healthcare professionals most exposed to the stressful conditions of working during the COVID-19 pandemic. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov; Identifier: NCT05308537.

Organic residue analysis reveals the function of bronze age metal daggers.

The article discusses results of organic residue analysis performed on ten copper-alloy daggers from Bronze Age Pragatto, Italy, c.1550-1250 BCE. Metal daggers are widespread in Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Europe, yet their social and practical roles are still hotly debated. Are they symbolic or functional? Are they tools or weapons? How were they used? For what tasks and on what materials? The research addresses these questions through a novel application of biochemical staining and SEM-EDX analysis. The method has proved successful in extracting and identifying animal residues located on cutting edges including bone, muscle, and tendons. These are interpreted as evidence of prehistoric carcass butchering and carving. Further residues were observed on blade faces and hafting plates or tangs; these are interpreted as remnants of bone handles and sheaths, the latter made of either wood fibers or processed hide and fur. The readings proposed in the article are validated by original experiments with replica daggers, as detailed in the Supplementary Materials. The analysis and experiments shed new light on Bronze Age metal daggers, showing that they were fully functional tools (and perhaps tool-weapons) primarily utilized for the processing of animal carcasses. This original research result contributes significant knowledge towards interpreting an under-studied, yet socially salient, prehistoric metal artifact.

Multi-Modal Siamese Network for Diagnostically Similar Lesion Retrieval in Prostate MRI.

Multi-parametric prostate MRI (mpMRI) is a powerful tool to diagnose prostate cancer, though difficult to interpret even for experienced radiologists. A common radiological procedure is to compare a magnetic resonance image with similarly diagnosed cases. To assist the radiological image interpretation process, computerized Content-Based Image Retrieval systems (CBIRs) can therefore be employed to improve the reporting workflow and increase its accuracy. In this article, we propose a new, supervised siamese deep learning architecture able to handle multi-modal and multi-view MR images with similar PIRADS score. An experimental comparison with well-established deep learning-based CBIRs (namely standard siamese networks and autoencoders) showed significantly improved performance with respect to both diagnostic (ROC-AUC), and information retrieval metrics (Precision-Recall, Discounted Cumulative Gain and Mean Average Precision). Finally, the new proposed multi-view siamese network is general in design, facilitating a broad use in diagnostic medical imaging retrieval.

Two novel/ancient myosins in mammalian skeletal muscles: MYH14/7b and MYH15 are expressed in extraocular muscles and muscle spindles.

The mammalian genome contains three ancient sarcomeric myosin heavy chain (MYH) genes, MYH14/7b, MYH15 and MYH16, in addition to the two well characterized clusters of skeletal and cardiac MYHs. MYH16 is expressed in jaw muscles of carnivores; however the expression pattern of MYH14 and MYH15 is not known. MYH14 and MYH15 orthologues are present in frogs and birds, coding for chicken slow myosin 2 and ventricular MYH, respectively, whereas only MYH14 orthologues have been detected in fish. In all species the MYH14 gene contains a microRNA, miR-499. Here we report that in rat and mouse, MYH14 and miR-499 transcripts are detected in heart, slow muscles and extraocular (EO) muscles, whereas MYH15 transcripts are detected exclusively in EO muscles. However, MYH14 protein is detected only in a minor fibre population in EO muscles, corresponding to slow-tonic fibres, and in bag fibres of muscle spindles. MYH15 protein is present in most fibres of the orbital layer of EO muscles and in the extracapsular region of bag fibres. During development, MYH14 is expressed at low levels in skeletal muscles, heart and all EO muscle fibres but disappears from most fibres, except the slow-tonic fibres, after birth. In contrast, MYH15 is absent in embryonic and fetal muscles and is first detected after birth in the orbital layer of EO muscles. The identification of the expression pattern of MYH14 and MYH15 brings to completion the inventory of the MYH isoforms involved in sarcomeric architecture of skeletal muscles and provides an unambiguous molecular basis to study the contractile properties of slow-tonic fibres in mammals.

Mindfulness-based interventions in the early phase of affective and non-affective psychoses: Special Section on "Translational and Neuroscience Studies in Affective Disorders" Section Editor, Maria Nobile MD, PhD.

BACKGROUND: In the last 10 years, psychological approaches based on mindfulness techniques have been proposed for the management of psychotic experiences. METHOD: In this brief review we summarized, to our knowledge for the first time, published studies on mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) applied to the early phase of major psychoses (affective and non-affective). RESULTS: Despite the great variability in terms of MBIs protocols, available studies on young people at risk to develop or with a first episode of psychosis suggest MBIs as a feasible, well-tolerated and effective approach in ameliorating symptoms, functioning, emotion regulation, and finally reducing the psychological distress associated with the onset of mania and/or psychotic experience. LIMITATIONS: The small sample size and inconsistencies between studies in terms of design, MBIs protocols and outcome measures suggest being cautious in interpreting and generalizing results. Moreover, specific guidelines are missing for the adaptation of MBIs to youth at risk of developing affective psychoses. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary findings show that MBIs may be considered a promising adjunctive therapy for the treatment of major psychoses in the early phases of the illness. However, the conduct of further studies in larger samples and with a more rigorous methodology is warranted to confirm the beneficial effect of MBIs in the early stages of major psychoses.

