Application of Intima Media Thickness Measurement and Omics in Intrauterine Growth Restriction Disease

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A standardized postmortem protocol to assess the real burden of sudden infant death syndrome

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Assessing maternal alcohol consumption in pregnancy : comparison of confidential postnatal maternal interview and measurement of alcohol biomarkers in meconium

Knowledge of alcohol consumption in pregnancy is important for early identification of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. We investigated whether alcohol biomarkers fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) and ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in meconium are predicted by maternal or newborn demographics and/or correlate with confidential early postnatal self-report of alcohol consumption in pregnancy. Anonymised, observational population-based study. Inner-city maternity unit, Glasgow, UK. Singleton mother/infant dyads delivering every fourth day. Mother: confidential postnatal interview. Baby: meconium sample for FAEEs and EtG. 840/908 mothers consented. 370 (46.4%) reported alcohol consumption in pregnancy, generally of modest amount; for 114 (13.6%) this was after 20 weeks' gestation. Alcohol consumption in later pregnancy was more commonly reported by older (31.3 vs 29.5 years) women of white British ethnicity (

Assessing maternal alcohol consumption in pregnancy : does phosphatidylethanol measured from day 5 newborn blood spot cards have any value? An observational, population-based study

Objective Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) places children at risk of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) but ascertainment of PAE is problematic. Early intervention for children at risk of FASD may help mitigate long-term difficulties. Phosphatidylethanol (PEth), a metabolite of alcohol, is incorporated into red cell membranes and can be measured in dried blood spot (DBS) cards. In the UK, DBS samples are collected on day 5 for routine newborn screening. We sought to examine if PEth measured from DBS correlates with postnatal maternal self-report of alcohol consumption in pregnancy. Design Observational population-based study. Comparison of infant PEth concentration and self-report of maternal alcohol use during pregnancy.Setting Large maternity unit in Glasgow, Scotland. Participants All singleton mother–infant dyads delivered during each fourth consecutive 24-hour period.Interventions Mother: direct, confidential, immediate postnatal interview by a single researcher examining alcohol use during pregnancy. Infant: one extra DBS collected coincident with routine newborn screening if bleeding continued. Results 92.5% of eligible mothers agreed to participate. 510 DBS were obtained of which 502 were successfully analysed. 216 (43%) samples contained PEth at a concentration of ≥8 ng/mL and 148 (29.5%) at ≥20 ng/mL. The sensitivity of PEth ≥8 ng/mL and ≥20 ng/mL in identifying women who self-reported modest alcohol use after 36 weeks’ gestation was 50% and 36.4%, respectively. Conclusion PEth measured from DBS obtained on day 5 of life does not reliably identify modest PAE after 36 weeks’ gestation from maternal self-report. Data are available upon reasonable request

Rapid identification and screening of proteins from whole cell lysates of human erythroleukemia cells in the liquid phase, using non-porous reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography separations of proteins followed by multi-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry analysis and sequence database searching

Non-porous reversed phase (NPRP) high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been used as a rapid method to separate proteins from whole cell lysates of human erythroleukemia (HEL) cells. Using phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) as a lysis buffer to extract proteins from HEL cells, more than 100 proteins of molecular weight up to 30 kDa were separated by the NPRP HPLC method, using a programmed acetonitrile:H 2 O gradient. The separated proteins were collected as liquid fractions as they eluted, and were further separated on the NPRP column with a different gradient to separate coeluting peaks. The isolated protein fractions were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) to determine the molecular weight of the protein. The proteins were cleaved by chemical or enzymatic digestion to produce peptide maps, which were analyzed by pulsed delayed extraction MALDI-MS. The peptide maps were matched against a database search to determine the protein identity. In some cases, several enzymes were used in order to find exactly one match against the database. This methodology is demonstrated for several proteins isolated from HEL cells and identified via database matching.Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/35075/1/423_ftp.pd

11TH INFORMAL MEETING OF MASS-SPECTROMETRY, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 26-28 APRIL 1993

The article summarizes the outcomes and the main events of the 11th Informal Meeting of Mass Spectrometry, that was held in Budapest