First-Trimester Placental Growth Factor in Screening for Gestational Diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was first to assess whether first-trimester serum concentrations of placental growth factor (PlGF) differ between patients with and without gestational diabetes (GDM) and second to test whether there is a correlation between glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), a factor recently shown to be useful in predicting GDM, and PlGF. METHODS: PlGF was measured at 8-14 weeks with the Kryptor Immunoassay Analyzer (Brahms, Berlin, Germany). Absolute values were converted to multiples of the median using the software provided by the Fetal Medicine Foundation London. GDM was diagnosed using internationally accepted criteria. HbA1c levels were quantified using the TOSOH G7 automated hemoglobin analyzer. RESULTS: From January to December 2014, 328 women were included in the study, 51 (15.5%) of whom developed GDM. First-trimester PlGF quantification does not discriminate between women at risk to develop GDM and controls, while HbA1c is able to do so. No correlation was found between PlGF and HbA1c. CONCLUSION: Our findings do not lend support to the hypothesis that early PlGF values are different in women who later develop GDM.

Incidence of preeclampsia in pregnant Swiss women.

QUESTION UNDER STUDY: The epidemiology of preeclampsia in Switzerland is known only from a retrospective registry study. This analysis aimed to prospectively determine the incidence of preeclampsia in a cohort of pregnant women in Switzerland. METHODS: Pregnant women presenting at gestational week 11-14 at their obstetrician's office were consecutively included and prospectively followed-up until the end of pregnancy. Ultrasound characteristics, blood pressure measurements, body mass index, and personal history were recorded. Duration of pregnancy, occurrence of preeclampsia, birth weight and Apgar scores were recorded as outcomes. RESULTS: There were 1,300 pregnancies with follow-up available for analysis. Median age was 30 years (interquartile range [IQR] 27-33), median body mass index (BMI) 23.3 kg/m² (IQR 21.2-26.1), median systolic blood pressure 117 mm Hg (IQR 109-126) and median diastolic blood pressure 70 mm Hg (IQR 64-77). A total of 30 women developed preeclampsia, corresponding to an incidence of 2.31% (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.62%-3.28%). Of the women with preeclampsia, 6.66% (95% CI 2.04%-21.42%) had early-onset preeclampsia, 13.33% (95% CI 5.45%-29.83%) progressed to eclampsia, whereas 10% (95% CI 3.63%-28.75%) developed HELLP syndrome (haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count). Nulliparity and prior history of preeclampsia were more frequently seen in pregnancies with preeclampsia than in pregnancies without preeclampsia. BMI, as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure were higher in pregnancies subsequently developing preeclampsia. CONCLUSION: The incidence of preeclampsia in Switzerland is in line with frequencies observed elsewhere in the world. Extrapolation to a national level indicates that about 1,911 (range 1,340-2,713) preeclampsia cases per year can be expected to occur in Switzerland.

[The highly gifted persons study by Adele Juda 1927-1955. Pinnacle and end of psychiatric genius research in Germany]. / Die Höchstbegabtenstudie von Adele Juda 1927-1955. Höhepunkt und Ende der psychiatrischen Genialenforschung in Deutschland.

Between 1927 and 1944 the psychiatrist Adele Juda (*1888-+1949) studied the biographies of more than 600 German-speaking "geniuses" and their families from a period between 1648 and 1920. The concept of this so-called "Höchstbegabtenstudie" (study on high-gifted persons) had been developed by the psychiatrist, human geneticist and racial hygienist Ernst Rüdin, director of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie in Munich from 1917 to 1945. Juda's study was aimed at a re-examination of the "Genie-Irrsins-Hypothese" (genius-madness-theory) having been much discussed in medicine and anthropology since Cesare Lombroso, as it was hardly consistent with some of Rüdin's racial-hygienic concepts. While trying to make a selection of probands as objective as possible and to overcome a so far common purely casuistic approach, Juda's study also gave cause for criticism, for example as to the subjectivity of psychopathological assessment or the political and ideological conditions under which data were gathered. Nevertheless the "Höchstbegabtenstudie" has to be seen as the most extensive and as well as the last scientific piece of research concerning the "Genialenproblem" having been done in the 20th century, with the material gathered being an important cultural-historical source independent of its originally intended use. As one of the most important results Juda was able to prove a significant relation between mental illness and gift. For different reasons this result was not published until after Juda's death by Bruno Schulz, one of her former colleagues at the genealogical-demographic department, in 1953 and 1955. Last not least due to the fact that they came from Rüdin's former institute these publications were not taken much notice of.

Maternal uniparental isodisomy 10 and mosaicism for an additional marker chromosome derived from the paternal chromosome 10 in a fetus.

We report a case of maternal isodisomy 10 combined with mosaic partial trisomy 10 (p12.31-q11.1). Chromosome examinations from a CVS sample showed a karyotype 47,XX,+mar/46,XX [corrected]. The additional marker chromosome which was present in 6/25 interphase nuclei was shown by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to have been derived from a pericentromeric segment of chromosome 10. DNA analysis was performed from umbilical cord blood from the fetus after termination of the pregnancy at 18 weeks. The results showed that the two structurally normal chromosomes 10 were both of maternal origin, whereas the marker chromosome derived from the father. Autopsy of the fetus revealed hypoplasia of heart, liver, kidneys and suprarenal glands, but, apart from a right bifid ureter, no structural organ abnormalities. This fetus represents the second reported instance of a maternal uniparental disomy (UPD) 10.