Adolescent pregnancy 1 year later: the effects of abortion vs. motherhood in Northeast Brazil.

PURPOSE: To determine social and behavioral consequences of pregnancy and how these differed according to the pregnancy outcome (live birth or abortion) 1 year after the event. METHODS: This was a prospective study of two groups of young women aged 12-18 years, one attending prenatal services and the other admitted for abortion complications at the same hospital in northeast Brazil. Adolescents who gave birth were subsequently classified as having intended or unintended pregnancies, and those who aborted were divided between those who terminated their pregnancies and those who miscarried. Baseline data were collected between 1995 and 1997 from all teens who met the eligibility criteria. Information was collected through one-on-one interviews using a questionnaire that was structured and precoded. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify characteristics that predicted outcomes at 1 year. RESULTS: Teens who terminated their pregnancies were the most likely to be in school or working 1 year later. They also showed the greatest increase in self-esteem. The young mothers, however, had the highest self-esteem but perceived the impact of pregnancy on their lives as being more negative than they did initially. Group affiliation was not associated with the quality of partner relationships, which tended to deteriorate over time. The young mothers used contraception at 1 year at higher rates and had experienced fewer subsequent pregnancies than the two abortion groups. CONCLUSIONS: The experience of adolescent pregnancy for this group of teens produced mixed findings, some more negative than others. Interventions to decrease the adolescent's desire to have a baby will have to be tailored differently from those designed to prevent an unintended pregnancy, but both are needed.

Effects of Brazilin on induction of immunological tolerance by sheep red blood cells in C57BL/6 female mice.

Brazilin was examined for its effects on the induction of immunological tolerance. Brazilin was administered to C57BL/6 female mice for 2 consecutive days before the immunization with high dose SRBC (10(9) cells) which can produce immunological tolerance. Delayed type hypersensitivity, IgM plaque forming cells, ConA induced IL-2 production and mitogen- or antigen-induced proliferation of lymphocytes were measured as evaluation parameters. Administration of brazilin prior to immunization could keep the DTH and IL-2 production almost optimally immunized levels. Brazilin also inhibited the elevation of non-specific suppressor cell activity. ConA induced proliferation of splenocytes in high dose SRBC immunized mice was significantly decreased by pretreatment of brazilin. And this might be one of the reason for augmentation of DTH by brazilin. However, IgM plaque forming cells were not affected by the treatment of brazilin. These results indicate that brazilin prevents the induction of immunological tolerance caused by high dose SRBC by suppressing the elevation of suppressor cell activity and by inhibiting the decrease in IL-2 production in C57BL/6 female mice.

Spirometric nomograms for normal children and adolescents in Puerto Rico.

OBJECTIVE: The use of spirometric reference values specific to the population being tested is preferable. A study carried out in Puerto Rico is used here to develop nomograms for normal children and adolescents based on age and height, two variables that have been found to be good predictors of pulmonary function. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The data for healthy individuals aged 5 to 18 were extracted (108 girls and 107 boys) from a larger study of spirometric measurements collected on 4527 individuals attending medical services in Puerto Rico. Several models were tested for the prediction of FEV1, FVC and the ratio FEV1/FVC. The best models were selected for each gender, and nomograms were developed showing the fifth, twenty-fifth, fiftieth, seventy-fifth, and ninety-fifth percentile of the predicted values according to age and height separately. RESULTS: The best models were those using the logarithm of the pulmonary function and the cube of height (R2 = 0.79-0.81), and age without transformation (R2 = 0.73-0.77). Corresponding nomograms were developed based on these models. The ratio showed little variation for different ages and heights. CONCLUSIONS: Pulmonary function can be efficiently predicted by age and height. Nomograms provide a simple way to use spirometric references that can be incorporated to clinical practice.