Energy and macronutrient intake heritability: A systematic review and meta-analysis of twin and family-based studies.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The current meta-analysis aimed to examine the heritability and familial resemblance of dietary intakes, including energy and macronutrients in both twin and family-based studies. METHODS: The online literature databases, including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched comprehensively until 2023 to identify the relevant studies. The heritability index in family studies was h2 and the heritability indices for twin studies were h2, A2, and E2. Three weighted methods were used to calculate the mean and SE of heritability dietary intakes. RESULTS: Eighteen papers including 8 studies on familial population and 12 for twin population studies were included in the present meta-analysis. The heritability of dietary intakes in twin studies (range of pooled estimated h2, A2, and E2 was 30-55%, 14-42%, and 52-79%, respectively) was higher than family studies (range of pooled estimated h2 = 16-39%). In family studies, the highest and lowest heritability for various nutrients was observed for the fat (%Kcal) (h2 range:36-38%) and carbohydrate in g (h2 range:16-18%), respectively. In twin studies, based on mean h2, the highest and lowest heritability for various nutrients was reported for the fat (%Kcal) (h2 range:49-55%) and protein intake in g (h2 range:30-35%), respectively. Also, based on the mean of A2, the highest and lowest heritability was observed for carbohydrates (% Kcal) (A2 range:42-42%), and protein (% Kcal) (A2 range:14-16%), respectively. Furthermore, in twin studies, the highest and lowest mean of E2 was shown for saturated fats (E2 range:74-79%) and energy intake (E2 range:52-57%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Our analysis indicated that both environmental factors and genetics have noticeable contributions in determining the heritability of dietary intakes. Also, we observed higher heritability in twins compared to family studies.

Assessing structural models of neighborhood and family sociodemographic characteristics and their relations with externalizing psychopathology.

Externalizing psychopathology has been found to have small to moderate associations with neighborhood and family sociodemographic characteristics. However, prior studies may have used suboptimal operationalizations of neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics and externalizing psychopathology, potentially misestimating relations between these constructs. To address these limitations, in the current study we test different measurement models of these constructs and assess the structural relations between them. Using a population-representative sample of 2,195 twins and siblings from the Georgia Twin Study and data from the National Neighborhood Data Archive and 2000 U.S. Census, we assessed the fit of competing measurement models for family sociodemographic, neighborhood sociodemographic, and neighborhood environment characteristics. In structural models, we regressed a general externalizing dimension on different operationalizations of these variables separately and then simultaneously in a final model. Latent variable operationalizations of family sociodemographic, neighborhood sociodemographic, and neighborhood environment characteristics explained no more variance in broad externalizing psychopathology than other operationalizations. In an omnibus model, family sociodemographic characteristics showed a small association with externalizing psychopathology, while neighborhood sociodemographic and environmental characteristics did not. Family sociodemographic characteristics showed small associations with neighborhood sociodemographic and environmental characteristics, and neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics were moderately associated with neighborhood environment. These findings suggest that family sociodemographic characteristics are more associated with the development of broad externalizing psychopathology in youth than neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics and neighborhood environment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Comparison of singleton and twin birth weight reference percentile curves by gestational age and sex in extremely preterm infants: a population-based study.

BACKGROUND: With the increasing survival rate of smaller newborns and twins, previous growth curves may not accurately assess the growth of extremely preterm infants (EPIs). Our study aimed to establish birth weight percentile curves for singletons and twins in EPIs from China and the USA and compare the differences between them. METHODS: In China, EPIs were from 31 provinces, from 2010 to 2021. The collected information was sex, gestational age, birth weight, singletons and twins. We used the generalised additive models for location scale and shape method to construct the birth weight percentile curves by gestational age and sex for EPIs. The National Vital Statistics System database from 2016 to 2021 was also analysed. We compared the differences between the 50th birth weight percentile curves of the two databases. RESULTS: We identified 8768 neonates in China (5536 singletons and 3232 twins) and 121 933 neonates in the USA (97 329 singletons and 24 604 twins). We established the 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 97th birth weight reference curves for China and the USA. The results showed that males had higher birth weights than females. In China, for the same gestational age and sex, birth weights in singletons and twins were found to be similar, though singleton males born in China had slightly higher birth weights than male twins. In the USA, birth weights were also similar for females and males, with the same gestational age in singletons and twins. CONCLUSION: We established birth weight reference percentile curves by gestational age and sex for singletons and twins among EPIs in China and the USA.

