Porencephaly and schizencephaly are congenital brain disorders that can be caused by COL4A1 mutations, though the underlying mechanism and developmental processes are poorly understood. Here, we report a patient with schizencephaly, detected by fetal ultrasonography and fetal magnetic resonance imaging, with a de novo novel mutation in COL4A1 (c.2645_2646delinsAA, p.Gly882Glu). Our results suggest that the onset of damage that potentially results in schizencephaly occurs mid-pregnancy.

Aim This study aimed to clarify how the COVID‐19 pandemic impacts psychological stress levels in postpartum women in Yokohama, Japan. Methods We retrospectively compared the rates of positive screening tests for postpartum depression (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score of 9 or more or self‐injury factors) and liaison/psychiatric intervention rates between pre‐pandemic and pandemic groups of postpartum women who delivered a live birth at our tertiary perinatal center in Yokohama, Japan between January 2019 and May 2020. Those whose postpartum health screening was performed in 2019 (March–June 2019) were considered the pre‐pandemic group, and those whose screening was performed between March and June 2020 were considered the pandemic group. Adjustments were made for maternal background, pregnancy, and delivery outcomes, including a history of psychiatric disorders, complications, preterm delivery, NICU admission, and maternal postpartum complications, and the data were analyzed using a logistic regression analysis. Results Postpartum health screenings were performed on 339 women before the pandemic and 279 women during the pandemic. Positive screening rates for postpartum depression did not change before and during the pandemic (adjusted odds ratio 1.48, 95% confidence interval 0.885–2.46). Conclusions There was no apparent increase in maternal psychological stress due to the COVID‐19 pandemic in Yokohama, Japan. Postpartum women responded differently in settings with varied levels of disease severity and social restrictions.

No abstract

No abstract

Background Cases of congenital rubella syndrome are reported annually in Japan. Rubella-specific IgM antibody titers can show false positivity or remain positive for a long period. Furthermore, the seroprevalence of rubella hemagglutination inhibition (HI) and IgM antibodies is unknown, and the relevance of measuring rubella-specific IgM antibodies in asymptomatic individuals is unclear. Hence, this study aimed to assess the validity of rubella-specific IgM antibody titers as a diagnostic marker, by retrospectively assessing the prevalence of rubella HI and IgM antibodies among pregnant Japanese women. The study also aimed to estimate the incidence of rubella among rubella IgM antibody-positive pregnant women. Methods This single-center, retrospective study measured rubella HI and IgM antibody titers of pregnant Japanese women during prenatal visits from January 2007 to December 2020 at Yokohama City University Medical Center Perinatal Center for Maternity and Neonates. Rubella-specific IgM antibody titers were measured by enzyme immunoassay. Values > 1.2 and ≤ 1.2 were defined as positive and negative, respectively. Results A total of 14965 pregnant women were included in the study, of whom 186 (1.2%) were IgM-positive. One patient (0.5%) was clinically diagnosed with rubella. Of the IgM-positive patients, 136 (73.1%) had rubella HI antibody titers of < 1:256. The patient with clinically diagnosed rubella had a fever and skin rash and showed a high titer value for both rubella HI (1:2048) and rubella-specific IgM. The patient decided to terminate the pregnancy without a repeat blood examination. The correlation coefficient between rubella-specific IgM and rubella HI antibody titers was 0.2527 (p < 0.0001), indicating a weak positive correlation. Conclusion This study showed that almost all asymptomatic rubella-specific IgM-positive patients measured in the context of high rubella HI antibody titers were not acutely infected regardless of whether the rubella-specific IgM antibody titer was high or low.