Thoracic electrical bioimpedance may be the most appropriate and accurate technique to measure normal hemodynamic changes during pregnancy and postpartum.
Objective: To analyze the clinical and sonographic variables that predicts the success of labor induction.
Study design:We studied the Bishop score, cervical length and parity in 196 pregnant women in the prediction of successful vaginal delivery within 24 h of induction. Logistic regression and segmentation analysis were performed.Results: Cervical length (odds ratio (OR) 1.089, P<0.001), Bishop score (OR 0.751, P ¼ 0.001) and parity (OR 4.7, P<0.001) predict the success of labor induction. In a global analysis of the variables studied, the best statistic sequence that predicts the labor induction was found when we introduced parity in the first place. The success of labor induction in nulliparous was 50.8 and 83.3% in multiparous women (P ¼ 0.0001).Conclusions: Cervical length, Bishop score and parity, integrated in a flow chart, provide independent prediction of vaginal delivery within 24 h of induction.
In this study, we examined whether free DNA extracted from the plasma of breast cancer patients, characterized as tumor DNA, could predict the overall survival (OS) of breast cancer patients. In total, 147 patients and 35 healthy controls were studied. Plasma DNA was assessed in the same way as tumor DNA, following identification of similar alterations in polymorphic markers and TP53 gene mutations. Although OS was the main focus of this study, recurrence and disease-free survival (DFS) were also analyzed. In 61 of the 142 patients, with an average 58 months of follow-up, a similar molecular signature in tumor and plasma DNA was detected. OS was 71% (95% CI, 61%-81%), and distribution as regards tumor plasma DNA was 59% (95% CI, 45%-73%) for positive cases and 83% (95% CI, 73%-93%) for negative cases (P = 0.01). Univariate analysis revealed a predictive value for tumor plasma DNA (P = 0.018) hazard ratio (HR) 2.5 (95% CI, 1.2-5.3), while multivariate analysis did not (P = 0.3), HR 1.6 (95% CI, 0.6-4.4). DFS was 37% (95% CI, 19%-55%) for positive patients and 75% (95% CI, 57%-93%) for negative patients (P = 0.005). Among the 35 recurrences observed, 25 were positive for tumor plasma DNA and 10 were negative, (P < 0.001). These results indicate that tumor plasma DNA at diagnosis can serve as a prognostic marker of the OS of breast cancer patients.
OBJECTIVE:
To compare the effectiveness of a cervical pessary and vaginal progesterone to prevent spontaneous preterm births in pregnant women with cervical lengths 25 mm or less as measured by transvaginal ultrasonography.
METHODS:
This was a multicenter, open-label, randomized, noninferiority trial. Women with singleton pregnancies and a short cervix (25 mm or less) measured transvaginally at the second-trimester ultrasonogram were invited to participate. They were computer-randomized (one to one) into cervical pessary placement or treatment with vaginal progesterone (200 mg/24 hours). The primary outcome was spontaneous preterm delivery before 34 weeks of gestation. The noninferiority margin was set at 4% with a 0.025 one-sided α level and a statistical power of 80%. That is, if the 95% CI upper bound exceeded 4%, the pessary could not be deemed noninferior. A sample size of 254 women was required to show noninferiority of the pessary to progesterone.
RESULTS:
The trial was conducted from August 2012 to April 2016 with the participation of 27 Spanish hospitals. A total of 254 patients were enrolled and 246 included in the intention-to-treat analysis. Demographic and baseline characteristics were similar across groups. The rate of spontaneous delivery before 34 weeks of gestation was 14% (n=18/127) in the pessary group and 14% (n=17/119) in the progesterone group with a risk difference of −0.11% (95% CI −8.85% to 8.62%; P=.99), that is, noninferiority was not shown for the pessary. The incidence of increased vaginal discharge (87% vs 71%, P=.002) and discomfort (27% vs 3%, P<.001) was significantly higher in the pessary group.
CONCLUSION:
A cervical pessary was not noninferior to vaginal progesterone for preventing spontaneous birth before 34 weeks of gestation in pregnant women with short cervixes.
CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:
EU Clinical Trials Register, 2012-000241-13; ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01643980.
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