Theophylline, diazoxide, and papaverine in low concentrations relaxed the uterus with minimal or no elevation of cyclic AMP (cAMP) levels. In higher concentrations, theophylline relaxed the uterus and increased its cAMP levels, but imidazole reversed the increase in cAMP without causing recontraction. Imidazole and NaF caused uterine contractures but did not detectably decrease cAMP levels until several minutes after the onset of contractures. The uterine relaxations produced by theophylline and/or dibutyryl cAMP in amounts which increased uterine cAMP were not reversed by propranolol. These results eliminate the possibility that propranolol interfered with a relaxant action of cAMP. Along with previous data, these results also show that uterine contractile activity was not determined primarily by the general levels of cAMP and that phosphodiesterase activity in the uterus was insufficient to rapidly affect these cAMP levels. Also, substances like theophylline, diazoxide, and papaverine, postulated to inhibit phosphodiesterase activity, did not bring about their relaxant effects by this mechanism.
Trisomy 22 (47, XY, +22) was found at 17 weeks gestation in one fetus of a twin gestation. The karyotypes of both parents and of the other twin were normal. Abnormal prenatal findings included maternal pre-eclampsia, fetal growth retardation, and progressive intracranial sonolucency of the trisomic fetus. Delivery by cesarean section at 36 weeks gestation yielded a normal healthy female weighing 2,822 grams and a markedly macerated dysmorphic male weighing 642 grams. Holoprosencephaly was found in the trisomic fetus, an unusual feature in trisomy 22. Additional findings in this case are compared to other findings in the literature.
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