Longitudinal leisure-time physical activity profiles throughout adulthood and related characteristics: a 36-year follow-up study of the older Finnish Twin Cohort.

BACKGROUND: Personalized interventions aiming to increase physical activity in individuals are effective. However, from a public health perspective, it would be important to stimulate physical activity in larger groups of people who share the vulnerability to be physically inactive throughout adulthood. To find these high-risk groups, we identified 36-year leisure-time physical activity profiles from young adulthood to late midlife in females and males. Moreover, we uncovered which anthropometric-, demographic-, lifestyle-, and health-related characteristics were associated with these physical activity profiles. METHODS: We included 2,778 females and 1,938 males from the population-based older Finnish Twin Cohort Study, who responded to health and behavior surveys at the mean ages of 24, 30, 40 and 60. Latent profile analysis was used to identify longitudinal leisure-time physical activity profiles. RESULTS: We found five longitudinal leisure-time physical activity profiles for both females and males. Females' profiles were: 1) Low increasing moderate (29%), 2) Moderate stable (23%), 3) Very low increasing low (20%), 4) Low stable (20%) and 5) High increasing high (9%). Males' profiles were: 1) Low increasing moderate (29%), 2) Low stable very low (26%), 3) Moderate decreasing low (21%), 4) High fluctuating high (17%) and 5) Very low stable (8%). In both females and males, lower leisure-time physical activity profiles were associated with lower education, higher body mass index, smoking, poorer perceived health, higher sedentary time, high blood pressure, and a higher risk for type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, lower leisure-time physical activity was linked to a higher risk of depression in females. CONCLUSIONS: We found several longitudinal leisure-time physical activity profiles with unique changes in both sexes. Fewer profiles in females than in males remained or became low physically active during the 36-year follow-up. We observed that lower education, higher body mass index, and more smoking already in young adulthood were associated with low leisure-time physical activity profiles. However, the fact that several longitudinal profiles demonstrated a change in their physical activity behavior over time implies the potential for public health interventions to improve leisure-time physical activity levels.

Peripartal management of dichorial twin pregnancy in a bicornuate bicollis uterus: a case report and review of the literature.

INTRODUCTION: The management of a pregnancy in a bicornuate uterus is particularly challenging. A bicornuate uterus is a rare occurrence and a twin pregnancy in a bicornuate uterus even more rare. These pregnancies call for intensive diagnostic investigation and interdisciplinary care. CASE PRESENTATION: We report on a 27-year-old European woman patient (gravida I, para 0) with a simultaneous pregnancy in each cavity of a bicornuate bicollis uterus after embryo transfer. The condition was confirmed by hysteroscopy and laparoscopy. Several unsuccessful in vitro fertilization (IVF) attempts had been performed earlier before embryo transfer in each cornus. After a physiological course of pregnancy with differential screening at 12 + 6 weeks and 22 + 0 weeks of gestation, the patient presented with therapy-resistant contractions at 27 + 2 weeks. This culminated in the uncomplicated spontaneous delivery of the leading fetus and delayed spontaneous delivery of the second fetus. DISCUSSION: Only 16 cases of twin pregnancy in a bicornuate unicollis uterus have been reported worldwide and only 6 in a bicornuate bicollis uterus. The principal risks in such pregnancies are preterm labor, intrauterine growth restriction, malpresentation and preeclampsia. These typical risk factors of a twin pregnancy are greatly potentiated in the above mentioned setting. CONCLUSION: A twin pregnancy in the presence of a uterine malformation is rare and difficult to manage. These rare cases must be collected and reported in order to work out algorithms of monitoring and therapy as well as issue appropriate recommendations for their management.

