BackgroundTelomere length is a marker of cumulative damage to the cell, and has been associated with cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes.FindingsThe association of telomere length with pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) was examined in a nested case-control study. Circulating leukocyte telomere length was measured by Quantitative-PCR. Mean and median telomere length among cases and controls was compared, and logistic regression was used to model the outcomes as a function of tertile telomere length, with control for effects of potential confounders. Mean telomere length in pre-eclampsia cases was 0.77 (SD 0.14), in GDM cases was 0.73 (SD 0.10), and in controls was 0.74 (SD 0.14). The adjusted odds ratio comparing the highest tertile to the lowest for pre-eclampsia was 0.92 (0.15-5.46), and for gestational diabetes was 0.65 (0.13-3.34).ConclusionsFurther study is necessary to determine if telomere length is associated with these pregnancy complications.

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The humidity correction factors specified by IEC Publication 60-1 (1989) and IEEE Std.4 (1995) for impulse voltages are restricted to 1 2 h/6 < 15. However, values of h/S 2 15 g/m3 in many regions of the world are present. The IEC-60 and the IEEE Std.4 procedures are based on the macroscopic observation that the atmospheric correction factors are larger when the discharge is governed mainly by positive streamers;while they tend to be lower when leaders or negative streamers are present. A better atmospheric correction factor implies to study the influence of atmospheric parameters on each discharge mechanism of the breakdown process. In this paper for standard lightning impulse voltages an analysis of the influence of absolute humidity divided by relative air density (his) greater than 15 gr/m3 on the positive streamer predischarges is reported.