View clinical trials related to Pregnancy.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to examine whether we can use social networks to spread health information and health behaviors during pregnancy to prevent excessive gestational weight gain.
The PLAC1 gene is a recently described X-linked gene that maps to a region of the X chromosome thought to be important for normal fetal and placental development. Elevated levels of PLAC1 mRNA were detected in preeclampsia and appeared to be directly related to disease severity. PLAC1 may serve as a useful marker of placental dysfunction or threatened pregnancy. The objective of this study is to measure the prevalence of circulating anti-PLAC1 antibodies in pregnant maternal serum and correlate it with pregnancy outcome. It is likely that women with these antibodies are at higher risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Approximately 5% (50 of 1000) will be expected to have anti-PLAC1 antibodies based on previously reported data. The prevalence of these antibodies and their clinical impact on pregnancy outcomes will be determined. 1000 healthy, multiparous and primigravid women will be screened for anti-PLAC1 antibodies at their routine prenatal clinic visits. Subjects will be enrolled at their first clinic visit at USF Health, South Tampa Center, Department of Obstetrics. Blood (1.0 ml) will be obtained as part of the routine blood draw at the time of enrollment. Blood will only be collected when drawn as part of routine laboratory testing as determined by the primary care provider. Additional blood samples (1.0 ml) will be collected throughout pregnancy at the same time blood is obtained for routine or otherwise clinically indicated laboratory testing. A maximum of 5 samples will be collected through the pregnancy. Maternal demographic data will be collected and patients will be followed longitudinally to the completion of pregnancy to ascertain their clinical status during pregnancy, onset of premature labor, premature rupture of membranes, delivery date, and gestational age at delivery.
Although the essential role of iron during pregnancy is well established, concerns have been raised that current iron supplements given routinely during pregnancy may also have harmful consequences, such as increased oxidative stress and enhanced risks of infection, pre-eclampsia and impaired glucose regulation. A potential mechanism for the production of adverse effects is the appearance of non-transferrin-bound iron after oral administration of iron supplements. Non-transferrin-bound iron is more readily available to pathogens and could promote injurious free radical reactions that might add to the oxidative stress of pregnancy. The present study will determine if oral administration of 60 mg of iron as ferrous sulfate during the second trimester of pregnancy is followed by the appearance of non-transferrin-bound iron two hours later. The investigators will examine the influence of a variety of factors, including iron status and previous use of iron supplements. Detection of non-transferrin-bound iron after administration of an iron supplement to pregnant women would be an important new observation that could lead to re-evaluation of current methods of iron supplementation.
Preeclampsia and other high blood pressure disorders of pregnancy are a significant cause of both maternal and fetal complications of pregnancy. To date, there is no known "cure" for preeclampsia, but studies have shown that exercise may lower the risk of preeclampsia and high blood pressure disorders in pregnancy. Resistance training also lowers blood pressure, and may be easier to perform in a pregnant population, leading to higher compliance. The investigators propose to perform a novel prospective study of a resistance training regimen on blood pressure in pregnant patients at high risk for developing preeclampsia or high blood pressure.
A randomized, controlled clinical trial to assess whether text messaging to an outpatient obstetric population can improve maternal influenza vaccine uptake.
The utilization of external cardiohemodynamic patient assessment, applying non-invasive stick-on contact patches to the mother's neck on either side and chest wall on either side, enables the practitioner to have information about the patient's cardiac function and vascular status beyond simply blood pressure and pulse. This information, once collected, should open the practitioner's eyes to better assess the patient's disease status and her response to therapy. We will use this information to compare the effectiveness of the two standard medications used for treatment of maternal high blood pressure.
Observational studies demonstrate that overweight in pregnancy is a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes as fetal macrosomia, prolonged labor, low Apgar score, shoulder dystocia, nerve plexus injuries, increased proportion of instrumental deliveries and perineal ruptures. There is a 2.6 fold risk for gestational diabetes mellitus (fourfold in morbidly obese women) and a recent study has shown that fetuses of obese mothers develop insulin resistance in uterus. Main aims of this study are to assess if regular exercise in pregnancy among obese women can prevent or influence weight gain; impaired cardiac function in mother and fetus/newborn; impaired vascular function in mother; insulin resistance/sensitivity; body composition in mother and offspring; lumbopelvic pain; urinary and/or fecal incontinence; prolonged labor
There is an increasing trend in the incidence of infection related to epidural anesthesia. This could be related to methods of aseptic technique as adopted by the anesthesiologist during the performance of the procedure. The purpose of this study is to compare two methods of aseptic technique for labor epidural insertion; a "conventional" method without wearing a sterile gown (free from living germs or microorganisms) versus strict aseptic method with wearing of sterile gowns. It is our belief that there will be an increased contamination of epidural equipment and colonization of epidural catheter, secondary to bacterial fallout from the operators' bare hands in the group not wearing the sterile gowns.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the blood loss in induced vaginal delivery by misoprostol and caesarians section with induction attempt.
Malaria in pregnancy poses enormous public health challenges, contributing to significant maternal and infant deaths yearly. Adverse outcomes include maternal anaemia and low birthweight. Down regulation of cellular immunity increases pregnant women's susceptibility to malaria and mediate these adverse outcomes. The World Health Organization recommends treatment with artemisinin-combination therapy. Ghana uses quinine for malaria in first trimester pregnancies while artesunate-amodiaquine (AS-AQ) and quinine again are used in later trimesters. Recent amendments added artesunate-lumefantrine and dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PPQ) to the antimalarials used in the country. A high degree of safety and efficacy of DHA-PPQ is documented in several studies. DHA-PPQ, though not specified for use in pregnancy as of now, is accessible and available following its inclusion in the national malaria guidelines and may inadvertently be used to treat malaria in pregnancy. Paucity of data on DHA-PPQ use in pregnancy makes it pertinent to study its safety, tolerability and efficacy in pregnancy. We propose an open label, randomized controlled non-inferiority comparison of DHA-PPQ and AS-AQ for treatment of uncomplicated malaria in pregnancy in second and third trimesters to assess safety, tolerability and efficacy of DHA-PPQ. Outcomes of interest include PCR-corrected cure rates at days 28 and 42, maternal haemoglobin levels at days 14 and 42, prevalence of congenital abnormalities and pregnancy wastage. Proportions and percentages will be described at 95% Confidence Intervals and compared using chi-square tests. Parametric and non-parametric tests of significance will be applied as appropriate to determine significance of differences in outcomes between the treatment groups.