Brazilian Twin Studies: A Scoping Review.

The current study was motivated by an interest in deepening understanding of Brazilian twin research, which is underrepresented internationally, in an effort to rectify this situation. Our aim was threefold: (1) to carry out a comprehensive investigation of Brazilian research on twins according to the area of knowledge; (2) to evaluate the representation of research in the field of psychology in comparison with other areas; (3) to evaluate characteristics of the research that may have contributed to its exclusion from the comprehensive meta-analysis of 50 years of twin research. A scoping review was performed according to PRISMA guidelines. Titles and abstracts were searched up to 2022 in six databases: CAPES, BDLTD, PePSIC, PubMed, Google Scholar, and SciELO, using selected keywords both in Portuguese and in English (e.g., 'twins' and 'Brazil'; 'twinning' and 'Brazil'; 'gemelaridade' [twinning], and 'gêmeos' [twins]). Three hundred and forty publications were included in the review. Approximately half (53.8‰) used the classic twin design to investigate the heritability of several traits, and the other half (46.2%) used other research designs. The scoping review showed that the number of publications doubled approximately every 10 years. Most publications were from the health area, with medicine accounting for approximately half of the studies, followed by psychology, odontology, and biology. We found that the interest in studying twins among Brazilian scientists is increasing over the years and there are reasons to be enthusiastic about the potential impact of this trend in the global scenario.

The intergenerational transmission of risk and trust attitudes: Replicating and extending "Dohmen, Falk, Huffman and Sunde 2012" using genetically informed twin data.

This replication revisits an influential contribution on the intergenerational transmission of risk and trust attitudes, which, based on data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (GSOEP), reveals a positive correlation between parents' and children's attitudes. The authors of the original study argue that socialization in the family is important in the transmission process. The replication is motivated by mounting evidence indicating that within-family transmission has a considerable genetic component, which calls into question socialization as the main transmission pathway. To consider genetic transmission in addition to social transmission, the replication relies on the German twin family panel TwinLife. The findings reveal that, first, most of the variation in children's risk and social trust attitudes is attributable to differences in the non-shared environment, followed by genetic differences, whereas differences in the shared family environment - the main candidate for social transmission - do not matter. Second, correlations between parents' and children's attitudes essentially involve genetic similarity. Third, family conditions do not moderate these relationships. Thus, the findings do not support the socialization assumption.

Conceptual framework for establishing twins prevention and continuous health promotion programme: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Twin registries and cohorts face numerous challenges, including significant resource allocation, twins' recruitment and retention. This study aimed to assess expert feedback on a proposed pragmatic idea for launching a continuous health promotion and prevention programme (HPPP) to establish and maintain twin cohorts. DESIGN: A qualitative study incorporating an inductive thematic analysis. SETTING: Tehran University of Medical Sciences. PARTICIPANTS: Researchers with expertise in twin studies participated in our study. ANALYSIS AND DESIGN: Expert opinions were gathered through focus group discussions (FGDs). Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the findings and develop a model for designing a comprehensive, long-term health promotion programme using ATLAS.ti software. Additionally, a standardised framework was developed to represent the conceptual model of the twin HPPP. RESULTS: Eight FGDs were conducted, involving 16 experts. Thematic analysis identified eight themes and seven subthemes that encompassed the critical aspects of a continuous monitoring programme for twin health. Based on these identified themes, a conceptual framework was developed for the implementation of an HPPP tailored for twins. CONCLUSION: This study presented the initial endeavour to establish a comprehensive and practical solution in the form of a continuous HPPP designed to tackle the obstacles of twins' cohorts.

The relationship between personality throughout adolescence and social anxiety disorder in young adulthood. A longitudinal twin study.

