Early pregnancy dyslipidemia, particularly hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia, may help in predicting women who later develop PE and may help in prediction of its severity.

No abstract

The serum levels of tissue polypeptide-specific (TPS) antigen were measured using the M3 monoclonal antibody in an enzyme immunoassay in 33 patients with ovarian cancer, in 26 women with benign pelvic masses and in 26 women with a laparoscopically proven normal pelvis. The results were compared with the serum levels of the CA 125 antigen. At a cutoff level of 135 U/l for TPS and 20 U/l for CA 125 (95th percentile of the healthy controls), the sensitivity of the tests for detecting a malignant tumor was 77% for TPS and 87% for CA 125. The specificities were 85% for TPS and 92% for CA 125. Adding TPS to CA 125 did not increase the diagnostic values compared to using the CA 125 test alone. For both markers, the rate of positivity was higher in advanced stage than in early-stage ovarian cancer. No correlation between marker levels and survival was found. Serial determinations performed with 4 patients during therapy and follow-up showed that both TPS and CA 125 are good predictors of tumor response and recurrence.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection with severe pre-eclampsia (PE) complicated by intrauterine growth restriction using rapid stool antigen test in a rural area in Egypt. Maternal stool samples were collected from 50 pregnant women diagnosed with PE-associated intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and from 50 women with healthy pregnancies (control) between 34 and 38 weeks of gestation. HP stool antigen (HPSA) was measured using a monoclonal antibody test, which is an immuno-chromatographic assay that uses antibody-coated colloidal gold. A significantly higher percentage of HPSA positive women were found among PE cases complicated by IUGR (76%) compared to healthy pregnancies (32%) (p < .0001). However, in the PE/IUGR group, neonatal weight was not significantly lower in HPSA positive patients compared to HPSA negative patients (p = .08). This led to our conclusion that Helicobacter pylori infection has a possible role in the etiopathogenesis of PE with IUGR with no evident effect on its severity.