Time- and dose-dependent correlations between patient-controlled epidural analgesia and intrapartum maternal fever.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the relationship between intrapartum maternal fever and the duration and dosage of patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA). METHODS: This observational study included 159 pregnant women who voluntarily accepted PCEA. During labor, patients with body temperature ≥ 38 °C were classified into the Fever group, (n = 42), and those with body temperature < 38 °C were classified into the No-fever group (n = 117). The outcome measures included the duration of PCEA, number of PCEA, and total PCEA amount. Body temperature and parturient variables, including interpartum fever status and the duration of any fever were monitored. RESULTS: The total PCEA duration and total PCEA amount in the Fever group were significantly higher than the corresponding values in the No-fever group (both, p < 0.05). The duration of fever was weakly correlated with the duration of PCEA (R2 = 0.08) and the total PCEA amount (R2 = 0.05) (both, p < 0.05). The total and effective PCEA were higher in the Fever group than in the No-fever group (both, p < 0.05). The total PCEA duration and total PCEA amount were positively correlated with the incidence of fever (both, p < 0.05). The diagnostic cutoff value for fever was 383 min, with a sensitivity of 78.6% and specificity of 57.3%. The mean temperature-time curves showed that parturients who developed fever had a steeper rise in temperature. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that there were weak time- and dose-dependent correlations between PCEA and maternal fever during delivery. A total PCEA duration exceeding 6.3 h was associated with an increase in the duration of maternal intrapartum fever.

[N2O emission from an intensively managed greenhouse vegetable field in Nanjing suburb, Jiangsu Province of East China].

By using static opaque chamber and gas chromatography, this paper studied the dynamic changes of N2O fluxes and their relationships with soil temperature, soil moisture content, and soil nitrate and ammonium contents in an intensively managed greenhouse celery-Tung choy-Bok choy-amaranth rotation field and in a bare fallow land in Nanjing suburb. The cumulative N2O emission from the rotation vegetable field was as high as 137.2 kg N x hm(-2), being significantly higher than that from the bare fallow land (29.2 kg N x hm(-2)), and the N2O-N emission factor of the rotation vegetable field ecosystem was up to 4.6%. In the rotation field, the planting of Tung choy had the greatest contribution to the annual cumulative N2O emission, occupying 53.5% of the total, followed by the planting of Bok choy (31.9%), celery field (4.5%), and amaranth (4.8%). The N2O flux of the rotation field had significant positive correlation with soil temperature, the Q10 being 2.80, but no significant correlations with soil moisture content and soil nitrate and ammonium contents.