Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific hypertensive syndrome and a major cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. At the present time, no reliable screening tests to identify women at risk are available. We have compared the amniotic fluids (AF) proteomic maps of five preeclamptic patients with those of five controls. The analysis was carried out by two-dimensional electrophoresis followed by peptide mapping and tandem mass spectrometric analysis. Besides the implementation of the previously published AF proteomic maps, our results show that transthyretin (TTR), the protein responsible for transporting both the thyroid hormone tyroxine and the retinol binding protein, is present in the AF of both preeclamptic and control women as a mixture of dimeric and post-translationally modified monomeric forms. Although the nature of these forms is similar in both groups, the preeclamptic women showed a significant increase in the amount of monomeric proteins with respect to the control group. Since the TTR monomeric forms are the results of different oxidizing reactions, we hypothesize that the higher oxidative stress in preeclampsia is the major destabilizing factor of the TTR functional dimeric form in the preeclamptic women.

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Objective. Breech presentation represents a common indication for primary cesarean section in women presenting for parturition. This study aims to investigate the presence of new and old risk factors for breech presentation and to provide a literature review.Methods. In this population-based retrospective cohort study we collected data from 14'433 consecutive singleton deliveries occurred in a 3rd level hospital setting of northeast Italy between January 2001 and July 2009. Related risk factors and trends in breech presentation prevalence were also considered.Results. Mean maternal age was 31.78 years (±5.17) and mean gestational age at delivery 38.67 weeks (±2.54). Breech presentation prevalence in nullipara and pluripara was respectively 5.36% (415/7743) and 3.53% (236/6689) (p<0.05), and was significantly lower among Sub-Saharan-African women 2.62% (14/535) vs 4.51% (651/14432) (p<0.05). Also advanced maternal age, early gestational age at delivery, neonatal female gender and low weight at delivery resulted associated with a higher prevalence of breech presentation. By multivariate logistic regression, the breech presentation resulted independently predicted by maternal age, ethnicity, parity, gestational age and neonatal weight MoMs at delivery, and neonatal gender. Conclusions.Advanced maternal age, early gestational age, low neonatal weight MoMs at delivery and female gender resulted to be risk factors for fetal breech presentation at delivery, while multiparity and SubSaharan-African ethnicity resulted to be protective. AbstractObjective. Breech presentation represents a common indication for primary cesarean section in women presenting for parturition. This study aims to investigate the presence of new and old risk factors for breech presentation and to provide a literature review.Methods. In this population-based retrospective cohort study we collected data from 14'433 consecutive singleton deliveries occurred in a 3rd level hospital setting of northeast Italy between January 2001 and July 2009. Related risk factors and trends in breech presentation prevalence were also considered.Results. Mean maternal age was 31.78 years (±5.17) and mean gestational age at delivery 38.67 weeks (±2.54). Breech presentation prevalence in nullipara and pluripara was respectively 5.36% (415/7743) and 3.53% (236/6689) (p<0.05), and was significantly lower among Sub-SaharanAfrican women 2.62% (14/535) vs 4.51% (651/14432) (p<0.05). Also advanced maternal age, early gestational age at delivery, neonatal female gender and low weight at delivery resulted associated with a higher prevalence of breech presentation. By multivariate logistic regression, the breech presentation resulted independently predicted by maternal age, ethnicity, parity, gestational age and neonatal weight MoMs at delivery, and neonatal gender. Conclusions.Advanced maternal age, early gestational age, low neonatal weight MoMs at delivery and female gender resulted to be risk factors for fetal breech presentation at delivery, while multiparity and...

Maternal prepregnancy obesity is significantly associated with increased risk of Caesarean section, preterm delivery, pre-eclampsia and macrosomia.