AKUImg: A database of cartilage images of Alkaptonuria patients.

ApreciseKUre is a multi-purpose digital platform facilitating data collection, integration and analysis for patients affected by Alkaptonuria (AKU), an ultra-rare autosomal recessive genetic disease. We present an ApreciseKUre plugin, called AKUImg, dedicated to the storage and analysis of AKU histopathological slides, in order to create a Precision Medicine Ecosystem (PME), where images can be shared among registered researchers and clinicians to extend the AKU knowledge network. AKUImg includes a new set of AKU images taken from cartilage tissues acquired by means of a microscopic technique. The repository, in accordance to ethical policies, is publicly available after a registration request, to give to scientists the opportunity to study, investigate and compare such precious resources. AKUImg is also integrated with a preliminary but accurate predictive system able to discriminate the presence/absence of AKU by comparing histopatological affected/control images. The algorithm is based on a standard image processing approach, namely histogram comparison, resulting to be particularly effective in performing image classification, and constitutes a useful guide for non-AKU researchers and clinicians.

Expression of Normally Repressed Myosin Heavy Chain 7b in the Mammalian Heart Induces Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

Background In mammals, muscle contraction is controlled by a family of 10 sarcomeric myosin motors. The expression of one of its members, MYH7b, is regulated by alternative splicing, and while the protein is restricted to specialized muscles such as extraocular muscles or muscle spindles, RNA that cannot encode protein is expressed in most skeletal muscles and in the heart. Remarkably, birds and snakes express MYH7b protein in both heart and skeletal muscles. This observation suggests that in the mammalian heart, the motor activity of MYH7b may only be needed during development since its expression is prevented in adult tissue, possibly because it could promote disease by unbalancing myocardial contractility. Methods and Results We have analyzed MYH7b null mice to determine the potential role of MYH7b during cardiac development and also generated transgenic mice with cardiac myocyte expression of MYH7b protein to measure its impact on cardiomyocyte function and contractility. We found that MYH7b null mice are born at expected Mendelian ratios and do not have a baseline cardiac phenotype as adults. In contrast, transgenic cardiac MYH7b protein expression induced early cardiac dilation in males with significantly increased left ventricular mass in both sexes. Cardiac dilation is progressive, leading to early cardiac dysfunction in males, but later dysfunction in females. Conclusions The data presented show that the expression of MYH7b protein in the mammalian heart has been inhibited during the evolution of mammals most likely to prevent the development of a severe cardiomyopathy that is sexually dimorphic.

Inverse relationship between scores on the quality of life questionnaire SF-12 and on the Aging Males' Symptoms scale in Italian men.

OBJECTIVES: To analyse the relation between results of the Aging Males' Symptoms (AMS) questionnaire for aging males, and of quality of life (QOL) questionnaire SF-12 and cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: 1,927 men aged 55-85 years were interviewed by 56 general practitioners. During the interview the men were asked to fill in the AMS scale and the QOL questionnaire SF-12. RESULTS: Of 1,927 men 1,806 men filled correctly the AMS questionnaire. The mean SF-12 mental index was respectively 55.9 in men with a total AMS score indicating no impairment, 50.9 mild, 42.8 moderate, and 32.8 severe impairment. The corresponding values for the physical index were 51.2, 46.7, 40.8 and 32.3. A history of diabetes was associated with an increased risk of reporting moderate/severe impairment: in relation to the total AMS score the odds ratio, (OR), of moderate/severe impairment in comparison with no impairment was 1.6 (95%CI 1.2-2.1). A history of myocardial infarction and hypertension increased the risk (respectively OR 1.4 (95%CI 1.1-18) and 1.7 (95%CI 1.2-2.4)). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that higher AMS scores are associated with lower SF-12 indices and suggests that elevated values of the AMS score are associated with cardiovascular risk factors or diseases.

What happens to patients seen only once by psychiatric services? Findings from a follow-up study.

