Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, JAMA, OBGYNE, USPSTF / 26.09.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Esa M. Davis, M.D., M.P.H , F.A.A.F.P Professor of Medicine and Family and Community Medicine Associate Vice President of Community Health and Senior Associate Dean of pPopulation Health and Community Medicine University of Maryland School of Medicine Dr. Davis joined the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in January 2021 Esa M. Davis, M.D., M.P.H , F.A.A.F.P Professor of Medicine and Family and Community Medicine Associate Vice President of Community Health and Senior Associate Dean of pPopulation Health and Community Medicine University of Maryland School of Medicine Dr. Davis joined the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in January 2021 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia, are among the leading causes of serious complications and death for pregnant people in the United States. Pregnant women and pregnant people of all genders should have their blood pressure measured at each prenatal visit to help find and prevent serious health issues related to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.  (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, OBGYNE, Pediatrics, USPSTF / 09.08.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:x Wanda K. Nicholson, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A. Senior Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Professor of Prevention and Community Health Milken Institute School of Public Health George Washington University Vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Neural tube defects are when a baby’s spinal cord or brain don’t develop properly during pregnancy, which can cause serious complications including disability and death. The good news is that taking folic acid supplements before and during early pregnancy is proven to help prevent this from happening. (more…)
Author Interviews, Mental Health Research, Microbiome, Nature, OBGYNE, UCLA / 25.07.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bridget Callaghan Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Psychology UCLA Dr. Callahan studies interactions between mental and physical health across development.   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: A growing body of evidence links the gut microbiome to brain and immune functioning, and changes to that community of microorganisms is likely among the ways that hardship affects children’s socioemotional development. Limited evidence in humans has demonstrated the adversities experienced prenatally and during early life influence the composition of the gut microbiome, but no studies had examined whether stress experienced in a mother's own childhood could influence the microbiome of the next generation of children. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, OBGYNE / 07.07.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dorothy A. Fink, MD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women's Health Director, Office on Women's Health US Department of Health & Human Services Rockville, MD MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Delivery-related mortality in U.S. hospitals has decreased for all racial and ethnic groups, age groups, and modes of delivery while the prevalence of severe maternal mortality (SMM) increased for all patients, with higher rates for racial and ethnic minority patients of any age. This study specifically looked at inpatient delivery-related outcomes and found a 57% decrease from 2008-2021. The decreasing mortality rates within the inpatient delivery setting demonstrated as statistically significant and a welcome finding for all women. This study also looked with greater granularity at the impact of race, ethnicity, and age. Mortality for American Indian women decreased 92%, Asian women decreased 73%, Black women decreased 76%, Hispanic women decreased 60%, Pacific Islander women decreased 79%, and White women decreased 40% during the study period. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, JAMA, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 26.06.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alex P. Miller, PhD TranSTAR T32 Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Psychiatry Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis, MO   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Adolescent cannabis use is increasing in the United States. Prior research suggests that people who start using cannabis earlier are more likely to engage in problematic use and also experience greater mental health challenges and socioeconomic disadvantages overall. For example, children who begin using cannabis early are more likely to have behavioral problems and disorders and are more less likely to complete school. In our study, we used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, which is following nearly 12,000 kids across the nation to track behavior and brain development as well as health from middle childhood to young adulthood. We looked at what factors are associated with the initiation of cannabis use by age 12-14. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, NIH, OBGYNE / 01.03.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
William A. Petri, MD PhDWilliam A. Petri, MD PhD Wade Hampton Frost Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair for Research of the Department of Medicine Professor of Medicine, Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, and Pathology, Medicine: Infectious Diseases and International Health, Medicine: Infectious Diseases and International Health
