Drinking and smoking at 3 months postpartum by lactation history

A spontaneous decrease in maternal drinking and smoking often occurs during pregnancy. The present study was conducted to determine if these lower levels of maternal drinking and smoking during pregnancy persist into the postpartum period, and if so, to determine if they are related to breastfeeding. Drinking and smoking were estimated in three cohorts of postpartum women who had been followed since pregnancy. The first group never breastfed their infants; the second group breastfed for less than 1 month; the third group breastfed for more than three months. (Women who weaned between one and three months were not studied.) Drinking and smoking in all three groups decreased sharply during pregnancy but rose again in the 3 months after delivery, though not to levels that were reported before conception. Usual drinking in the third month postpartum did not differ significantly among the three lactation groups. However, women who were still nursing were less likely to report occasional episodes of heavy drinking (binges) in this month than women who had weaned early or never breastfed. Women nursing in the third month postpartum were also significantly less likely to smoke during the month; if smoking, they were less likely to smoke heavily. These differences in postpartum drinking and smoking were not due entirely to habits before conception or to the influence of other potentially confounding variables.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73488/1/j.1365-3016.1990.tb00653.x.pd

Robotic Adrenalectomy for Functional Adenoma in Second Trimester Treats Worsening Hypertension.

A 33-year-old G6P3023 was found to have a 4.2 cm right adrenal incidentaloma during an admission for right pyelonephritis. Computed tomography (CT) was performed to rule out perinephric abscess in the setting of worsening leukocytosis while on antibiotics ( Fig. 1). Initial differential diagnosis from endocrinology included pheochromocytoma and primary aldosteronism. Due to the lack of typical physical exam stigmata, Cushing syndrome was initially of low concern. Of note, her past medical history included hypertension treated with amlodipine 10 mg and hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 mg. During admission, extensive endocrine laboratory workup demonstrated an elevated aldosterone:plasma renin activity, suppressed dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), normal 24-hour urine metanephrine and catecholamine, and hypokalemia ( Table 1). This initial biochemical workup did not provide any definitive diagnosis; however, it did convincingly rule out pheochromocytoma due to the normal catecholamine levels in the serum and urine. Eliminating this pathology was critical due to the mortality of hypertensive crisis in the perioperative period

Individual-environment interactions in swimming: The smallest unit for analysing the emergence of coordination dynamics in performance?

Displacement in competitive swimming is highly dependent on fluid characteristics, since athletes use these properties to propel themselves. It is essential for sport scientists and practitioners to clearly identify the interactions that emerge between each individual swimmer and properties of an aquatic environment. Traditionally, the two protagonists in these interactions have been studied separately. Determining the impact of each swimmer’s movements on fluid flow, and vice versa, is a major challenge. Classic biomechanical research approaches have focused on swimmers’ actions, decomposing stroke characteristics for analysis, without exploring perturbations to fluid flows. Conversely, fluid mechanics research has sought to record fluid behaviours, isolated from the constraints of competitive swimming environments (e.g. analyses in two-dimensions, fluid flows passively studied on mannequins or robot effectors). With improvements in technology, however, recent investigations have focused on the emergent circular couplings between swimmers’ movements and fluid dynamics. Here, we provide insights into concepts and tools that can explain these on-going dynamical interactions in competitive swimming within the theoretical framework of ecological dynamics

Cervical mucus: Its structure and possible biological functions

Cervical mucin, and its aqueous counterpart, which together form cervical mucus, has been studied by many investigators, some of whom have divorced it from its biological context. This communication is an attempt to redress the imbalance by a consideration of the possible role that cervical mucus may play in fertility, cervical cancer and in the development of alternative forms of contraception