The aim of this study was to identify patient characteristics associated with once-only contact with a community-based mental health service (CMHS) and to re-evaluate these patients 3 months after the contact. A 33-month cohort of new episodes of care was followed up to identify and interview once-only contact patients. Of the 1101 patients who met the study criteria, 165 (15%) were discharged after the first contact, 87 (8%) dropped out after the first contact, 440 (40%) were low users and 409 (37%) were high users of the CMHS in the 90 days after the first contact. A higher score on the Global Assessment of Functioning scale, less severe psychiatric diagnoses and lower socioeconomic status were the factors most associated with once-only contact at baseline. At follow-up clinical conditions of patients who had only one contact (both discharged patients and drop-outs) had improved and, in most cases, they were in contact with other services. Drop-out patients, however, were more unwell and less satisfied with the initial contact. This dissatisfaction may have led these patients to seek help elsewhere. It is possible that some of these extremely low users are in need of a different or more specialized clinical treatment approach.

A new integrated and interactive tool applicable to inborn errors of metabolism: Application to alkaptonuria.

This paper describes our experience with the development and implementation of a database for the rare disease Alkaptonuria (AKU, OMIM: 203500). AKU is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by a gene mutation leading to the accumulation of homogentisic acid (HGA). Analogously to other rare conditions, currently there are no approved biomarkers to monitor AKU progression or severity. Although some biomarkers are under evaluation, an extensive biomarker analysis has not been undertaken in AKU yet. In order to fill this gap, we gained access to AKU-related data that we carefully processed, documented and stored in a database, which we named ApreciseKUre. We undertook a suitable statistical analysis by associating every couple of potential biomarkers to highlight significant correlations. Our database is continuously updated allowing us to find novel unpredicted correlations between AKU biomarkers and to confirm system reliability. ApreciseKUre includes data on potential biomarkers, patients' quality of life and clinical outcomes facilitating their integration and possibly allowing a Precision Medicine approach in AKU. This framework may represent an online tool that can be turned into a best practice model for other rare diseases.

From Invention to Innovation: Risk Analysis to Integrate One Health Technology in the Dairy Farm.

Current Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) approaches mainly fit for food industry, while their application in primary food production is still rudimentary. The European food safety framework calls for science-based support to the primary producers' mandate for legal, scientific, and ethical responsibility in food supply. The multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary project ALERT pivots on the development of the technological invention (BEST platform) and application of its measurable (bio)markers-as well as scientific advances in risk analysis-at strategic points of the milk chain for time and cost-effective early identification of unwanted and/or unexpected events of both microbiological and toxicological nature. Health-oriented innovation is complex and subject to multiple variables. Through field activities in a dairy farm in central Italy, we explored individual components of the dairy farm system to overcome concrete challenges for the application of translational science in real life and (veterinary) public health. Based on an HACCP-like approach in animal production, the farm characterization focused on points of particular attention (POPAs) and critical control points to draw a farm management decision tree under the One Health view (environment, animal health, food safety). The analysis was based on the integrated use of checklists (environment; agricultural and zootechnical practices; animal health and welfare) and laboratory analyses of well water, feed and silage, individual fecal samples, and bulk milk. The understanding of complex systems is a condition to accomplish true innovation through new technologies. BEST is a detection and monitoring system in support of production security, quality and safety: a grid of its (bio)markers can find direct application in critical points for early identification of potential hazards or anomalies. The HACCP-like self-monitoring in primary production is feasible, as well as the biomonitoring of live food producing animals as sentinel population for One Health.

Clinical Utility of Risk Models to Refer Patients with Adnexal Masses to Specialized Oncology Care: Multicenter External Validation Using Decision Curve Analysis.

Purpose: To evaluate the utility of preoperative diagnostic models for ovarian cancer based on ultrasound and/or biomarkers for referring patients to specialized oncology care. The investigated models were RMI, ROMA, and 3 models from the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) group [LR2, ADNEX, and the Simple Rules risk score (SRRisk)].Experimental Design: A secondary analysis of prospectively collected data from 2 cross-sectional cohort studies was performed to externally validate diagnostic models. A total of 2,763 patients (2,403 in dataset 1 and 360 in dataset 2) from 18 centers (11 oncology centers and 7 nononcology hospitals) in 6 countries participated. Excised tissue was histologically classified as benign or malignant. The clinical utility of the preoperative diagnostic models was assessed with net benefit (NB) at a range of risk thresholds (5%-50% risk of malignancy) to refer patients to specialized oncology care. We visualized results with decision curves and generated bootstrap confidence intervals.Results: The prevalence of malignancy was 41% in dataset 1 and 40% in dataset 2. For thresholds up to 10% to 15%, RMI and ROMA had a lower NB than referring all patients. SRRisks and ADNEX demonstrated the highest NB. At a threshold of 20%, the NBs of ADNEX, SRrisks, and RMI were 0.348, 0.350, and 0.270, respectively. Results by menopausal status and type of center (oncology vs. nononcology) were similar.Conclusions: All tested IOTA methods, especially ADNEX and SRRisks, are clinically more useful than RMI and ROMA to select patients with adnexal masses for specialized oncology care. Clin Cancer Res; 23(17); 5082-90. ©2017 AACR.

Developmental myosins: expression patterns and functional significance.

