Trichomoniasis and adverse birth outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Trichomoniasis commonly affects women of childbearing age and has been linked to several adverse birth outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the association between trichomoniasis in pregnant women and adverse birth outcomes, including preterm delivery, prelabour rupture of membranes and low birthweight. SEARCH STRATEGY: MEDLINE, EMBASE and ClinicalTrials.gov were systematically searched in December 2020 without time or language restrictions. SELECTION CRITERIA: Original research studies were included if they assessed at least one of the specified adverse birth outcomes in pregnant women with laboratory-diagnosed trichomoniasis. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Estimates from included articles were either extracted or calculated and then pooled to produce a combined estimate of the association of trichomoniasis with each adverse birth outcome using the random effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 statistic and Cochran's Q test. MAIN RESULTS: Literature search produced 1658 publications after removal of duplicates (n = 770), with five additional publications identified by hand search. After screening titles and abstracts for relevance, full text of 84 studies was reviewed and 19 met inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. Significant associations were found between trichomoniasis and preterm delivery (OR 1.27; 95% CI 1.08-1.50), prelabour rupture of membranes (OR 1.87; 95% CI 1.53-2.29) and low birthweight (OR 2.12; 95% CI 1.15-3.91). CONCLUSIONS: Trichomoniasis in pregnant women is associated with preterm delivery, prelabour rupture of membranes and low birthweight. Rigorous studies are needed to determine the impact of universal trichomoniasis screening and treatment during pregnancy on reducing perinatal morbidity. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: This systematic review and meta-analysis found that in the setting of pregnancy, trichomoniasis is significantly associated with multiple adverse birth outcomes, including preterm delivery, low birthweight, and prelabour rupture of membranes.

Trichomonas vaginalis virus: a review of the literature.

Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) is a parasitic protozoan responsible for the sexually transmitted infection trichomoniasis. Trichomonas vaginalis virus (TVV) is a nonsegmented, 4.5-5 kbp, double-stranded RNA virus, from the Totiviridae family, which inhabits TV. A capsid protein consisting of 120 subunits is covered in channels aiding in RNA release. TVV is closely associated with the Golgi complex and is transmitted vertically. TVV has four subspecies, TVV1, TVV2, TVV3, and TVV4. The clinical significance of TVV and its effect on the pathogenicity of TV is not well known. We performed a systematic review of the literature on TVV to better understand its clinical significance and its role in the pathogenesis of TV.

Gardnerella vaginalis: Still a Prime Suspect in the Pathogenesis of Bacterial Vaginosis.

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common cause of vaginal infection, yet its pathogenesis remains controversial. Although it has never been proven to be a sexually transmitted diseases the epidemiological evidence favoring this is quite robust. Although BV is characterized by its polymicrobial nature, it is highly likely that the inciting organism is Gardnerella vaginalis.

NIST Gas Hydrate Research Database and Web Dissemination Channel.

To facilitate advances in application of technologies pertaining to gas hydrates, a freely available data resource containing experimentally derived information about those materials was developed. This work was performed by the Thermodynamic Research Center (TRC) paralleling a highly successful database of thermodynamic and transport properties of molecular pure compounds and their mixtures. Population of the gas-hydrates database required development of guided data capture (GDC) software designed to convert experimental data and metadata into a well organized electronic format, as well as a relational database schema to accommodate all types of numerical and metadata within the scope of the project. To guarantee utility for the broad gas hydrate research community, TRC worked closely with the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) task group for Data on Natural Gas Hydrates, an international data sharing effort, in developing a gas hydrate markup language (GHML). The fruits of these efforts are disseminated through the NIST Sandard Reference Data Program [1] as the Clathrate Hydrate Physical Property Database (SRD #156). A web-based interface for this database, as well as scientific results from the Mallik 2002 Gas Hydrate Production Research Well Program [2], is deployed at http://gashydrates.nist.gov.

Pneumococcal septic arthritis as the initial presentation of multiple myeloma.

Septic arthritis induced by Streptococcus pneumoniae is an uncommon manifestation of pneumococcal infection. Pneumococcus has been identified as the inciting pathogen in only 6% of cases of septic arthritis in recent retrospective studies (Ross et al., 2003). Approximately 50% of patients with pneumococcal septic arthritis have a preceding or concurrent extra-articular focus of infection. The septic joint evolves from hematogenous seeding of the highly vascular synovial membrane by bacteria. Polyarticular disease occurs in only approximately 36% of patients. Most pneumococcal septic arthritis occurs with coexistant joint disease, prosthesis, alcoholism, HIV infection, or rheumatoid arthritis (Baraboutis & Skoutelis, 2004; Raad & Peacock, 2004). We report a case of polyarticular septic arthritis as the first manifestation of an underlying disease. Our literature review discloses that this is the first reported case of multiple myeloma initially presenting as pneumococcal septic arthritis in the USA and the third internationally (Cuesta et al., 1992; Renou et al., 2007).

Universal behaviour of silica suspensions gelled under shear.

The shear-influenced gelation of three aqueous suspensions consisting of silica particles of nominal diameter 7, 12 and 24 nm, respectively, is reported. It is shown that the viscosity/stress of a gelling system increases with time after gel initiation, reaches a maximum, then falls to a plateau value. A very simple relation between this maximum stress and the precursor volume fraction is verified experimentally.

New global communication process in thermodynamics: impact on quality of published experimental data.

Thermodynamic data are a key resource in the search for new relationships between properties of chemical systems that constitutes the basis of the scientific discovery process. In addition, thermodynamic information is critical for development and improvement of all chemical process technologies. Historically, peer-reviewed journals are the major source of this information obtained by experimental measurement or prediction. Technological advances in measurement science have propelled enormous growth in the scale of published thermodynamic data (almost doubling every 10 years). This expansion has created new challenges in data validation at all stages of the data delivery process. Despite the peer-review process, problems in data validation have led, in many instances, to publication of data that are grossly erroneous and, at times, inconsistent with the fundamental laws of nature. This article describes a new global data communication process in thermodynamics and its impact in addressing these challenges as well as in streamlining the delivery of the thermodynamic data from "data producers" to "data users". We believe that the prolific growth of scientific data in numerous and diverse fields outside thermodynamics, together with the demonstrated effectiveness and versatility of the process described in this article, will foster development of such processes in other scientific fields.