Summary This paper introduces the Mater Misericordiae Mothers' Hospital‐University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy, a prospective study of 8556 pregnant women interviewed at their first clinic visit, and subsequently interviewed some days after the birth of the baby and again 6 months later. Additional data were derived from the medical record of the pregnancy and delivery. The study was designed to assess the impact of social, psychological and obstetric factors on pregnancy outcome. We present here details of the study design, sampling, response rates and demographic characteristics of the sample.

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This review deals with individual components regulating the neural control of the urinary bladder. This article will focus on factors and processes involved in the two modes of operation of the bladder: storage and elimination. Topics included in this review include: (1) The urothelium and its roles in sensor and transducer functions including interactions with other cell types within the bladder wall (''sensory web''), (2) The location and properties of bladder afferents including factors involved in regulating afferent sensitization, (3) The neural control of the pelvic floor muscle and pharmacology of urethral and anal sphincters (focusing on monoamine pathways), (4) Efferent pathways to the urinary bladder, and (5) Abnormalities in bladder function including mechanisms underlying comorbid disorders associated with bladder pain syndrome and incontinence.

These findings are consistent with the notion that ATP is released endogenously during bladder distension in the rat and is involved significantly in the activation of pelvic nerve afferents arising from the rat urinary bladder.

SUMMARY1. A class of slowly adapting mechanoreceptors with A-delta and C fibres running in the splanchnic nerves of cats is described.2. The mechanoreceptors have punctate regions of mechanical sensitivity at macroscopic vascular branching points and have been found in the lesser omentum, the mesentery of the gall-bladder, porta hepatis, portal vein, pancreas, spleen and the duodenum, jejunum, ileum, colon and their mesenteries.3. The receptive fields of these mechanoreceptors vary considerably in size in the different regions. The largest receptive fields were found in the small intestinal mesentery and consisted of up to seven points of mechanical sensitivity at vascular divisions, each separated by distances of a few up to about 40 mm. The smallest receptive fields were single or double points of mechanical sensitivity which were most commonly found in relation to the portal vein in the root of the mesentery.4. Maintained stretch of the receptive field elicited a train of impulses which had phasic and tonic components. The tonic discharge was sometimes maintained for more than 1 min.5. Distension of a neighbouring viscus often caused a discharge which had a phasic component and a variable tonic component. The occurrence of the latter appeared to depend on the relative positions of the bowel and mesentery, and was probably associated with a change in tension on the mesentery.6. Occlusion of the portal vein resulted in some units in a discharge which began soon after the start of the occlusion.7. The receptors do not appear to be affected by acid, hypoxia or hypercapnia.