ABSTRACT
Prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs have been one of the hallmarks of success in the fight against HIV/AIDS. In Brazil, access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) during pregnancy has increased, leading to a reduction in new infections among children. Currently, lifelong ART is available to all pregnant, however yet challenges remain in eliminating mother-to-child transmission. In this paper, we focus on the role of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to analyse blood plasma samples of pregnant women with HIV infection to differentiate pregnant women without HIV infection. Seventy-seven samples (39 HIV-infected patient and 38 healthy control samples) were analysed. Multivariate classification of resultant NIR spectra facilitated diagnostic segregation of both sample categories in a fast and non-destructive fashion, generating good accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. This method is simple and low-cost, and can be easily adapted to point-of-care screening, which can be essential to monitor pregnancy risks in remote locations or in the developing world. Therefore, it opens a new perspective to investigate vertical transmission (VT). The approach described here, can be useful for the identification and exploration of VT under various pathophysiological conditions of maternal HIV. These findings demonstrate, for the first time, the potential of NIR spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis as a screening tool for fast and low-cost HIV detection.
Subject(s)
Chemometrics/methods , HIV Infections/blood , Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical , Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared/methods , Adult , Anti-Retroviral Agents/therapeutic use , Brazil , Case-Control Studies , Computer Simulation , Female , Humans , Models, Statistical , Multivariate Analysis , Pregnancy , Pregnancy Complications, Infectious , Young AdultABSTRACT
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a major complication in pregnancy. GDM is associated with a higher risk for adverse maternal-fetal outcomes. Associations between movement behavior, including physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB), and maternal-fetal outcomes are still unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate associations between movement behavior and adverse maternal-fetal outcomes in women with GDM. A total of 68 women with GDM (20-35 weeks, 32.1 ± 5.8 years) were included in this pilot case-control study. The cases were defined by the presence of an adverse composite maternal-fetal outcome (preterm birth, newborn large for gestational age, and neonatal hypoglycemia). Controls were defined as no adverse maternal-fetal outcome. PA intensities and domains, steps/day (pedometer), and SB were analyzed. A total of 35.3% of participants showed adverse maternal-fetal outcomes (n = 24). The controls showed a higher moderate-intensity PA level than the cases (7.5, 95%CI 3.6-22.9 vs. 3.1, 95%CI 0.4-10.3 MET-h/week; p = 0.04). The moderate-intensity PA level was associated with a lower risk for adverse maternal-fetal outcomes (OR 0.21, 95%CI 0.05-0.91). No significant associations were observed for other PA and SB measures (p > 0.05). In conclusion, moderate-intensity PA during pregnancy seems to have a protective role against adverse maternal-fetal outcomes in women with GDM.
