O Basso

..30, 4.69). The authors found that a long TTP was associated with preeclampsia, supporting the hypothesis that some factors delaying clinically recognized conception may also be in a causal pathway for preeclampsia...

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..Women with recurrent pre-eclampsia or pre-eclampsia early in pregnancy reportedly have an increased long-term risk of CVD. Short stature is a risk factor for CVD but has rarely been examined in relation to pre-eclampsia...

..While TTP may serve as a valid surrogate measure in many situations, its validity rests upon a number of assumptions. We have analysed one of these overlooked assumptions, the importance of persistence in trying to become pregnant...

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..They also appear to be a result of choice (e.g. in older women). Biological factors also play a significant role in determining short interpregnancy intervals...

..To estimate the risk of having a low birthweight infant associated with changes in social, environmental, and genetic factors...

..To examine whether maternal prenatal lifestyle factors were associated with the risk of hospitalization with infectious disease during early childhood and whether a possible association was modified by fetal growth reduction...

..However, it could not explain the increased risk in children who were short at birth...

..We saw, however, different results when we stratified on the length of the interval. Our results indicate that the interval between births should be taken into consideration when studying the effect of changing partner on pre-eclampsia...

..Uncontrolled differences in lifestyle factors may explain the higher cancer risk associated with having multiple partners. The strong protective effect for melanoma was unexpected and deserves further study...

..The study provided no support for these expectations. If anything, males born with a birthweight of 3000-3999 g had slightly lower sperm counts and more abnormal spermatozoa...

..1 (2.0-33.7). This association was not restricted to cancer cases diagnosed shortly after birth of the child. Our results suggest a common genetic association between these diseases, but further studies are needed...

..The clinical sampling and the treatment set limitations for what can be studied. In certain situations, infertile patients can, however, provide useful epidemiologic evidence for learning about the causes of subfecundity...

..In predicting risk, it may be more informative to estimate smallness in relation to family norm (using the birth weight of an older sibling) rather than to use the standard "small-for-gestational-age" (SGA z-score) measure...

..If such rare factors underlie the association of birth weight with mortality, it would have broad implications for the study of fetal growth restriction and birth weight, and for the prevention of infant mortality...

..To examine whether infertile couples (with a time to pregnancy of > 12 months), who conceive naturally or after treatment, give birth to children with an increased prevalence of congenital malformations...

..This practice has increased in recent decades, but its net effect on fetal and infant survival has not been assessed...

..By using updated information, we assessed the frequencies of dizygotic (DZ) and monozygotic (MZ) twin deliveries as a function of infertility (TTP > 12 months), as well as infertility treatment...

..To examine the association between pesticide use during pregnancy and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) among wives of licensed pesticide applicators...

..Doing this may lead us in the wrong direction, as has likely happened in the case of birth weight in relation to infant survival...

..In conclusion, short gestational age, low birth weight, and intrauterine growth restriction are associated with an increased risk of epilepsy...

..In this study, we aimed at quantifying the risk of neonatal death as a function of a baby's failure to fulfil its biologic growth potential across the whole distribution of birth weight...

..To examine the association between infertility, with or without treatment, and fetal growth, as well as perinatal and infant mortality...

..The association could be caused by mutations of the gametes in men induced by biological or environmental factors...

..The study shows that caution is needed when studying health effects of procreation with multiple partners...

..Decreased fecundity has been hypothesized as one of the causes of the widespread decline in twin rates in the 1960s and 1970s. The association between high fecundity and twinning is not, however, well documented...

..Women having children with more than one man may have a higher risk of a pregnancy accelerating the diagnosis of MS but are probably not at an overall higher risk of MS...

..Fetal growth itself, determinants of fetal growth, or any unadjusted factors that correlate with fetal growth, could cause the association...

..Numerous rare genetic conditions are known to influence fecundability in both males and females. It is less clear to what extent more subtle genetic differences influence fecundability on a population level...

..Little is known about the relative importance of genes and early environment in the etiology of febrile convulsions...

..The authors did not account for gestational length, a strong predictor of perinatal death...

..Cola beverages, in particular, contain phosphoric acid and have been associated with urinary changes that promote kidney stones...

..Advanced paternal age has been linked to early preterm delivery (before 32 weeks)...

..3 (age 25-29), 1.4 (age 35-39), 1.7 (age 40-44), 1.6 (age 45-49), and 2.1 (age 50+) (test for trend: P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Risk of very preterm birth increases among older fathers, perhaps as a result of a paternal placental effect...

..The issues discussed here by no means constitute an exhaustive list, but aim at providing an introduction for researchers interested in this topic...