Most Fertility Apps Unlikely to Help Plan or Prevent Pregnancy

We are increasingly relying on smartphone apps to help keep track of our health; a recent survey found that more than half of smartphone users in the United States have downloaded such a tool. But according to a new study, when it comes to fertility apps, they are unlikely to help users avoid or achieve a pregnancy.

Lead researcher Dr. Marguerite Duane, of Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and colleagues came to their conclusion after conducting a review of almost 100 fertility apps.

According to Dr. Duane, the use of such apps is gaining popularity, as an increasing number of reproductive-age women look to use fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs) as a way of having greater control over whether or not they become pregnant.

Read more: Most Fertility Apps Unlikely to Help Plan or Prevent Pregnancy

Researchers found most fertility apps are unlikely to help women prevent or plan a pregnancy.

Source: medicalnewstoday

MCQ 8. A Pregnant Woman with a Lactase Deficiency

MCQ 8. A pregnant woman who has a lactase deficiency and cannot tolerate milk in her diet is concerned that she will not be able to produce milk of sufficient caloric value to nourish her baby. 

What should she be advised?

a. She must eat pure galactose in order to produce the galactose moiety of lactose.

b. She will not be able to breast feed her baby because she cannot produce lactose.

c. Production of lactose by mammary glands do not require ingestion of milk or milk products.

d. She can produce lactose by degrading alpha-lactalbumin.

e. She must eat pure fructose which will be converted to galactose moiety of lactose.

Answers

Blood Test Advances Diagnosis Of HELLP Syndrome

A laboratory blood test for the diagnosis of a rare genetic red blood cell disorder also shows promise in identifying HELLP syndrome, a life-threatening high blood pressure condition affecting 1% of all pregnant women.

HELLP is an acronym for hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelets and is a severe variant of pre-eclampsia whose pathogenesis remains unclear. Recent evidence and clinical similarities suggest a link to atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, a disease of excessive activation of the alternative complement.

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A model of the principle underlying the modified Ham test

Source: labmedica

Human Embryo Implantation Model in Lab Dish

Scientists based at The Rockefeller University have created an experimental system that models the implantation of a human embryo. The new system, an adaptation of one used to recapitulate the implantation of a mouse embryo, provides an attachment substrate, surrounds the blastocyst with just the right chemical environment, and provides scaffolding that accommodates the morphological movements that are particular to human embryos. For example, a human blastocyst undergoing implantation assumes a disk-like shape, whereas the mouse blastocyst is oblong.

The in vitro system has been used to show molecular and cellular processes in human development that occur up to day 14 after fertilization. The system, which has experimentally replicated implantation outside of the uterus for the first time, promises to expand scientists’ ability to answer basic questions about our own development, as well as to understand early pregnancy loss.

Details of the work appeared May 4 in the journal Nature, in an article entitled, “Self-Organization of theIn Vitro Attached Human Embryo.” The article paid particular attention to postimplantation development of the human embryo, a process that remains mysterious.

Read more: Human Embryo Implantation Model in Lab Dish

Source: genengnews

Biomarker Predicts Risk of Preterm Birth Earlier

A standard biomarker test offered earlier in pregnancy could potentially help doctors to better identify women at risk of giving birth prematurely, thus enabling health services to focus treatments on women at highest risk.

A number of factors are used to determine if a woman is at risk of giving birth prematurely, including a history of preterm births or late miscarriages. Two further factors which clinicians normally consider are the length of cervix and levels of a biomarker found in vaginal fluid known as fetal fibronectin.

Scientists at King's College London (London, UK) compared measurements of a new fetal fibronectin test in the cervicovaginal fluid of women at 18 to 21 weeks of gestation with measurements made at 22 to 27 weeks of gestation, to see which time period offered the best prediction of spontaneous preterm birth. They also explored whether using a low (10 ng/mL) and high (200 ng/mL) threshold would more accurately classify a women's risk of giving birth prematurely.

Read more: Biomarker Predicts Risk of Preterm Birth Earlier

Fetal fibronectin is a “glue-like” protein that holds the developing baby in the womb

Source: Hologic Inc.