This study examined the longitudinal relationship between a range of personality related variables measured throughout adolescence, and social anxiety disorder (SAD) in young adulthood. In addition, we examined to what degree the phenotypic associations between personality and SAD could be attributed to shared genetic and environmental factors, respectively. A total of 3394 twins (56% females), consisting of seven national birth cohorts from Norway, participated in the study. Personality was measured with self-report questionnaires at three times throughout adolescence, and SAD was measured with a diagnostic interview in early adulthood (M = 19.1 years, SD = 1.2). Correlation and regression analyses were performed to examine phenotypic associations between personality and SAD. We then created four composite scores of personality, in which the personality variables from four different ages throughout adolescence were weighted relative to their importance for SAD. Finally, a series of Cholesky decomposition models were used to examine the underlying genetic and environmental influences on the phenotypic associations between composite scores of personality and SAD. The results showed that especially higher neuroticism, lower extraversion, higher levels of loneliness, and lower levels of resilience, self-efficacy and sense of coherence, were associated with SAD. The phenotypic correlations between composite scores of personality and SAD increased from 0.42 when personality was measured 6-7 years prior to the assessment of SAD, to 0.52 when personality was measured shortly before the assessment of SAD. These phenotypic associations were mainly due to genetic influences, indicating that personality in adolescence predicts SAD in early adulthood due to shared genetic influences rather than having direct 'causal' effects on SAD.

A Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteome Study of Twin Pairs Discordant for Incident Acute Myocardial Infarction within Three Years after Blood Sampling Suggests Novel Biomarkers.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, yet biomarkers for AMI in the short- or medium-term are lacking. We apply the discordant twin pair design, reducing genetic and environmental confounding, by linking nationwide registry data on AMI diagnoses to a survey of 12,349 twins, thereby identifying 39 twin pairs (48-79 years) discordant for their first-ever AMI within three years after blood sampling. Mass spectrometry of blood plasma identified 715 proteins. Among 363 proteins with a call rate > 50%, imputation and stratified Cox regression analysis revealed seven significant proteins (FDR < 0.05): FGD6, MCAM, and PIK3CB reflected an increased level in AMI twins relative to their non-AMI co-twins (HR > 1), while LBP, IGHV3-15, C1RL, and APOC4 reflected a decreased level in AMI twins relative to their non-AMI co-twins (HR < 1). Additional 50 proteins were nominally significant (p < 0.05), and bioinformatics analyses of all 57 proteins revealed biology within hemostasis, coagulation cascades, the immune system, and the extracellular matrix. A protein-protein-interaction network revealed Fibronectin 1 as a central hub. Finally, technical validation confirmed MCAM, LBP, C1RL, and APOC3. We put forward novel biomarkers for incident AMI, a part of the proteome field where markers are surprisingly rare and where additional studies are highly needed.

Amplitude-integrated electroencephalography showed no differences in cerebral activity between preterm singletons and twins in the first 4 weeks of life.

AIM: Genetic influences on cerebral activity have been described previously, but data are scarce in preterms. We aimed to investigate whether a genetic influence causes amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) signals to differ between singletons and twin preterm newborns. METHODS: This was a retrospective single-centre study conducted at Innsbruck Medical University Hospital, Austria. Preterm infants born before 32 weeks of gestation between 6 November 2010 and 6 December 2022 were eligible for the study. The aEEG was analysed for the total maturation score, its component scores and the number of sleep-wake cycles per hour. RESULTS: We enrolled 240 preterm twin infants (57.5% male) with a mean gestational age of 30 (range: 24-32) weeks and a mean birth weight of 1324 (range: 600-2116) grams. We compared 240 singleton matched preterms. No differences were found between preterm singletons and twin preterm infants regarding the total maturation and component scores, or the number of sleep-wake cycles. aEEG showed no difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twins. CONCLUSION: Compared to singletons, twin infants born preterm showed no differences in aEEG signals in the first 4 weeks of life. Future studies should include more complex non-invasive functional neuroimaging methods to gain more insight into this important topic.

Child effects on positive parenting vary with neighborhood opportunity.

