Objectives: Microbial invasion of the amniotic cavity (MIAC) can affect outcomes following rescue cerclage. We carried out a study to compare the diagnostic performance of the Gram stain and glucose tests for detecting subclinical MIAC. Methods: We used individual-level data from published studies on Gram stain, glucose, and amniotic fluid culture among women with preterm labour. We calculated the sensitivity, specificity, area under the curve (AUC) and other indices, with amniotic fluid culture results used as the gold standard.

Current understanding of the increased risk for stillbirth in gestational diabetes mellitus is often based on large cohort studies in which the risk of stillbirth in women with this disease is compared with the risk in women without. However, such studies could be susceptible to immortal time bias because, although many cohorts begin at 20 weeks' gestation, pregnancies must "survive" until 24-28 weeks in order to be screened and diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

εγδβ-thalassemia is rare hematological disease caused by either a deletion of the beta-globin gene cluster, or deletion of the upstream β locus control region (LCR). It results in a phenotype of beta-thalassemia trait in adulthood. In the fetal and newborn period, the phenotype can range from self-limiting anemia to life threatening anemia requiring intra-uterine transfusions.

Objective: To examine the effect of younger versus older children in the family (ages <6 vs. 6-11

years) on the mother’s physical activity, and smoking status. Methods: We studied all women

who participated in the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), 2009-2010, were 18-59

years old and had at least one child aged <11 years. The CCHS is a multi-stage health survey

involving 124,188 respondents who form a representative sample of the Canadian population.

For clinicians, it is important to rely on accurate laboratory results for patient care and optimal use of health care resources. We sought to explore our observations that urine protein:creatinine ratios (PrCr) >=30 mg/mmol are seen not infrequently associated with normal pregnancy outcome.

We evaluated the frequency of measurable albuminuria (P6.00 mg/L) for albumin:creatinine ratios (ACr) among 160 consecutive women attending high-risk clinics. Of last urine samples before delivery, 76 had measurable albuminuria and 41/76 (53.9%) had ACr P2 mg/mmol of which 7.3% had normal pregnancy outcome. 84 samples had albuminuria <6.00 mg/L and 43/84 (51.2%) had ACrP2 mg/mmol of which 25.6% had normal pregnancy outcome (p = 0.025). Excluding 48/160 (30.0%) dilute samples (urinary creatinine <3 mM), no samples with unmeasurable albuminuria had ACr P2 mg/mmol.