Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate pregnancy outcome of patients with prelabor rupture of membranes receiving expectant management and giving birth prematurely in comparison to preterm births of patients with intact membranes. Material and methods: It was a retrospective cohort study comparing maternal and neonatal outcome in two groups of preterm births. The first group included 299 consecutive singleton preterm births complicated by prelabor rupture of membranes. The second group consisted of 349 consecutive singleton preterm births without prelabor rupture of membranes. Results: Patients without pPROM underwent Caesarean sections more often than women from the pPROM group (65.3% vs 45.2%; p < 0.001). No statistically significant differences regarding the gestational age during delivery were identified. Lower birth weight was detected in the group with no history of pPROM (p < 0.001). No differences regarding early-onset sepsis were identified and higher percentage of late-onset infections was observed in infants with no history of pPROM (8.9% vs 4.7%; p = 0.04). Pulmonary hypertension was more common in the infants from the pPROM group (4% vs 1.4%; p = 0.049). Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome and respiratory failure were more prevalent in cases of no pPROM history-20% vs 12.7% (p = 0.02) and 40% vs 25.8% (p < 0.001), respectively. Conclusions: Development of multiple complications in preterm neonates may be more associated with the management, gestational age at birth, and birth weight than with the occurrence of preterm prelabor rupture of membranes.

Background: Despite advantages of ambulatory and home blood pressure monitoring, office blood pressure measurement remains the principal method for the diagnosis and management of hypertension. There still seems to be too little evidence to date showing variation in blood pressure during a medical visit and the current recommendations are mainly based on expert's opinions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the difference between the first two blood pressure measurements performed during a preventive examination and to verify whether the second measurement could influence clinical decisions in non-hypertensive patients. Material and methods:The study included 52 consecutive patients without history of hypertension or other cardiovascular diseases. Blood pressure and heart rate (HR) were measured twice, the first reading after 5 minutes rest and the second 1 minute later. Results: Significant differences were found between the first (fBPM) and second (sBPM) blood pressure measurements, both systolic blood pressure (SBP) 142.4 mm Hg [interquartile range (IQR): 130.8-152.0] vs. 138.1 mm Hg (IQR: 125.8-149.5), p < 0.001 and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) 85.8 mm Hg (IQR: 80.0-91.5) vs. 83.9 mm Hg (IQR: 77.0-90.3), p < 0.001, and heart rate (HR) 73.1/min (IQR: 64.8-80.0) vs. 71.8/min (IQR: 64.8-77.3), p < 0.001. In 63.5% of the participants, the difference between the measurements was over 5 mm Hg for SBP values and in 23.1% of the participants for DBP values. According to fBPM, 53.8% of the patients met the criteria for the diagnosis of hypertension and according to sBPM 48.1% (NS). Conclusion:We demonstrated substantial discrepancies between blood pressure values taken during the first and the second preventive medical check-up visit performed in the workplace. Preventive examination in the workspace is associated with similar number of false-positive results when hypertension status is evaluated as compared to regular office visits.