Background This was a hospital registry-based retrospective age-matched cohort study that aimed to compare pregnancy and neonatal outcomes of women with pre-existing mental disorders with those of mentally healthy women. Methods A matched cohort retrospective study was carried out in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno Klinikos, a tertiary health care institution. Medical records of pregnant women who gave birth from 2006 to 2015 were used. The study group was comprised of 131 pregnant women with mental disorders matched to 228 mentally healthy controls. The primary outcomes assessed were antenatal care characteristics; secondary outcomes were neonatal complications. Results Pregnant women with pre-existing mental health disorders were significantly more likely to have low education, be unmarried and unemployed, have a disability that led to lower working capacity, smoke more frequently, have chronic concomitant diseases, attend fewer antenatal visits, gain less weight, be hospitalized during pregnancy, spend more time in hospital during the postpartum period, and were less likely to breastfeed their newborns. The newborns of women with pre-existing mental disorders were small for gestational age (SGA) more often than those of healthy controls (12.9% vs. 7.6%, p < 0.05). No difference was found comparing the methods of delivery. Conclusions Women with pre-existing mental health disorders had a worse course of pregnancy. Mental illness increased the risk to deliver a SGA newborn (RR 2.055, 95% CI 1.081–3.908).

There is increasing evidence that host inflammatory responses play an important role in the development and progression of cancers. There are some data that cancer is associated not only with inflammation at the site of the lesion, but also with dysregulations of the host overall systemic immune response. In the case of cervical cancer, inflammation is an important factor associated with the development, progression, and potential metastasis of the disease. What is unclear still in the potential for modifications of host responses to human papillomaviruses (HPV)a known causative agent of CC, that could be induced by cigarette smoking. In particular, it remains to be determined how the inflammation induced by HPV infection could impact on CC incidence/severity. In this prospective study, serum levels of 10 cytokines were evaluated using Multiplex and ELISA assays. The samples were the sera of 43 CC patients and 60 healthy (NILM) controls. All outcomes were evaluated in relation to host HPV and to their smoking status. The results in indicated that serum sTREM-1, TNFa, IFNb, IL-1b, and IL-6 levels were significantly increased in CC (HPVþ) patients compared to healthy NILM controls. A similar trend was observed for IL-10 and IL-2 levels. Within the two groups, differences in cytokine levels between smokers and never smokers were not remarkable. The findings here support the hypothesized role of systemic inflammation in the pathophysiology of CC.

Our study aimed to evaluate the distribution of genotypes and allele frequencies of IL-6 597A/G (rs1800797) and 174G/C (rs1800795) polymorphisms in HPV infected and uninfected healthy women and cervical cancer patients. A PCR based Multiplex HPV genotyping test kit was used for in vitro detection and differentiation of high risk HPV genotypes. Genotyping of two polymorphisms, IL-6 597A/G (rs1800797) and 174G/C (rs1800795), was performed using the KASP genotyping assay kit. Cervical cancer patients were more likely to be HPV positive than control patients. Allele C of IL-6 rs1800795 was associated with a higher risk of cervical cancer by 2.26-fold and genotype CC by 5.37-fold. Genotype CC of IL-6 rs1800795 was more frequent in the HPV positive group compared with the HPV negative group (p = 0.002). Allele G of IL-6 rs1800797 was more frequently found in women with HPV16/HPV18 compared to other HPV types (p = 0.045). Women with AA genotypes of IL-6 rs1800797 were less frequently infected with HPV16/HPV18 compared to other HPV types (p = 0.045). The major finding of the study is the significant association of C allele and CC genotype of IL-6 1800795 gene with cervical cancer in the Lithuanian population. Genotype CC of IL-6 rs1800795 has a significant association with HPV infection as well.

Participants: Fifty-two prepubertal girls aged 1-9 years diagnosed with vulvovaginitis, and 42 age-matched healthy controls. Interventions and Main Outcome Measures: Samples for microbiological culture were collected using sterile cotton swabs from the introitus and the lower third of the vagina from all study participants. Microbiological findings were analyzed according to bacteria type and intensity of growth. Results: Most of the vaginal microbiological swab results were positive for bacterial growth: 47 (90.4%) and 34 (80.9%) were similar in the study and control groups, respectively (P 5 .24). Sixteen (30.8%) and 9 (21.4%) of the microbiological traits results in the case and control groups, respectively, were regarded as potential causative agents (P 5 .27). Streptococcus pyogenes was the most frequent pathogen in the study group (P 5 .03); all other microorganisms detected as either a pure or dominant growth in the control group, were considered opportunistic. Conclusions: Vaginal bacterial culture results were positive in prepubertal girls with vulvovaginitis and in healthy controls. Nonspecific vulvovaginitis without a dominant/isolated pathogen was seen to be more common than vulvovaginitis with a potential causative agent. Clinical symptoms were more frequent among girls when the potential infectious agent was identified.

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