[Bell's palsy and cardiomyopathy in the postpartum: case report and review of the literature]. / Paralysie faciale et cardiomyopathie dans le postpartum: à propos d'un cas et revue de la littérature.

It is a 29-year-old patient who presented in the postpartum a facial palsy. A few days later she developed progressively a worsening dyspnea accompanied by tachycardia. Examinations have showed severe heart failure. Etiological research demonstrated reactivation of Epstein Barr virus infection with facial neuritis and concomitant myocarditis. The patient has fully recovered and was in complete remission after 6 months. To our knowledge this is the first case where a facial palsy and postpartum cardiomyopathy are associated and may be explained by a common viral etiology.

[Single embryo transfer : impact of new Belgian legislation on the results of the Clinic of Fertility of the Erasme Hospital]. / Le transfert d'un embryon unique : impact de la nouvelle loi beige sur les résultats du Centre de Fécondation in vitro (FIV) de l'Hôpital Erasme.

With the progress made in the treatments of assisted reproduction, implantation and pregnancy rates have increased. This evolution has led to increase the rates of multiple pregnancies in the general population. Considering maternal and fetal risks related to multiple pregnancies it was necessary to reduce their incidence. Several efforts have been tried, in particular the limitation of the number of embryos transferred to 2. This reduced the incidence of triplets but that of twin remained unchanged, which convinced the clinicians of the need to reduce further the number of embryo transfer. In Belgium a new policy of transfer was established by a law introduced since the 01/07/2003 aiming to reduce the costs related to the twin pregnancies and to increase the reimbursement of IVF treatments. We have studied the impact of this policy on the results at the clinic of Erasme. Two periods were compared : from 01/01/2001 to 30/06/2003 where the majority of the transfers was transfers of 2 embryos (56.8 %) and from 01/07/2003 to 31/12/2004 where the majority of the transfers was transfers of a single embryo (53.7 %) (p < 0.001). The rates of single embryo transfer were 12.5 % and 53.7 % respectively (p < 0.001). The rates of clinical pregnancies were 33.2 % and 27.3 % respectively (p < 0.001), on the other hand the percentage of twin pregnancies has strongly decreased from 29.9 % to 11.4 % (p < 0.001). The rate of frozen embryos has increased from 22 % policy seems to achieve its goals to the detriment of a reduction of the success rates. Nevertheless, the increase in the number of frozen embryos should allow, after thawing and transfer, to compensate at least partially this reduction of the pregnancy rate.