The clinical significance of electronic fetal heart rate monitoring in twins

Objectives: Fully effective intrapartum cardiotocographic (CTG) fetal heart monitoring is still missing. Visual analysis is far from credibility. Additional, computerized analysis techniques were proposed however they did not substantially decrease possible risks of fetal asphyxia. In twin pregnancies the problem is even more complicated. Our goal is to find the most valuable parameters in intrapartum CTG surveillance in twins, based on actual FIGO criteria. Material and methods: Study included 58 women in labor who had been admitted to Delivery Department of tertiary care hospital with twin pregnancy in a period of one year. The features of the CTG (e.g., baseline, oscillation, decelerations, brady- or tachycardia) were grouped to create three variables that were closest to the FIGO CTG scale. All three groups were compared according to neonatal status (Apgar score at 5 min ≥ 7 or < 7; pH value in umbilical artery ≥ 7.20, < 7.20 or < 7.10 and BE (base excess) > or ≤ –12). Fetal status and its acid — base equilibrium was compared either with long term variability (LTV), short term variability (STV), or percentage of the signal loss. Results: Out of 58 twin pregnancies, a total of 116 babies were born. One baby was born dead. From this group, 11 deliveries were natural births and 47 deliveries were C-sections. None of the analyzed features (pH, BE, Apgar, CTG features except tracing length, CTG FIGO categories) were statistically different between groups of singleton and twin pregnancies, except percentage of C-sections. No differences were found either for STV or LTV and fetal status.org CTG categories. Conclusions: Prior to cardiotocographic tracing of twins during labor, ultrasound examination should be mandatory. Considerable loss of signal in CTG tracing in twins should provoke ultrasonographic confirmation of the fetal status

Outcome dependent growth curves for singleton pregnancies based on birth weight of babies for Polish population

Objectives: To create outcome dependent fetal growth curves and birth weight standards that can be analyzed for use inclinic specifically for Western European populations.Material and methods: We conducted a retrospective study on fetal growth and birth weight trends from live birth singletonpregnancies between 2005 and 2018 at one of the largest tertiary gynecologic-obstetric hospitals in Poland. Theinclusion criteria were at least 22 weeks of gestation at birth regardless of delivery mode (vaginal or C-section), no congenitalanomalies diagnosed before and after delivery and an Apgar score of at least 7 in the first minute. The final samplehad a total of 39,413 cases (18,562 girls and 20,851 boys). We presented 7 (for all fetuses in the 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90thand 95th percentiles) and 6 (for boys and girls each at 10th, 50th and 90th percentiles) fetal growth curves between 25 and40 weeks of gestation. Birth weight trends were obtained and analyzed from all babies in the 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and95th percentiles born between 22 to 42 weeks of gestation with also separate trends for boys and girls.Results: The largest differences in fetal growth curves were observed in the 10th and 50th percentiles between 22 and34 weeks of gestation. A decreasing fetal weight gain pattern was observed between 27 and 30 weeks and after 38 weeksof gestation, the decrease was more drastic in female. A significant increase from 2009 to 2017 was observed in the weightof 50th percentile babies born at or after 35 weeks. We found significant discrepancies between our results and the mostused European fetal growth curves particularly in the 10th and 90th percentile weights at 30 weeks.Conclusions: Separate scales for boys and girls were implied and given the overall difference form commonly used references.We believe there is significant value in using these unique patterns found in fetal growth curves and birth weightsof ethnically homogenous population (such as Poland) at everyday clinical practice for more opportunities of safe obstetriccare and higher chances of delivering a healthy child

Strong Constraints on the Rare Decays B-s(0) -> mu(+)mu(-) and B-0 -> mu(+)mu(-)

A search for B-s(0) -> mu(+)mu(-) and B-0 -> mu(+)mu(-) decays is performed using 1.0 fb(-1) of pp collision data collected at root s = 7 TeV with the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. For both decays, the number of observed events is consistent with expectation from background and standard model signal predictions. Upper limits on the branching fractions are determined to be B(B-s(0) -> mu(+)mu(-)) mu(+)mu(-)) < 1.0(0.81) x 10(-9) at 95% (90%) confidence level

Measurement of relative branching fractions of B decays to psi(2S) and J/psi mesons

The relative rates of B-meson decays into J/psi and psi(2S) mesons are measured for the three decay modes in pp collisions recorded with the LHCb detector. The ratios of branching fractions (B) are measured to be B(B+ -> psi(2S)K+)/B(B+ -> J/psi K+) = 0.594 +/- 0.006(stat) +/- 0.016(syst) +/- 0.015(R-psi), B(B-0 -> psi(2S)K*(0))/B(B-0 -> J/psi K*(0)) = 0.476 +/- 0.014(stat) +/- 0.010(syst) +/- 0.012(R-psi), B(B-s(0) -> psi(2S)phi)/B(B-s(0) -> J/psi phi) = 0.489 +/- 0.026(stat) +/- 0.021(syst) +/- 0.012(R-psi), where the third uncertainty is from the ratio of the psi(2S) and J/psi branching fractions to mu(+)mu(-)