Background:It has been widely demonstrated that air pollution can affect human health and that certain pollutant gases lead to adverse obstetric outcomes, such as preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction.Objectives:We evaluated the influence of individual maternal exposure to air pollution on placental volume and vascularization evaluated in the first trimester of pregnancy.Methods:This was a cross-sectional study on low-risk pregnant women living in São Paulo, Brazil. The women carried passive personal NO2 and O3 monitors in the week preceding evaluation. We employed the virtual organ computer-aided analysis (VOCAL) technique using three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound to evaluate placental volume and placental vascular indexes [vascularization index (VI), flow index (FI), and vascularization flow index (VFI)]. We analyzed the influence of pollutant levels on log-transformed placental vascularization and volume using multiple regression models.Results:We evaluated 229 patients. Increased NO2 levels had a significant negative association with log of VI (p = 0.020 and beta = –0.153) and VFI (p = 0.024 and beta = –0.151). NO2 and O3 had no influence on the log of placental volume or FI.Conclusions:NO2, an estimator of primary air pollutants, was significantly associated with diminished VI and VFI in the first trimester of pregnancy.Citation:Hettfleisch K, Bernardes LS, Carvalho MA, Pastro LD, Vieira SE, Saldiva SR, Saldiva P, Francisco RP. 2017. Short-term exposure to urban air pollution and influences on placental vascularization indexes. Environ Health Perspect 125:753–759; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP300

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Since studies show that an unfavorable environment during intrauterine development predisposes individuals to several diseases in adulthood, our objective is to assess the relation between fetal growth restriction and chronic renal disease in adults. We searched four different electronic databases through November 2017: CENTRAL, EMBASE, LILACS and MEDLINE. We selected studies with longitudinal or transversal designs associating kidney function in adulthood with low birth weight. Two reviewers evaluated the inclusion criteria and the risk of bias and extracted data from the included papers. Thirteen studies were selected for the systematic review and meta-analysis. We observed increased risks of presenting end-stage renal disease (risk ratio 1.31, 95% confidence interval: 1.17, 1.47), a lower glomerular filtration rate (ml/min) (mean difference 7.14; 95% confidence interval: -12.12, -2.16), microalbuminuria (risk ratio 1.40; 95% confidence interval: 1.28, 1.52) and a small increase in the albumin/creatinine ratio (mean difference 0.46; 95% confidence interval: 0.03, 0.90) in the low birth weight patients, compared with control group. These findings suggest that low birth weight is associated with renal dysfunction in adults.

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There have been controversies over the effect of hypertension in pregnancy on the incidence of lypc I neonatal respiratory distress syndrome or hyaline membrane disease (HMD). We investigated the relationship between the incidence of HMD and maternal hypertension during pregnancy in 91 infants at 34 week gestation or !es. This retrospective cross sectional study included all IJve born babies between May 1, 1994 and Apri130, 1995 at Dr. Hasan Sadiki.n Gen raJ Hospital, Bandung. Maternal hypertension during pregnancy was diagnosed in 38 mothers of91 infant studied. The incidence of HMD (5%) in the maternal hypertension during pregnancy group was significantly lower than the 62% in the normotensive group (p