Developing skeletal muscles express unique myosin isoforms, including embryonic and neonatal myosin heavy chains, coded by the myosin heavy chain 3 (MYH3) and MYH8 genes, respectively, and myosin light chain 1 embryonic/atrial, encoded by the myosin light chain 4 (MYL4) gene. These myosin isoforms are transiently expressed during embryonic and fetal development and disappear shortly after birth when adult fast and slow myosins become prevalent. However, developmental myosins persist throughout adult stages in specialized muscles, such as the extraocular and jaw-closing muscles, and in the intrafusal fibers of the muscle spindles. These myosins are re-expressed during muscle regeneration and provide a specific marker of regenerating fibers in the pathologic skeletal muscle. Mutations in MYH3 or MYH8 are responsible for distal arthrogryposis syndromes, characterized by congenital joint contractures and orofacial dysmorphisms, supporting the importance of muscle contractile activity and body movements in joint development and in shaping the form of the face during fetal development. The biochemical and biophysical properties of developmental myosins have only partially been defined, and their functional significance is not yet clear. One possibility is that these myosins are specialized in contracting against low loads, and thus, they may be adapted to the prenatal environment, when fetal muscles contract against a very low load compared to postnatal muscles.

Muscle type and fiber type specificity in muscle wasting.

Muscle wasting occurs in a variety of conditions, including both genetic diseases, such as muscular dystrophies, and acquired disorders, ranging from muscle disuse to cancer cachexia, from heart failure to aging sarcopenia. In most of these conditions, the loss of muscle tissue is not homogeneous, but involves specific muscle groups, for example Duchenne muscular dystrophy affects most body muscles but spares extraocular muscles, and other dystrophies affect selectively proximal or distal limb muscles. In addition, muscle atrophy can affect specific fiber types, involving predominantly slow type 1 or fast type 2 muscle fibers, and is frequently accompanied by a slow-to-fast or fast-to-slow fiber type shift. For example, muscle disuse, such as spinal cord injury, causes type 1 fiber atrophy with a slow-to-fast fiber type shift, whereas cancer cachexia leads to preferential atrophy of type 2 fibers with a fast-to-slow fiber type shift. The identification of the signaling pathways responsible for the differential response of muscles types and fiber types can lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of muscle wasting and to the design of therapeutic interventions appropriate for the specific disorders. This article is part of a Directed Issue entitled: Molecular basis of muscle wasting.

Ischemia-modified albumin in pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: In normal pregnancies, a hypoxic intrauterine environment seems necessary for early trophoblast development. In this context, maternal serum levels of ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) are elevated, reflecting the oxidative stress associated with placental development. The aim of this study was to evaluate IMA and pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A) in mothers bearing small-for-gestational-age (SGA) fetuses compared to normal pregnancies. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective study was performed between June 2010 and June 2011. Serum total albumin, IMA and PAPP-A concentrations were determined in 81 pregnant women in three different periods: 1st trimester, 2nd trimester and postpartum. Two groups of subjects were retrospectively identified: Group (1) mothers bearing appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) fetuses, and Group (2) mothers bearing SGA fetuses. Serum total albumin and IMA concentrations were determined in 198 non-pregnant women as controls. RESULTS: Serum IMA concentrations increase during gestation. IMA/albumin serum levels in the 1st trimester were significantly higher in subjects of Group (2) (p<0.05), whereas values of serum PAPP-A MoM were significantly lower (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Elevated IMA serum levels together with low levels of PAPP-A were detected in the 1st trimester in mothers bearing SGA fetuses, and this may reflect early placental changes occurring before clinical manifestation of SGA.

Interinstitutional variation of caesarean delivery rates according to indications in selected obstetric populations: a prospective multicenter study.

The aim of the study was to identify which groups of women contribute to interinstitutional variation of caesarean delivery (CD) rates and which are the reasons for this variation. In this regard, 15,726 deliveries from 11 regional centers were evaluated using the 10-group classification system. Standardized indications for CD in each group were used. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to calculate (1) relationship between institutional CD rates and relative sizes/CD rates in each of the ten groups/centers; (2) correlation between institutional CD rates and indications for CD in each of the ten groups/centers. Overall CD rates correlated with both CD rates in spontaneous and induced labouring nulliparous women with a single cephalic pregnancy at term (P = 0.005). Variation of CD rates was also dependent on relative size and CD rates in multiparous women with previous CD, single cephalic pregnancy at term (P < 0.001). As for the indications, "cardiotocographic anomalies" and "failure to progress" in the group of nulliparous women in spontaneous labour and "one previous CD" in multiparous women previous CD correlated significantly with institutional CD rates (P = 0.021, P = 0.005, and P < 0.001, resp.). These results supported the conclusion that only selected indications in specific obstetric groups accounted for interinstitutional variation of CD rates.