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Background: Studies of body mass index and semen quality have reported mixed results, but almost all were cross-sectional and many were conducted in selected populations. Longitudinal studies in population-based cohorts are necessary to identify how timing and duration of excess adiposity may affect semen quality. Methods: In 193 members of the Child Health and Development Studies birth cohort, we examined associations of birth weight and adiposity at six time points spanning early childhood and adulthood with sperm concentration, motility, and morphology at mean age 44 years, as well as with corresponding 2010 World Health Organization (WHO) subfertility reference levels. Results: Birth weight for gestational age percentile was positively associated with square-root sperm concentration (regression coefficient B [95% confidence interval] = 0.02 × 10 3 sperm/ml

Exposure to prenatal inflammation, measured using proxies such as preterm birth, low birth weight and maternal preeclampsia, has been associated with decrements in scores on tests of intelligence in children and adolescents. We examined whether these decrements persist into middle adulthood and expand into other domains of cognitive functioning. Using data from the Early Determinants of Adult Health project and from the ancillary project, Fetal Antecedents of Major Depression and Cardiovascular Disease, we selected term same sex sibling sets or singletons from these sets, from the New England Family Study (NEFS) and the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS), discordant on either fetal growth or preeclampsia to test the hypotheses that prenatal exposure to inflammation was associated with decrements in attention, learning and executive function 40 years later. Exposure was defined as a continuous measure of percentile birth weight for gestational age, fetal growth restriction (< 20th percentile of birth weight for gestational age) or maternal preeclampsia. Given that the sample was comprised, in part, of sibling sets, the analyses were performed using mixed models to account for the inter-sibling correlations. Analyses were performed separately by study site (i.e. NEFS and CHDS). In the NEFS we found a small association between fetal growth restriction and working memory for males, such that the working memory score declined by 1.5 points (95% CI -2.4, -0.27). This association was significantly different from the estimated association in females. We discuss the possible reasons for this association which include the possible mediating effects of the postnatal environment.

Deep brain stimulation for medically refractory status dystonicus in UBA5-related disorderBilateral globus pallidus internus deep brain stimulation (GPi-DBS) is increasingly used in the treatment of medically refractory dystonia in children, including for status dystonicus. GPi-DBS has