Reproductive biomedicine online
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Reprod. Biomed. Online · Jun 2010
Russell-Silver syndrome due to paternal H19/IGF2 hypomethylation in a patient conceived using intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
Epigenetic alterations at several maternal loci have been associated with imprinting disorders in children conceived using assisted reproductive technologies. To date, epimutations at paternal loci have been observed in the spermatozoa of infertile men, but there is little evidence of paternal epimutations in babies conceived using assisted reproductive treatment. ⋯ As far as is known, this is the second assisted reproduction treatment-conceived patient with classic RSS and this epigenotype. This case provides further evidence that epimutations affecting paternal alleles might be associated with assisted reproductive treatment.
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Reprod. Biomed. Online · Mar 2010
The Italian Constitutional Court modifies Italian legislation on assisted reproduction technology.
On 8 May 2009, the Italian Constitutional Court declared, at least in part, that the law regulating assisted reproduction technology in Italy (Law 40/04) is unconstitutional. The most important theoretical point made by the Court is that the law does not provide unlimited protection to embryos, since it admits that some of them may not produce a viable fetus. ⋯ At present, the situation is not clear and, theoretically, requires a new intervention by Parliament. This, however, is unlikely.
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Reprod. Biomed. Online · Mar 2010
See-and-treat outpatient hysteroscopy: an analysis of 1109 examinations.
The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of diagnostic and therapeutic outpatient hysteroscopy. Data were collected prospectively from 1109 consecutive hysteroscopy examinations. The main outcome measure was success and failure of diagnostic and therapeutic outpatient hysteroscopy examination. ⋯ Of these two groups, respectively, 285/425 (67.1%) and 23/142 (16.2%) subjects had complete polyp and fibroid resection in the outpatient setting and 116/425 (27.3%) and 63/142 (44.4%) underwent polyp and fibroid resection under general anaesthesia. In conclusion, diagnostic and therapeutic hysteroscopy is feasible and highly successful in an outpatient setting. The majority of subjects with endometrial polyps and intrauterine adhesions are amenable to a see-and-treat approach.
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The present investigation was conducted to determine how individual European states rank with respect to quantitative productivity in research and publication on IVF. A search in MEDLINE was performed in August 2007 and the number of entries under the MeSH 'Reproductive Techniques, Assisted' was registered for each individual year 1990-2006 for 19 European countries. Countries with a total number of >60 publications between 1990 and 2006 were further evaluated. ⋯ After normalizing the publication number to GDP, Belgium leads the field with a median of 10 publications per year per 10(11) euro GDP, followed by Greece, Sweden, UK and Finland with six, six, five and five publications respectively. The back markers are Switzerland and Germany (one publication each). In conclusion, drastic differences between individual European countries exist in terms of publication activity.
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Reprod. Biomed. Online · Sep 2009
Association of thyroid-stimulating hormone with insulin resistance and androgen parameters in women with PCOS.
There is a relationship between thyroid function and insulin sensitivity and alterations in lipids and metabolic parameters. Little information is available regarding this relationship in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. However all those pathologies are also described as often affecting women with polycystic ovary syndrome. ⋯ Women with thyroid-stimulating hormone > or =2.5 mIU/l had a significantly higher body mass index (P = 0.003), higher fasting insulin concentrations (P = 0.02) and altered insulin resistance indices (P = 0.007), higher total testosterone (P = 0.009) and free androgen indices (P = 0.001) and decreased sex hormone-binding globulin concentrations (P = 0.01) in comparison with women with thyroid-stimulating hormone <2.5 mIU/l. Generally, all of these parameters correlated significantly (P < 0.05) with thyroid-stimulating hormone only in women with thyroid-stimulating hormone > or =2.5 mIU/l. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome and with thyroid-stimulating hormone > or =2.5 mIU/l had significantly altered endocrine and metabolic changes.