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? MedicalResearch.com We tested if prophylactic antibiotics could prevent sepsis and death in women in the late stages of normal vaginal labor and delivery. It was previously known that antibiotic were effective for this purpose in women undergoing C-section. The study was a randomized placebo-controlled trial at 8 international sites of nearly 30,000 women. (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, Sexual Health / 25.08.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Florence Z. Martin MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit Population Health Sciences Bristol Medical School University of Bristol, Bristol, UK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Globally, rates of caesarean section are on the rise. Many things are contributing to this, including increasing maternal age, more women who have had prior caesareans, and changes in maternal preference. One reason that women have been cited to choose a caesarean in an uncomplicated pregnancy is the maintenance of sexual wellbeing postpartum (in other words, after their baby is born). The protection of sexual wellbeing following caesarean section is thought to be via the maintenance of vaginal tone and reduced risk of vaginal tearing. However, few studies have shown this to be true. Some studies investigating sexual outcomes in the year after birth found no difference between women who gave birth vaginally and those who delivered via caesarean section. Longer term evidence is sparse, with only one study looking up to 16 years postpartum and finding that women who give birth to all their children via caesarean section are at higher risk of experiencing sex-related pain. To contribute to previous studies and provide the first piece of evidence looking at sexual wellbeing as a whole several years after delivery, we used data from the Children of the 90s study (also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children or ALSPAC). We aimed to compare sexual enjoyment, sexual frequency, and sex-related pain between women who delivered via caesarean section and those who delivered vaginally up to 18 years postpartum. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, NEJM, OBGYNE / 19.08.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Caroline Crowther MB ChB, DCH, FRANZCOG, MD, DDU, FRCOG, CMFM Maternal Fetal Medicine Subspecialist Professor of Maternal & Perinatal Health Liggins Institue Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland MwdicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Gestational diabetes is a growing and significant health problem worldwide for women affected and their babies. Treatment of gestational diabetes improves maternal and infant health but it remains unclear what degree of maternal hyperglycaemia should be used to make the diagnosis. Because of this uncertainty, recommended diagnostic criteria vary around the world. The GEMS randomised trial assessed whether use of lower glycaemic diagnostic criteria, recommended by the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups would improve perinatal health, without increasing maternal risks, compared to use of higher criteria, and to assess the effects on use of the health services. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, JAMA, OBGYNE / 04.05.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Richard McManus MA PhD MBBS FRCGP FRCP Professor of Primary Care Dr. McManus chairs the Blood Pressure Monitoring Working Party of the British Hypertension Society Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences  MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study?  Response: About one in ten people who are pregnant develop high blood pressure and almost half of these go onto to have pre-eclampsia. Many pregnant women and individuals are already measuring their own blood pressure – well over half of those with high blood pressure in a recent large survey in the UK but until recently there were no data to support this. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Fertility, Heart Disease / 27.04.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Pensée Wu, MBChB, MD(Res) Senior Lecturer, Honorary Consultant Obstetrician Subspecialist in Maternal Fetal Medicine School of Medicine, Keele University Staffordshire, UK MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We looked at outcomes in pregnancies conceived with assisted reproductive technology and compared those with pregnancies that were conceived naturally. Using a hospital admissions database in the U.S. called the National inpatient sample between 2008 and 2016, we included >100,000 pregnancies conceived with assisted reproductive technology and 34 million naturally conceived pregnancies. We found that women with assisted reproductive technology-conceived pregnancies had doubled the risk of acute kidney injury and arrhythmias (irregular heart beats). These women also had a 1-3-1.6-fold risk of preterm birth, Caesarean delivery and placental abruption (placenta separating from the womb). We concluded that women should be informed of these risks during pre-pregnancy counselling.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Coffee, Heart Disease, JAMA, OBGYNE / 09.11.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stefanie N. Hinkle, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Biostatistics Epidemiology and Informatics Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Over 80% of U.S. women of reproductive age consume caffeine daily.While most women decrease consumption after becoming pregnant, many continue to consume caffeine throughout pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that pregnant women limit their caffeine consumption to <200 mg/d out of an abundance of caution due to potential associations with pregnancy loss and fetal growth restriction at higher intakes. There remains limited data on associations with maternal cardiometabolic outcomes in pregnancy.   (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Addiction, Author Interviews, OBGYNE / 02.11.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jeffrey Howard, PhD Associate Professor Department of Public Health College for Health, Community and Policy University of Texas at San Antonio MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Drug and alcohol related mortality has been on the rise in the US for the past decade, which has drawn a lot of focus from researchers.  At the same time maternal mortality, deaths caused by pregnancy complications, is recognized to be higher in the US than in other developed nations. Very little has been reported about deaths among pregnant and recently pregnant women that are not caused by pregnancy complications, so my collaborators and I wanted to explore this.  We did not anticipate that drug and alcohol deaths and homicides would account for so many deaths among pregnant and recently pregnant women. (more…)
