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This article is part of a Special Issue "Energy Balance". In female Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus), low circulating levels of ovarian steroids are associated with increased food hoarding and decreased sexual motivation, but these effects are exaggerated in food-restricted females. To determine whether cold ambient temperature has the same effects as food restriction, groups of hamsters were fed ad libitum while they were housed at either 5 °C or 22 °C, and then tested for behavior for 90 min on each day of the estrous cycle. In females housed at 22 °C, high levels of sexual motivation and low levels of food hoarding were seen every day of the estrous cycle. In females housed at 5 °C, high levels of sexual motivation were restricted to the periovulatory day. On the three nonestrous days, these females showed high levels of food hoarding, but not food intake. A separate cohort of females were provided with access to running wheels and housed at 22 °C. They showed high levels of sexual motivation restricted to the periovulatory day, similar to the pattern of sexual motivation seen in cold-housed females. Unlike cold-housed females, those with running wheels showed low levels of food hoarding and high levels of food intake. Food restriction, cold housing, and access to wheels had no significant effect on plasma estradiol or progesterone concentrations, but significantly decreased plasma leptin concentrations. All three energetic challenges unmask estrous cycle fluctuations in sexual motivation that are obscured in laboratory conditions, i.e., isolation in a small cage with an overabundance of food.

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Objective: We investigated using "pulsatile vessels at the posterior bladder wall" as a novel sonographic marker to demonstrate the severity of placenta accreta spectrum (PAS). Methods: This observational case-control study of 30 pregnant women was performed at Hackensack Meridian Health's Center for Abnormal Placentation in 2020. The case group was made up of women with historically described sonographic signs of PAS and was compared against two control groups: (1) women with uncomplicated placenta previa and (2) women with no evidence of placenta previa sonographically. All patients were evaluated with Color Flow Doppler ultrasound to assess the presence of arterial vessels at the posterior bladder wall. The flow characteristics and resistance indices (RI) were noted in the presence of pulsatile vessels. All patients' placentation was clinically confirmed at delivery. Patients with clinical invasive placentation underwent histopathological diagnosis to confirm disease presence. Results: Hundred percent of subjects in our series with suspected PAS exhibited pulsatile arterial vessels at the posterior bladder wall sonographically with a low RI of 0.38 AE 0.1 at an average of 24.6 AE 5.2 gestational weeks. Cases were histopathologically confirmed to have placenta percreta after delivery. Patients in either of the control groups did not display pulsatile vessels at the posterior bladder wall during antenatal sonographic evaluations and had no clinical evidence of PAS. Conclusion:The presence of posterior urinary bladder wall pulsatile arterial vessels with low RI, in addition to traditional sonographic markers increases the suspicion of severe PAS. Thus, these findings allow for the greater opportunity for coordination of patient care prior to delivery.