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OBJECTIVE: Women with sickle cell disease (SCD) have adverse maternal and infant outcomes. Our aim was to determine whether the outcomes of SCD mothers and their infants differed from African or Caribbean women not affected by SCD and whether there were differences between SCD individuals with the haemoglobin SS (HbSS) or haemoglobin SC (HbSC) genotypes. Furthermore, we wished to determine if any differences related to deprivation. DESIGN: A matched cohort study. SETTING: Tertiary perinatal centre in London PATIENTS: 4964 African or Caribbean women without SCD and 148 with SCD. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mode of delivery, maternal exchange transfusion, birthweight, neonatal unit admission, neonatal death and deprivation indices RESULTS: SCD women were more likely to be delivered by caesarean section (p<0.001) and had babies of lower birthweight (p<0.001). Their infants were no more likely to be admitted to neonatal intensive care unit or suffer a neonatal death. There were no significant differences between the SCD women and those without SCD in their deprivation index or deprivation decile. The women with the HbSS genotype compared to those with the HbSC genotype were more anaemic (p<0.02), required more exchange transfusions (p<0.001) and were more likely to be delivered by caesarean section (p=0.008). The infant outcomes did not differ significantly between the genotypes. CONCLUSIONS: Although, the SCD women, particularly those with the HbSS genotype, had greater morbidity, infant morbidity, and mortality was similar in mothers with the HbSS or HbSC genotypes and those without SCD.
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Objective: Prepregnancy counselling (PPC) is an important aspect of care for women with chronic liver disease (CLD) and liver transplantation (LT), yet its impact has not been well described. This study aims to assess the experience of women attending a joint obstetric-hepatology PPC clinic in a single-centre unit. Design/methods: A retrospective questionnaire-based study in a tertiary unit within the UK where patients who attended the PPC clinic between March 2016 and July 2021 were invited to participate by filling in a questionnaire. Descriptive data and free-text content were subsequently analysed. Results: 108 women attended the PPC clinic over a 5-year period. Overall, 58/108 (54%) completed the questionnaire. Principal concerns regarding pregnancy included fears around deterioration in health (66%), maternal death (24%), pregnancy loss (66%), medication effects (60%) and disease transmission (36%). 17/58 (14%) patients felt the presence of multiple doctors was intimidating, however, perceptions improved by the end of the consultation.Overall, 44/58 (76%) respondents felt the clinic helped them reach a decision about pursuing pregnancy. Almost all respondents would recommend the clinic to others. There were no major differences in pregnancy outcomes between those that received PPC and those that did not. Conclusion: The PPC clinic facilitates a personalised approach to care and is well received by patients with CLD/LT. It is difficult to elucidate whether attendance alone impacts on pregnancy outcomes; registry data may be better placed at addressing this important question.
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Serous endometrial carcinoma is an aggressive type of endometrial carcinoma. Wilms tumor gene 1 (WT-1) is commonly expressed in ovarian serous carcinomas and considered a diagnostic marker of these tumors. However, it is generally believed that WT-1 is rarely expressed by endometrial serous carcinoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency and significance of WT-1 expression in endometrial serous carcinoma. We studied the expression of WT-1 in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor sections from 77 cases of endometrial serous carcinoma. Thirty-four tumors showed positive expression for WT-1 (44%). There was a statistically significant association between the presence of WT-1 expression and disease-free survival (DFS), where patients with tumors expressing WT-1 had a shorter DFS compared with those with no WT-1 expression (P = .031; median DFS, 15 and 38 months, respectively). By multivariate Cox regression analysis, DFS was independent from other clinicopathological data (tumor stage, presence of lymphovascular space invasion, cervical involvement, and extrauterine spread), indicating that WT-1 expression is independently associated with DFS. Our study shows that WT-1 is expressed in a considerable percentage of endometrial serous carcinomas, suggesting a role for WT-1 in the pathology of these tumors. This has therapeutic significance, as WT-1 is an emerging target for immunotherapy. Moreover, our results show that WT-1 has prognostic value, being predictive of DFS. As a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic target, we recommend that WT-1 expression should be included in histopathologic reports of endometrial serous carcinoma.
