International Journal of Women’s Health and Reproduction Sciences
Volume:11 Issue: 3, Jul 2023

Pregnancy pica is harmful to the mother and her baby. This study aimed to update the global prevalence of pica in pregnant women.

Scopus, Science Direct, Wiley online, Google Scholar, and PubMed databases were searched for observational studies until July 2021. This search was done with the keywords “pregnancy pica”, “prevalence of pica”, “pica frequency”. After evaluating the extracted studies based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 45 final articles were selected. Calculations were performed based on STATA software. Publication bias was also assessed.

The global prevalence of pica in pregnancy in the final forty-five articles (Sample size: 21267) was 34%. However, the prevalence has decreased since 2015. In the subgroup analysis, rural women, women with lower education, younger women, unemployed women, and women living in the African geographical area had the highest prevalence of pica. Our results also showed that this rate was higher in women in the first trimester of pregnancy and multiparous women.

The global prevalence of pica was 34%. Therefore, it is recommended to implement educational programs, empower women and distribute nutritional supplements during pregnancy

This study aimed to determine placental endocan expression in women with preeclampsia (PE) and its relation to fetal and maternal outcomes.

This cross-sectional study was carried out at the Obstetrics Department/Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital from January 2020 to October 2020. The study included 90 pregnant inpatient women with PE. The participants were divided into 3 groups including 30 patients with severe PE, 30 non-severe PE, and 30 normotensives. After delivery, placental endocan expression was determined immunohistochemically.

The study showed that endocan was expressed in 44 patients’ placenta, all of them were hypertensive vs. 46 negatives for endocan (P=0.001), this expression correlated with adverse maternal outcomes including HELLP (haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelets count) syndrome (9.1%), Placental abruption (13.6%) and increase rate of CS (63.6%), as well as adverse fetal outcomes (P=0.001). included stillbirth (13.6%), birth weight <2500 g (68.2%), Apgar score in 1 min <7 (63.6%) and in 5 minutes <7 (31.8), admission to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) (31.8%), and (68.2%) delivered preterm.

This study showed a higher expression of endocan in the placenta of women with PE, and it had a positive correlation with adverse maternal and fetal outcomes.

The goal of this research was to investigate whether metalloproteinases could be used as predictors of preeclampsia (PE) during pregnancy.

This case-control study included 100 pregnant women which they further grouped into PE and control group (each composed of 50 women). Both groups were further subdivided according to their gestational age (GA), using the 37th week of gestation as a divider, as preterm and term infants.

In both preterm (P=0.001) and term infants (P=0.001), mean metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) was considerably lower in PE mothers compared to controls, with the difference being greater in preterm infants. In ROC analysis, MMP-9 showed excellent ability to predict PE in preterm infants (AUC = 0.980, cut-off ≤26.2) and good ability to predict PE in term infants (AUC 0.770, cut-off ≤ 34.4).

The matrix MMP-9 is a non-specific predictor of PE for term and preterm pregnant women, with higher accuracy for preterm pregnant women.

This study aimed to evaluate infertile women’s treatment-seeking behavior and to determine the factors that impact the treatment method choices while assessing patients’ views regarding infertility management.

This cross-sectional survey was distributed anonymously online and targeted infertile females seeking infertility treatment and included participants from all the 12 governorates in Jordan. An electronic questionnaire was designed, which was then distributed on several social media platforms during January 2021. This study included 429 participants seeking in vitro fertilization (IVF), and 52 were seeking intrauterine insemination (IUI) as a treatment modality. The study aimed to examine the aspects that influence infertile women’s treatment-seeking behavior and technique selection.

A total of 481 infertile females aged 21-50 years were included in the study. There was a statistically significant relationship between treatment modality and the number of children (P = 0.012), years of trying to conceive (P = 0.006), and causes of infertility (P = 0.017). Participants who wanted to use the IUI method had a significantly higher average number of children (IUI vs. IVF: 0.88 ± 1.11, 0.46 ± 0.96). Calculating the binary logistic regression to predict the selection of a treatment method based on prior trials of IVF and IUI indicated that the IVF prior trial is a significant predictor method of treatment selection (P < 0.001).