Author Interviews / 06.10.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christine Toledo, PhD, MSN, APRN, FNP-C Assistant Professor Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing Florida Atlantic University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 11 and 20 percent of women who give birth each year in the U.S. have postpartum depression symptoms, equating to nearly 800,000 women every year. Postpartum Depression provides significant health risks to both the mother and child and is the greatest risk factor for maternal suicide and infanticide.   (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, OBGYNE, USPSTF / 06.10.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aaron B. Caughey, M.D., M.P.P., M.P.H., Ph.D. Professor and ChairDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology Associate dean for Women’s Health Research and Policy Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, OR. Founder and Chair, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–funded Oregon Perinatal Collaborative MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Preeclampsia is one of the most serious health problems that can occur during pregnancy. It can lead to preterm birth, and in some cases even death of the pregnant person and their baby. The Task Force looked at the latest available evidence and found that low-dose aspirin can help prevent preeclampsia in pregnant people who are at highest risk, and it can also protect their babies. This new final recommendation is consistent with the Task Force’s 2014 recommendation statement and has the potential to save many lives.  (more…)
Author Interviews, HPV, JAMA, OBGYNE / 16.09.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Helen Trottier Ph.D Assistant Professor, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Researcher, CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center Université de Montréal Montréal, Québec, Canada MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We know that HPV infection can have serious consequences such as the development of cancerous lesions in the cervix. HPV infection is also very prevalent in young women of childbearing age but the possible consequences of HPV in pregnancy have been poorly studied. Some population registers around the world have shown a reduction in the risk of preterm birth with HPV mass vaccination, but we must be careful with this kind of ecological correlation. We have set up a large cohort study in pregnant women to study the association between HPV in pregnancy and preterm birth by targeting certain HPV genotypes and the duration of the infection. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, JAMA, OBGYNE, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 28.08.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emily Oken MD MPH Professor, Harvard Medical School Professor in the Department of Population Medicine Associate Director and Advisor, Oliver Wendell Holmes Society. Professor, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: In this study of over 11,000 mothers and children, we found that a mothers with higher weight in late pregnancy had children with poorer performance on tests of cognition and behavior in childhood and adolescence. The findings are consistent with results from studies in other populations around the world, as well as animal experiments.  This research suggests that maternal nutrition is important for child health over the long-term, and specifically provides support for mothers to try to achieve healthy weight and nutritional status during pregnancy. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, OBGYNE, USPSTF, Weight Research / 03.06.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Chien-Wen Tseng, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.E.E. The Hawaii Medical Service Association Endowed Chair Health Services and Quality Research Professor, and Associate Research Director Department of Family Medicine and Community Health University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Gaining weight during pregnancy is natural but gaining too little or too much weight can be harmful for pregnant people and their babies. For the first time, the Task Force reviewed the evidence and found that counseling pregnant people on healthy weight gain during pregnancy can lower their risk for diabetes during pregnancy, emergency cesarean deliveries, and babies born with a birth weight that is too high. Pregnant people may not know what amount of weight gain is healthy during pregnancy, or how weight gain can affect their pregnancy and baby. We recommend that clinicians offer all pregnant people counseling on healthy weight gain throughout their pregnancy for healthier, safer pregnancies. (more…)
Author Interviews, Lancet, Nutrition, OBGYNE / 22.05.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Susan E. Carlson Ph.D. Associate Dean for Research Program Director,, AJ Rice Professor Department of Dietetics and Nutrition University of Kansas Medical Center Kansas City, KS MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are its benefits? Response: DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid. Good food sources include some types of seafood (e.g., salmon, tuna, trout) and chicken eggs. Persons in the USA and in much of the developing world consume little dietary DHA. DHA supplements in pregnancy have been linked to lower risk of preterm birth for 20 years, especially early preterm births (<34 weeks gestation). For about 10 years, prenatal supplements with about 200 mg DHA have been readily available in the USA, however, no study has asked if this amount of DHA is optimal to reduce early preterm birth. Participants were given a supplement of 1000 mg or 200 mg DHA beginning before 20 weeks gestation using an adaptive randomization that periodically assigned more participants to the group with the fewest early preterm births. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology, JAMA, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 09.05.