Prior theoretical and empirical research has highlighted links between positive parenting and the socioeconomic characteristics of the family's neighborhood, but has yet to illuminate the etiologic origins of this association. One possibility is that the various predictors of parenting outlined by Belsky (1984; e.g., characteristics of the child, characteristics of the parent, and contextual influences) may matter more in some neighborhood contexts than in others. To examine this possibility, we conducted etiologic moderation analyses in a sample of 1,030 families of twins (average age 8 years; 51% male, 49% female; racial composition: 82% White, 10% Black, 1% Asian, 1% Indigenous, and 6% multiracial) from the Twin Study of Behavioral and Emotional Development in Children in the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Neighborhood and parenting were assessed using multiple informants and assessment strategies (neighborhood and family informants, administrative data, and videotaped parent-child interactions). Results pointed to strong evidence of etiologic moderation, such that child effects on positive mothering were prominent in neighborhoods with little opportunity and near zero in neighborhoods with ample opportunity. Such findings not only reframe the magnitude of child effects on the parenting they receive as context-dependent, but also indicate that mothers in impoverished neighborhoods may be more responsive to their children's characteristics than mothers in neighborhoods with ample opportunity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Genetic confounding in the association of early motor development with childhood and adolescent exercise behavior.

INTRODUCTION: Early motor development has been found to be a predictor of exercise behavior in children and adolescents, but whether this reflects a causal effect or confounding by genetic or shared environmental factors remains to be established. METHODS: For 20,911 complete twin pairs from the Netherlands Twin Register a motor development score was obtained from maternal reports on the timing of five motor milestones. During a 12-year follow-up, subsamples of the mothers reported on the twins' ability to perform seven gross motor skills ability (N = 17,189 pairs), and weekly minutes of total metabolic equivalents of task (MET) spent on sports and exercise activities at age 7 (N = 3632 pairs), age 10 (N = 3735 pairs), age 12 (N = 7043 pairs), and age 14 (N = 3990 pairs). Multivariate phenotypic and genetic regression analyses were used to establish the predictive strength of the two motor development traits for future exercise behavior, the contribution of genetic and shared environmental factors to the variance in all traits, and the contribution of familial confounding to the phenotypic prediction. RESULTS: Significant heritability (h2) and shared environmental (c2) effects were found for early motor development in boys and girls (h2 = 43-65%; c2 = 16-48%). For exercise behavior, genetic influences increased with age (boys: h2age7 = 22% to h2age14 = 51%; girls: h2age7 = 3% to h2age14 = 18%) paired to a parallel decrease in the influence of the shared environment (boys: c2age7 = 68% to c2age14 = 19%; girls: c2age7 = 80% to c2age14 = 48%). Early motor development explained 4.3% (p < 0.001) of the variance in future exercise behavior in boys but only 1.9% (p < 0.001) in girls. If the effect in boys was due to a causal effect of motor development on exercise behavior, all of the factors influencing motor development would, through the causal chain, also influence future exercise behavior. Instead, only the genetic parts of the regression of exercise behavior on motor development were significant. Shared and unique environmental parts of the regression were largely non-significant, which is at odds with the causal hypothesis. CONCLUSION: No support was found for a direct causal effect in the association between rapid early motor development on future exercise behavior. In boys, early motor development appears to be an expression of the same genetic factors that underlie the heritability of childhood and early adolescent exercise behavior.

An efficient and accurate 2D human pose estimation method using VTTransPose network.

Human pose estimation is a crucial area of study in computer vision. Transformer-based pose estimation algorithms have gained popularity for their excellent performance and relatively compact parameterization. However, these algorithms often face challenges including high computational demands and insensitivity to local details. To address these problems, the Twin attention module was introduced in TransPose to improve model efficiency and reduce resource consumption. Additionally, to address issues related to insufficient joint feature representation and poor network recognition performance, the enhanced TransPose model, named VTTransPose, replaced the basic block in the third subnet with the intra-level feature fusion module V block. The performance of the proposed VTTransPose model was validated on the public datasets COCO val2017 and COCO test-dev2017. The experimental results on COCO val2017 and COCO test-dev2017 indicate that the AP evaluation index scores of the VTTransPose network proposed are 76.5 and 73.6 respectively, marking improvements of 0.4 and 0.2 over the original TransPose network. Additionally, VTTransPose exhibited a reduction of 4.8G FLOPs, 2M parameters, and approximately 40% lower memory usage during training compared to the original TransPose model. All the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed VTTransPose is more accurate, efficient, and lightweight compared to the original TransPose model.