The decisions regarding infertility treatment should be shared between the patient and the treating physician. Socioeconomic status, past gynecological, and infertility history should be evaluated to better understand the patient’s preference.

Ectopic pregnancy (EP) is the leading cause of early pregnancy accounting for 10-15% of pregnancy-related deaths. It is lifethreatening condition where the majority of them present late. This study aims to evaluate the incidence, risk factors, clinical features, diagnosis, and management of EP in the tertiary care center.

This study conducted a retrospective analysis of electronic medical records from June 2015 to June 2020, focusing on participants in the age group of 18 to 45 years, to examine the occurrence of EP. The data were analysed with simple descriptive statistics and presented in frequency tables and charts of age group, parity, anemia grades, risk factors and presenting symptoms.

The incidence of EP in the current study was 0.38%. In the present study, 73.8% of women were of 20–30-year-old. In this study, 54.1% of women had a history of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Prior EP was seen in 19.7 % of cases. 16.4% of participants had a prior history of tubectomy and 19.7% had a previous history of infertility treatment, and 21.3% had a previous history of lower segment caesarean section (LSCS). In the present study, 65.5% of women presented with amenorrhea of 4-8 week, and 95% had abdominal pain. In the present study, common site was the right fallopian tube in 73.9% of cases. In this study, all cases need surgical management most common procedure carried out was salpingectomy. intensive care unit (ICU) admission was needed in 26.2% of cases, and no mortality was seen in our study.

EP is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition. Early diagnosis and prompt management are crucial in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity rates.

The present study aimed to compare the diagnostic values of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and fasting blood sugar (FBS) using the glucose challenge test (GCT) in screening for gestational diabetes.

A total of 618 women at 24-28 weeks of pregnancy were selected, and their FBS and HbA1c were measured using the GCT. The obtained results were compared in terms of sensitivity, specificity, as well as positive and negative predictive values using the ROC curve.

At the cut-off point of 1.4, sensitivity was 69.74% and specificity was 69.05 for the FBS test; at the cut-off point of 6.6, sensitivity was 90.79% and specificity was 80.95% for the HbA1c test; the area under the ROC curve was 0.925 with a 95% confidence interval (0.979, 0.872).

The diagnostic values of the HbA1c test and GCT were favorable in screening for gestational diabetes; the HbA1c test also showed a high diagnostic value in women with positive OGCT and GCT results.

This study aimed to investigate the role of Eugenol in regulating the expression of FSH receptor (FSHR), human luteinizing hormone choriogonadotropin receptor (LHCGR), and estrogen receptor (ER) during follicular development in female rat ovarian torsion.

In this experimental study, 48 female rats were randomly assigned to 4 groups, including G1 (i.e., sham), G2 (i.e., ovarian torsion/detorsion group), G3 (i.e., ovarian torsion/detorsion group treated with 30 mg/kg of eugenol), G4 (i.e., healthy group treated with 30 mg/kg of eugenol). After covering a treatment period of ten days, the ovarian tissue was collected for the histological analysis, the measurement of ER, FSHR, and LHCGR expression, as well as the assessment of testosterone, LH, FSH, and estrogen levels in blood serum.

Histological evaluation revealed the damage to ovarian tissue, the reduced oocyte, and the granulosa cell diameter in the torsion/detorsion group. However, the treatment with eugenol mitigated this damage. Eugenol administration increased the levels of estrogen, LH, and FSH, but it decreased the testosterone levels in the treated group. Moreover, the expression of ER, FSHR, and LHCGR was upregulated in the treated groups. Administration of eugenol was associated with an enhanced fertility.

It was concluded that eugenol administration may have been effective in protecting the ovarian tissue from the damage caused by torsion/detorsion. Furthermore, eugenol was found to have the potential to modulate hormonal profiles and regulate the expression of ER, FSHR, and LHCGR, thereby contributing to an increased fertility.