No abstract

Objective: The 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) guideline recommended a lower threshold (130/80 mmHg) for hypertension in nonpregnant adults. However, the influence of this guideline in Chinese pregnant women is not well characterized. Methods: Data of 32 742 and 14 479 mothers who had blood pressure (BP) less than 130/80 mmHg and no proteinuria before 20 gestational weeks and delivered live singletons between 1 January 2014 and 30 November 2019 were extracted from Taizhou and Taicang register-based cohorts, respectively. The average measured BP in the third trimester was obtained and categorized according to the 2017 ACC/AHA guideline. The association between BP and risk of adverse birth outcomes was assessed by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: In the third trimester, 331 (1.01%) and 378 (2.61%) women had mean BP at least 140/90 mmHg, but 2435 (7.44%) and 1054 (7.28%) had stage 1 hypertension (130–139/80–89 mmHg) in Taizhou and Taicang, respectively. Significant associations between stage 1 hypertension and small for gestational age [odds ratio (OR) = 1.32, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.14–1.52] and low birth weight (OR = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.46–2.25) were observed in the Taizhou population. Consistent results were also shown in the Taicang population [OR (95% CI), of 1.46 (1.18–1.79) and 1.50 (1.07–2.11), respectively]. Conclusion: Stage 1 hypertension in the third trimester defined by the 2017 ACC/AHA guideline was associated with an increased risk for adverse birth outcomes in Eastern Chinese pregnant women, suggesting that this guideline may improve the detection of high BP and surveillance of adverse neonatal outcomes in China.

The pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD) has become a serious public health problem. Accurate diagnosis of regional pelvic floor muscle (PFM) malfunctions is vitally important for the prevention and treatment of PFD. However, there is a lack of reliable diagnostic devices to evaluate and diagnose regional PFM abnormality. In this work, we developed a multifunctional evaluation technology (MET) based on a novel airbag-type stretchable electrode array probe (ASEA) for the diagnosis of malfunctions of regional PFM. The inflatable ASEA has specifically distributed 32 electrodes along the muscles, and is able to adapt to different human bodies for tight contact with the muscles. These allow synchronous collection of high-quality multi-channel surface electromyography (MC-sEMG) signals, and then are used to diagnose regional PFM malfunctions and evaluate inter-regional correlation. Clinical trial was conducted on 15 postpartum stress urinary incontinence (PSUI) patients and 15 matched asymptomatic women. Results showed that SUI patients responded slowly to the command and have symptoms of muscle strength degeneration. The results were consistent with the relevant clinical manifestations, and proved the reliability of MET for multifunctional PFM evaluation. Furthermore, the MET can diagnose malfunctions of regional PFM, which is inaccessible with existing technology. The results also showed that the dysfunction of PSUI patients is mainly located in iliococcygeus, pubococcygeus, and urethral sphincter regions, and there is a weak correlation between these specific regions and nearby regions. In conclusion, MET provides a point-of-care diagnostic method for abnormal function of regional PFM, which has a potential for the targeted point-to-point electrical stimulation treatment and PFD pathology research.