No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Fetal heart rate variability (fHRV) is an essential source of information to monitor fetal well-being during pregnancy. This study aimed to apply a nonlinear approach, known as symbolic dynamics (SD), for comparing human fHRV in the third trimester of pregnancy during active fetal state (TT) and active labor at term (P).We performed a longitudinal, prospective, descriptive, and comparative study composed of 42 longitudinal recordings of 5-minutes of fetal heartbeat interval series. Recordings were collected from 21 low-risk, healthy, pregnant women attending the Maternal and Child Research Center (CIMIGen), Mexico City.We calculated relevant linear parameters of fHRV between TT and P stages, such as the percentage of differences between adjacent RR intervals >5 ms (PRR5, related to vagal modulations) and other SD parameters such as the percentage of no variations between three successive symbols (%0V, reflects sympathetic modulations) and the probability of low variability with a threshold of 4 ms (POLVAR4, associated with a low variability).We identified statistical differences for PRR5 between .76%], p ¼ 0.03), respectively. Also, for 0V% (65.

Labor is regarded as increased myometrial activity with a regular contractility pattern. At this final stage of pregnancy, myometrial quiescence is lost, accompanied by altered immune homeostasis. It is well known that the interleukin (IL)-10 family of cytokines modulates immunological responses mainly in epithelial cells, including the endometrium. To investigate their inflammatory profile during labor, we performed a longitudinal study in a group of healthy pregnant women (n = 20) with uncomplicated pregnancies in the third trimester of pregnancy and during active labor. Blood was sampled from pregnant women in the third trimester (gestational age 32-38 weeks, mean 36 ± 2 weeks) and during active labor (39-41 weeks of gestation, mean 40 ± 1 weeks). Serum levels of several cytokines were measured using multiplex immunoassays for both stages, indicating that the concentrations of IL-10, IL-20, IL-22, IL-28A, and interferon (IFN)-γ were significantly decreased during active labor in comparison with third-trimester levels (p < 0.05). Our analysis did not find significant correlations between IL-10, IL-20, IL-22, IL-28A, and IFN-γ levels and gestational age. However, our data suggest that the systemic downregulation of several members of the IL-10 family of cytokines plays an important role in the activation of myometrial smooth cells associated with uterine contractions during active labor. Downregulation of this IL-10 family of cytokines seems to coincide with the well-reported functional progesterone withdrawal during labor. Likewise, lower plasma IFN-γ concentrations may indicate a role for IFN-γ in active labor.