PAIN RELIFE DURING LABOR: EFFICACY OF SKIN ELECTRICAL STIMULATION (TENS, INTERFERENTIAL, HIGH VOLTAGE)

Introduction. Pain during labor is a physiologic pain cause anxity in mothers.There are many procedures to make labor painless in mothers. This study compare some of these methods.
 Methods. The study was carried out as a double blinded clinical trial on 149 pregnant women who refered to the Beheshti hospital (affiliated to IUMSHS)during 1998 to 2001 with labor pain. The term gravid women were divided randomly to five group. Control group (30 Cases),Placebo group (30 Cases), TENS (30 Cases), High voltage (26 Cases) and Interferential (30 Cases).Pain level was measured with modified Mc Gill and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) questionnaire at 4, 6, 8 and 10 Cm cervical dilation.
 Results. Difference was seen between TENS with placebo & control (P<0.05). The average time of active phase was significantly shorter (40-85 minute) in Interferential group in comparison with other groups.
 Discussion. This is probably an indication of augmentation of contraction and may be this kind of wave could be used in abnormal uterine contraction and abnormal progress of labor

Improved assay for quantifying a redox form of angiotensinogen as a biomarker for pre-eclampsia: A case-control study

Objective: Angiotensinogen exists in two distinct redox forms in plasma, the oxidized sulfhydryl-bridge form and the reduced, unbridged, free thiol form. The oxidized form of angiotensinogen compared to the free thiol form preferentially interacts with renin resulting in increased generation of angiotensin. The predictive potential of the ratio of free-thiol to oxidized angiotensinogen in the plasma for pre-eclampsia was first suggested by the Read group in ref 10. We propose an improved method for determining the ratio and validate the method in a larger cohort of pregnant women. Methods: Plasma samples from 115 individuals with pre-eclampsia and from 55 healthy pregnant control subjects were collected sequentially over a 2 year period. Using two distinct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) the plasma levels of total and free thiol angiotensinogen were quantified. The oxidized angiotensinogen plasma level is derived by subtracting the level of free thiol, reduced angiotensinogen from the total angiotensinogen levels in the plasma. Results: The relative proportion of free thiol angiotensinogen, expressed as a percentage of that observed with an in-house standard, is significantly decreased in pre-eclamptic patients (70.85% ± 29.49%) (mean ± SD) as compared to healthy pregnant controls (92.98 ± 24.93%) (mean ± SD) p ≤ 0.0001. The levels of total angiotensinogen did not differ between the two groups