Secuencia anemia-policitemia en la gestación monocorial. Manejo prenatal y resultados perinatales / Twin anaemia polycythemia polycythemia sequence in monochorionic gestation. Prenatal management and perinatal outcomes

Introducción: El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en describir y analizar los resultados perinatales de una serie de casos de anemia-policitemia (TAPS) seguidos y tratados en un centro de referencia en Medicina Fetal, en términos del tipo TAPS y la conducta prenatal aplicada. Métodos: Análisis estadístico descriptivo e inferencial con el programa IBM SPSS Statistics. Resultados: Se diagnosticaron 13 casos de TAPS en un total de 510 gestaciones monocoriales. La mayoría de TAPS espontáneos se diagnosticaron en estadios precoces (5 casos), mientras que, en TAPS posláser, 3/6 casos se diagnosticaron en estadios avanzados. Cuatro fetos (4/26; 15,4%) presentaron alteraciones en la neurosonografía, 3 (3/14; 21,4%) en TAPS espontáneos y uno (1/12, 8,3%) en TAPS posláser (p = 0,308). Se detectó hipertrofia miocárdica en 7 fetos, 5 (71,4%) de los cuales correspondían a TAPS en estadios avanzados. Cuatro eran TAPS espontáneos (4/14; 28,6%) y 3 TAPS posláser (3/12; 25%) (p = 0,797). Ocho casos (8/13; 62,5%) precisaron algún procedimiento de terapia fetal. Se produjeron 3 muertes fetales anteparto y una pareja decidió interrupción legal del embarazo (19,23%). Las 5 pérdidas se produjeron en estadio IV (p=0,008).La supervivencia global fue del 80,8% (21/26 recién nacidos vivos). No hubo diferencias significativas en función del tipo TAPS (p = 0,159) y la conducta prenatal adoptada (p = 0,746). Conclusiones: El TAPS espontáneo es, por tanto, una entidad clínica con un impacto en los resultados perinatales similar al posláser. Parece que la conducta expectante y el láser consiguen mayor edad gestacional al nacimiento.(AU)

Introduction: The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the perinatal outcomes of a series of TAPS cases followed and treated in a Fetal Medicine referral center, in terms of the type of TAPS and the prenatal behavior applied. Methods: Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis with IBM SPSS Statistics software. Results: Thirteen cases of TAPS were diagnosed in a total of 510 monocorial gestations. Most of the spontaneous TAPS were diagnosed at early stages (5 cases), whereas, in post-laser TAPS, 3/6 cases were diagnosed at advanced stages. Four fetuses (4/26; 15.4%) presented alterations in neurosonography, 3 (3/14; 21.4%) in spontaneous TAPS and one (1/12, 8.3%) in post-laser TAPS (P=0.308). Myocardial hypertrophy was detected in 7 fetuses, 5 (71.4%) of which corresponded to advanced stage TAPS. Four were spontaneous TAPS (4/14; 28.6%) and 3 were post-laser TAPS (3/12; 25%) (P=0.797). Eight cases (8/13; 62.5%) required some fetal therapy procedure. There were 3 antepartum fetal deaths and one couple decided to legally terminate the pregnancy (19.23%). All 5 losses were stage IV (P=0.008). Overall survival was 80.8% (21/26 live newborns). There were no significant differences according to the type of TAPS (P= 0.159) and the prenatal behavior adopted (P=0.746).Conclusions: Spontaneous TAPS is therefore a clinical entity with an impact on perinatal outcomes similar to post-laser. It seems that expectant management and laser achieve higher gestational age at birth.(AU)

Antenatal corticosteroid administration is associated with lower risk of severe ROP in preterm twin infants.

