Pregnancy News and Research

Latest Pregnancy News and Research

New DNA-based prenatal blood test can identify pregnancy with Down syndrome

A new DNA-based prenatal blood test that can strikingly reduce the number of risky diagnostic procedures needed to identify a pregnancy with Down syndrome is ready to be introduced into clinical practice.

18 Oct 2011

VIVUS announces Qnexa NDA resubmission for treatment of obesity

VIVUS, Inc. today announced that the company has resubmitted the New Drug Application (NDA) for Qnexa to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

18 Oct 2011

Viewpoints: Class Act's effect on health law; new prescriptions for Medicare; food marketing to kids

Now that one of ObamaCare's major new benefit programs has been scrapped, liberals are trying to make stone soup by claiming that the Obama Administration merely committed an act of "good government." They claim that when this long-term care insurance program proved to be unworkable, the Administration conceded as much, and now it's gone. So let's review the evidence, not least because it so perfectly illustrates the recklessness that produced the Affordable Care Act.

18 Oct 2011

Scientists discover enzyme that acts as a 'fertility switch'

Scientists have discovered an enzyme that acts as a 'fertility switch', in a study published in Nature Medicine today. High levels of the protein are associated with infertility, while low levels make a woman more likely to have a miscarriage, the research has shown.

18 Oct 2011

Women to use her mother’s womb in Australian medical first transplant

A Victorian woman will be the first Australian to use her own mother’s womb after it has been transplanted into her. Intensive care nurse Melinda Arnold, 34, will undergo a womb transplant after her mother, Denise Allen, agreed to donate the organ to her. Mrs. Arnold, who was born without a womb but with ovaries that produce eggs, twice tried unsuccessfully to use her mother as a surrogate and adoption attempts also failed.

17 Oct 2011

FDA may be lax when it comes to laws on sea food safety: Study

Due to the last year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a new study contends that current federal standards underestimate the risk to pregnant women and children of cancer-causing contaminants that can accumulate in seafood from such spills.

16 Oct 2011

Exercise stimulates two beneficial proteins in women before and during pregnancy

Although exercise is generally considered to be a good thing for people with high blood pressure, it has traditionally been considered too risky for women who are also pregnant. Some studies suggest that exercise has benefits such as decreasing the risk of women developing preeclampsia, a condition that raises blood pressure to dangerously high levels but how this might happen has remained unknown.

15 Oct 2011

IRIN reports on community's efforts to increase access to contraceptives, improve family planning in Madagascar

IRIN reports on one community's efforts to increase access to contraceptives and help provide information on family planning in Madagascar. The news service highlights efforts by women in Antalaha, Madagascar, who formed an association called Femmes Interessee au Development de Antalaha.

15 Oct 2011

APS conference explores gender disparities in cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease and other gender-specific conditions - such as menopause, pregnancy, depression, and obesity - will be explored in depth at a two day conference being sponsored by the American Physiology Society (APS), the nation's leading organization for the advancement of this vital science, with support from the American Heart Association and the Society for Women's Health Research.

14 Oct 2011

USAID award supports study of SILCS diaphragm plus tenofovir gel on HIV, HSV

USAID awarded CONRAD a five year project with a $2 million ceiling to focus on testing the safety and effectiveness of the SILCS diaphragm, the one-size-fits-most contraceptive barrier, combined with tenofovir gel -- the only topical product proven to prevent the acquisition of HIV and Herpes Simplex Virus.

14 Oct 2011

Current ultrasound guidelines for detection of miscarriage may lead to wrong diagnosis

Current guidelines that help clinicians decide whether a woman has had a miscarriage are inadequate and not reliable, and following them may lead to the inadvertent termination of wanted pregnancies. This is the conclusion of a series of papers published in the international journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

14 Oct 2011

Merck announces results from ISENTRESS Phase III combination study on HIV-1

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced results of new exploratory pre-specified analyses from the ongoing STARTMRK Phase III study of its integrase inhibitor ISENTRESS (raltegravir) Tablets in combination therapy compared to efavirenz in combination therapy in previously untreated adult HIV-1-infected patients.

14 Oct 2011

GFAP protein levels can help identify HIE in newborns

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that increased blood levels of a protein specific to central nervous system cells that are vital to the brain's structure can help physicians identify newborns with brain injuries due to lack of oxygen.

14 Oct 2011

Longer looks: Miss. ballot-initiative on abortion; personal fortune may have helped Herman Cain battle cancer; for doctors, breaking up is hard to do

One evening in late September John Perkins, a veteran of the civil-rights movement, attended a rally at a Baptist church in Jackson in support of what he called "a total justice issue," … It was concerned with Amendment 26, a measure on Mississippi's ballot this November that defines a person as being "every human being from the moment of fertilisation, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof". The reason for the measure is straightforward; its consequences less so. The Supreme Court, in its landmark Roe v Wade ruling in 1973, held that the right of a woman to terminate her pregnancy in the first trimester was guaranteed by her constitutional right to privacy.

14 Oct 2011

Action Medical Research announces grants to investigate conditions affecting babies, children

Action Medical Research - the leading UK-wide medical research charity dedicated to helping babies and children - has today announced grants worth more than £1.3 million for top researchers across the country.

13 Oct 2011

Simmons Center to evaluate CGEN-25009 for treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Compugen Ltd. and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation announced today that the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation will provide a grant to scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Dorothy P. and Richard P.

13 Oct 2011

'Building Sustainable Surgical Systems' conference to be held in San Diego

Today, around the world, more than two billion world citizens do not have access to emergency and essential surgical care. The results are devastating, leading to more than 500,000 maternal deaths and more than 5 million fatalities associated with everyday injuries such as road traffic accidents and burns. This lack of surgical care is arguably a top killer around the world but mostly ignored by organizations that can affect positive change.

13 Oct 2011