The Effect of Cervical Pessary on Increasing Gestational Age at Delivery in Twin Pregnancies With Asymptomatic Short Cervix: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

OBJECTIVE: The incidence of preterm delivery is much higher in twin pregnancies than in singletons and even higher if a short cervical length is detected in the second trimester. Studies are contradictory regarding the efficacy of a cervical pessary to decrease preterm birth in twin pregnancies and short cervical length. To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the efficacy of cervical pessary in prolonging gestation, preventing preterm birth, and reducing adverse neonatal outcomes in twin pregnancies with an asymptomatic short cervix. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrials.org were searched for randomized controlled trials from inception to June 2023. STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: In this study, randomized controlled trials comparing the cervical pessary to expectant management in the pregnant population with twin gestations and asymptomatic short cervix were included. METHODS: The Cochrane risk-of-bias-2 tool for randomized controlled trials was used for the evaluation of the risk of bias in included studies. A meta-analysis was performed by calculating risk ratio and mean difference with their 95% confidence interval using the random effects model or fixed effect model on the basis of heterogeneity and accounting for potential covariates among the included randomized controlled trials. RESULTS: A total of 6 randomized controlled trials were included in the analysis. Cervical pessary did not significantly increase the gestational age at delivery in twin pregnancies with asymptomatic patients (mean difference, 0.36 weeks [-0.27 to 0.99]; CONCLUSION: The use of cervical pessary in twin pregnancies with asymptomatic short cervix does not seem to be effective in increasing the gestational age at delivery, preventing preterm birth, or reducing adverse neonatal outcomes. This indicates that alternative interventions should be sought for the management of this patient population

Higher Adherence to the Mediterranean Dietary Pattern Is Inversely Associated With Severity of COVID-19 and Related Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background and AimsAdherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) has been associated with a decreased risk of developing a variety of chronic diseases that are comorbidities in COVID-19 patients. However, its association to the severity and symptoms of COVID-19 are still unknown. This study aimed to examine the association between adherence to the MD pattern and COVID-19 severity and symptoms in Iranian hospitalized patients.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, 250 COVID-19 patients aged 18 to 65 were examined. We employed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to obtain data on dietary intake of participants in the year prior to their COVID-19 diagnosis. COVID-19 severity was determined using the National Institutes of Health's Coronavirus Disease 2019 report. Additionally, symptoms associated with COVID-19, inflammatory markers, and other variables were evaluated. The scoring method proposed by Trichopoulou et al. was used to assess adherence to the MD.ResultsThe participants' mean age was 44.1 ± 12.1 years, and 46% of them had severe COVID-19. Patients who adhered more closely to the MD had lower serum C-reactive protein levels (7.80 vs. 37.36 mg/l) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (14.08 vs. 42.65 mm/h). Those with the highest MD score were 77% less likely to have severe COVID-19 after controlling for confounding variables. The MD score was also found to be inversely associated with COVID-19 symptoms, including dyspnea, cough, fever, chills, weakness, myalgia, nausea and vomiting, and sore throat.ConclusionHigher adherence to the MD was associated with a decreased likelihood of COVID-19 severity and symptoms, as well as a shorter duration of hospitalization and convalescence, and inflammatory biomarkers

Incidence and causes of perinatal death in prenataly diagnosed Vasa Previa: A systematic review and meta-analysis

To estimate the perinatal mortality associated with prenatally diagnosed vasa previa, and to determine what proportion of those perinatal deaths are directly attributable to vasa previa. PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase databases from January 1, 1987 to January 1, 2023. We included all studies (cohort studies and case reports/series) that had patients in which a prenatal diagnosis of vasa previa was made. Case series/reports were excluded from the meta-analysis. All cases in which prenatal diagnosis was not made were excluded from the study. The programming language software R (version 4.2.2) was used to conduct the meta-analysis. The data was logit-transformed and pooled using the fixed-effects model. The between-study heterogeneity was reported by I . The publication bias was evaluated by funnel plot and Peters' regression test. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to assess the risk of bias. Overall, 113 studies with a cumulative sample size of 1297 pregnant individuals were included. There included 25 cohort studies with 1167 pregnancies and 88 case series/reports with 130 pregnancies. Thirteen perinatal deaths occurred among these pregnancies, consisting of two stillbirths and 11 neonatal deaths. Among the cohort studies, the overall perinatal mortality was 0.94% (95% CI: 0.52-1.70, I = 0.0%). The pooled perinatal mortality attributed to vasa previa was 0.51% (95% CI: 0.23-1.14, I = 0.0%). Stillbirth and neonatal death were reported in 0.20% (95% CI: 0.05-0.80, I = 0.0%) and 0.77% (95% CI: 0.40-1.48, I = 0.0%) of pregnancies, respectively. Perinatal death is uncommon after a prenatal diagnosis of vasa previa. About half of the cases of perinatal mortality are not directly attributable to vasa previa. This information will help in guiding physicians in counseling and will provide reassurance to pregnant individuals with a prenatal diagnosis of vasa previa. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.