INTRODUCTION: Robust evidence revealed the impact of antenatal corticosteroid (ACS) administration on lower mortality and short-term neonatal outcomes in singleton preterm infants. We aimed to investigate the impact of ACS therapy on morbidity and mortality in preterm twin infants. METHODS: We conducted this retrospective single-center study from to the records of twin babies of 24-30 weeks of gestation admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. The study population was grouped based on the exposure to ACS 1-7 days before birth as received or not. Groups were compared regarding in-hospital mortality and neonatal outcomes. RESULTS: Data from 160 twin infants were analyzed. Of those, 102 (64 %) were administered ACS. The median (IQR) gestational age and birth weight of the whole cohort were 28 (27-29) weeks and 1060 (900-1240) g, respectively. ACS administration was associated with a significant decline in respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), requirement ≥2 doses of surfactant, severe intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), early-onset sepsis (EOS), and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) requiring treatment (p < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that gestational age (OR 0.29 95 % CI 0.14-0.62; p = 0.001), ACS administration (OR 0.14 95 % CI 0.03-0.85; p = 0.032), and time to achieve full enteral feeding (OR 1.16 95 % CI 1.03-1.31; p = 0.019) were independently associated with the risk of severe ROP. CONCLUSION: The reduction in the risk of severe ROP besides RDS, severe IVH, and EOS among preterm twins who received ACS was remarkable in our study similar to the trials conducted in preterm singletons. However, large-scale prospective observational studies are required to reveal the efficacy of ACS in preterm twins.

A systematic review of early intrauterine intervention at 12 + 0 to 16 + 6 weeks in twin reversed arterial perfusion sequence.

There is some evidence that in twin reversed arterial perfusion sequence, intervention at early gestational age could prevent a spontaneous death of the pump twin, achieving a better global survival. OBJECTIVE: To review the perinatal outcomes of early intervention in pregnancies complicated by twin reversed arterial perfusion (TRAP) sequence. STUDY DESIGN: A comprehensive search from inception to December 2022 was conducted on databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and LILACS. All studies that reported intervention in twin or triplet pregnancy complicated with TRAP sequence at 12 + 0 to 16 + 6 weeks of gestation were eligible. A descriptive and bivariate analysis was performed. RESULTS: Out of the 222 full-text articles, 44 studies reporting 108 cases of early intervention in TRAP sequence were included. A successful procedure was achieved in 105 (95.5 %) interventions: 89 (94.7 %) among twin pregnancies and 16(100 %) among triplet pregnancies. An overall livebirth rate was achieved in 75 patients (70.8 %): intrafetal laser group 55 (73.3 %), radiofrequency 10 (76.9 %) and endoscopic laser 3 (75.0 %). The median gestational age at delivery was 38 + 0 (37 + 4 - 39 + 4) weeks. The median treatment-delivery interval was 23 + 2 (IQR, 21 + 0-25 + 6) weeks. The most frequent adverse outcomes reported were preterm labor in 7 (13.7 %) patients. There were no severe adverse maternal outcomes. CONCLUSION: Early intervention with intrafetal laser and radiofrequency in TRAP sequence achieves a livebirth rate of the pump twin of about 75 %.

Continuity and change of genetic and environmental influences on reading and reading-related neurocognitive skills: A systematic review of longitudinal twin studies.

Learning to read is a dynamic and cumulative process beginning from birth and continuing through the school years. Empirical data showed a decrease of additive genetic (A) and shared environmental (C) components and an increase of non-shared environmental (E) components from preschool to middle school. However, our understanding of the aetiology of continuity and change of reading skills across this developmental period is limited. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we reviewed the results of behavioral genetic research on reading-related neurocognitive skills of 13 longitudinal twin and adoptive sibling studies spanning from preschool/kindergarten to middle/high school. Our findings suggested that continuity was mainly explained by A components throughout the study periods, and, although to a lesser extent and less consistently, by C components during the early years; change was explained by new E components throughout the years, and also by new A components in the early years. As we are interested in models relevant to traits with early onset during development, it is crucial to deepen the investigation of how developmental time can moderate the genetic and environmental variation.