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Niklas Worm Andersson, MD Department of Epidemiology Research Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen Denmark  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: "Findings from some previous fetal safety studies on topical corticosteroid use in pregnancy have raised concerns for an increased risk of newborns being small for gestational age or having low birth weight, in particular among pregnancies where larger amounts of potent to very potent agents have been used." (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, JAMA, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 23.04.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aris Papageorghiou MBChB, MRCOG Professor of Fetal Medicine and the Clinical Research Director Oxford Maternal and Perinatal Health Institute University of Oxford MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Our study was really guided by a key question: does Covid-19 in pregnancy increase the risk of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes as compared with pregnant women who do not have the infection? The question is highly relevant because of the known deleterious effects of other coronavirus infections in pregnancy, e.g. SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus). In order to answer this question we undertook this multinational cohort study. (more…)
Author Interviews, CMAJ, COVID -19 Coronavirus, OBGYNE / 19.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nathalie Auger Professeure agrégée de clinique École de santé publique - Département de médecine sociale et preventive University of Montreal MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been a major public health concern. The number of infected pregnant women continues to increase. Pregnant women and infants are particularly susceptible to COVID-19 because the physiologic changes of pregnancy involve cardiovascular, respiratory, and immune changes that may alter the response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fetuses may be exposed to SARS-CoV-2 during critical periods of development. The nature of the association between COVID-19 and pregnancy outcomes remains unclear and meta-analyses of pregnant women with COVID-19 are lacking. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, JAMA, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 08.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Erica M. Wymore, MD MPH Assistant Professor, Neonatal- Perinatal Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Section of Neonatology University of Colorado School of Medicine Children's Hospital Colorado Maya Bunik, MD, MPH  |  Professor, Pediatrics Medical Director, Child Health Clinic, Primary Care  |  Breastfeeding Management Clinic Adult and Child Consortium for Health Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS) School of Medicine| University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Children's Hospital Colorado MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Marijuana legalization has been increasing in the United States, with increasing consumption of marijuana products. Currently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) do not recommend marijuana use during pregnancy or lactation due to concerning though limited data on the effects of perinatal marijuana exposure. As there has been increasing prevalence of women using marijuana during pregnancy due to legalization and perceptions of safety, we sought to determine the duration of THC excretion in breast milk among women who had evidence of marijuana use at delivery and abstained post-partum.  (more…)
Fertility, OBGYNE / 17.02.2021

Not being able to have biological children is a fear most people hope they never to have to face. fertility-pregnancy-IVFAlthough we might not all have grown up knowing for sure if children were in our future, or already have our baby names picked out - James if it’s a boy Violet if it’s a girl - having the decision whether or not to have children taken away from us, due to biological issues inside our bodies, can be devastating. When trying to have children, it can of course, become very frustrating when you aren’t getting pregnant. If you find this is the case, it is recommended that you go to the doctor after one year of failing to conceive. It’s always a good idea to get tested to really understand what is happening in your body. The main signs a woman may be infertile is if her menstrual cycles are too long (35 days or more) or are too short (21 days or less). When going for fertility tests, it is good to have an idea of what to expect. For women, samples of blood will most likely be tested to check for the presence of the hormone Progesterone. For men, a semen sample is obtained for analysis, checking its quality and quantity. Sitting in a waiting room waiting for the results of yet more testing takes its toll, and it’s easy to feel helpless as the image of the life you had planned drifts further out of reach. Luckily nowadays, these results don’t have to be so final as we finally have other options. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, OBGYNE / 13.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sheela Maru, MD, MPH Department of Health System Design and Global Health and Arnhold Institute for Global Health and Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Universal screening for SARS-CoV-2 infection on Labor and Delivery (L&D) units is a critical strategy to manage patient and health worker safety, especially in a vulnerable high-prevalence community. We describe the results of a SARS-CoV-2 universal screening program at the L&D Unit at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NY, a 545-bed public hospital serving a diverse, largely immigrant and low-income patient population and an epicenter of the global pandemic. (more…)
