<i>Introduction</i>: In the fetus, a large proportion of the superior vena cava blood flow (QSVC) comes from the brain. To provide the possibility of using this blood flow as a representation of fetal brain circulation, we aimed to determine the fetal QSVC and its fraction of cardiac output during the second half of physiological pregnancies.<br><br> <i>Materials and Methods</i>: This was a ...

High space-bandwidth product with high spatial phase sensitivity is indispensable for a single-shot quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) system. It opens avenue for widespread applications of QPM in the field of biomedical imaging. Temporally low coherence light sources are implemented to achieve high spatial phase sensitivity in QPM at the cost of either reduced temporal resolution or smaller field ...

Objectives - Umbilical artery (UA) Doppler indices are surrogate measures of placental function, most commonly used to assess fetal wellbeing in pregnancies with fetal growth restriction. Fetuses with trisomy 21 (t21) are reported to have elevated UA Doppler indices, but reference percentiles are currently lacking for this population. We hypothesized that gestational age-specific values of UA Doppler ...

Introduction - The burden of perinatal mental health problems was expected to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic. We prospectively investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of pregnant and postpartum women in Norway and explored associations with their sociodemographic characteristics and personality traits.<p> <p>Material and methods - Sociodemographic information ...

<i>Introduction</i>: The super-resolution capability of structured illumination microscopy (SIM) (100 nm) enables 3D imaging of mitochondria, and label-free quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) provides nanoscale quantitative phase values relating to cellular thickness and the refractive index of cellular content.

Bruk av nanoteknologi innenfor medisin er økende, og mange nanopartikulære såkalte «drug delivery-systemer» er allerede ute på markedet og enda flere er i pipeline. Det er blant annet stor interesse for bruk av polymeriske miceller, dendrimerer, liposomer og polymeriske nanopartikler som nanobærere for legemidler. Potensialet som ligger i bruk av nanoteknologi er fremdeles ikke fullt utnyttet ...

<p><i>Introduction - </i>Laeverin is a placenta‐specific protein that is normally expressed in the plasma membrane of human trophoblasts. In previous studies, we showed higher expression levels of laeverin gene in preeclamptic compared with normal placentas and found that laeverin protein was ectopically expressed in the cytoplasm of the preeclamptic placentas. Our objective was to investigate ...

Structural details of spermatozoa are interesting from the perspectives of fundamental biology and growing reproductive health problems. Studies of nanostructural details of these extremely motile cells have been limited to fixed cells, largely using electron microscopy. Here we provide the protocols for and demonstrate live-cell multi-color super-resolution imaging of human spermatozoa using ...

<p><i>Introduction - </i>Maternal cardiac dysfunction as well as abnormal uterine artery (UtA) Doppler are associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), but their relation is unclear. We investigated the correlation between maternal cardiac function, UtA hemodynamics and natriuretic peptides, and explored differences between women who subsequently developed HDP and those who did ...

Background - Physiological adaptation in pregnancy is characterized by remodeling of endocrine, cardiovascular and renal functions leading to fluid retention, volume expansion, altered cardiac loading conditions and hyperdynamic circulation. Natriuretic peptides have been used as biomarkers of cardiovascular function, but their associations with gestational age-related changes in maternal cardiac, ...