Author Interviews, Columbia, JAMA, OBGYNE, Weight Research / 05.11.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marisa N. Spann, PhD, MPH Columbia University Irving Medical Center New York, New York MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Prior research has demonstrated that higher maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index is associated with adverse long-term outcomes for offspring including obesity, poorer cognitive and social abilities, and increased risk of psychiatric disorders.  MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Response: In this study, we investigated the association of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index with fetal growth and neonatal functional connectivity and found that maternal pre-pregnancy BMI has a significant positive correlation with fetal weight and with greater thalamic connectivity of the brain.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Fertility, OBGYNE / 30.09.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Liron Rozenkrantz Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Program in Placebo Studies, Harvard Medical School Former PhD student at Human Olfaction Research group, Department of Neurobiology Weizmann Institute of Science Reut Weissgross Research student Human Olfaction Research group, Department of Neurobiology Weizmann Institute of Science MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: A pregnancy loss is not such a rare event as you would think: it is estimated that about 50% of all conceptions (or 15% of the documented pregnancies) end in spontaneous miscarriage. About 1-2% of all couples trying to conceive will experience recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL), meaning 2-3 consecutive miscarriages, and despite going through numerous clinical investigations (hormonal tests, genetics and so) - about half of these cases will remain unexplained. This devastating phenomenon leaves couples with no explanation as to why they cannot bear a child. While most research in this field is focused on the reproductive organs (mainly the uterus), hormones and genes, we set out to look for new possible routes. The literature regarding the tight connection between olfaction and reproduction, mainly by social body-odors (or pheromones), is heavily documented, especially in rodents. Body-odors emitted from males affect pubertal development of juvenile female rodents and estrus cycle, and females body odors affect other females’ fertility state. The most robust phenomenon in this relation is the Bruce effect, in which pregnant female mice who are exposed to body-odors from a non-stud male - will experience impanation failure in 80% of exposures! Since there is growing evidence for the involvement of the olfactory system in human reproduction, we asked whether the olfactory system is also involved in human reproductive disorders such as unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss (uRPL). To answer this question, we recruited 40 women experiencing uRPL and 57 matched controls (who never experienced a miscarriage, and are at similar age to the uRPL women), and compared their olfactory profile, mainly in response to men’s body-odors. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, JAMA, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 25.09.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sarah E. Paul, BA , Graduate Student and Ryan Bogdan, PhD, Associate Professor BRAIN Lab Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO 63130 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Sarah Paul: This study was motivated by several trends in cannabis use, its legal landscape, and people's perception of risk. As more states legalize recreational cannabis use, cannabis has become more accessible as well as more potent. Over the past couple of decades, the percentage of adolescents and adults who think that cannabis use is risky or harmful has fallen substantially. Cannabis dispensaries have been reported to actually recommend cannabis to pregnant women for the treatment of pregnancy-related nausea. And finally, between 2002/2003 and 2016/2017, the percentage of women reporting cannabis use during their pregnancies rose 106%. Given these trends and the mixed literature regarding the potential consequences associated with prenatal cannabis exposure, we aimed to comprehensively examine a range of outcomes in a large, representative sample while accounting for a host of important potentially confounding covariates. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Fertility, Technology / 16.09.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hadi Shafiee, PhD Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are some of the characteristics that AI uses to identify blastocysts witha better chance of successful implantation?  Response: In-vitro fertilization (IVF), while a solution to many infertile couples is still extremely inefficient with a success rate of nearly 30% and is both mentally, physically, and economically taxing to patients. The IVF process involves the insemination of eggs and the culture of embryos externally in a fertility lab before transferring the developed embryo to the mother. A major challenge in the field is deciding on the embryos that need to be transferred during IVF, such that chances of a healthy birth are maximal and any complications for both mother and child are minimal. Currently, the tools available to embryologists when making such are extremely limited and expensive, and thus, most embryologists are required to make these life-altering decisions using only their observational skills and expertise. In such scenarios, their decision-making process is extremely subjective and tends to be variable. (more…)
Author Interviews, Coffee, OBGYNE / 25.08.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Jack E. James, PhD Reykjavík University Reykjavík Iceland  MedicalResearch.com: What prompted this study?  Response: Chronic exposure to any chemical during pregnancy is cause for concern. There should be no exception simply because that chemical, caffeine, happens to be widely consumed. Caffeine is a habit-forming substance of no nutritional value. If anything, its widespread consumption suggests that it should be given special attention. Concern is heightened by what is known about the effects of caffeine on the human body, where it affects neural processes in the brain, including networks that control respiration and heart function. When consumed during pregnancy, caffeine readily crosses the placenta, exposing the fetus to the drug. Notably, the fetus is largely physically incapable of metabolising caffeine – that ability develops during the first year of life. Pregnancy studies have shown that caffeine can interfere with fetal heart function and oxygenation.  (more…)