Obstetric and neonatal outcomes in women with epilepsy in Poland - a two-centre study.

AIM OF THE STUDY: To report pregnancy, delivery and perinatal outcomes in women with epilepsy seen in university clinics in Poland. Clinical rationale for the study. Women with epilepsy are reported to be at increased risk of adverse pregnancy and foetal outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The following data was collected in 171 pregnant women seen in two university epilepsy clinics: epilepsy characteristics and treatment, seizure frequency, pregnancy outcomes, perinatal outcomes, and feeding method. RESULTS: The mean age of patients at the time of delivery was 28.8 years, and most women were nulliparous. Almost 80% of patients were on monotherapy and the majority were prescribed antiepileptic drugs with low teratogenic potential. 53.8% of patients were seizure-free during pregnancy. Half of the cohort delivered by caesarean section and the majority delivered in term. Nearly all newborns scored > 7 Apgar points. Major congenital malformation was diagnosed in only one foetus. Any adverse pregnancy/neonatal outcome was found in 13% of patients. Two thirds of women reported breastfeeding at any time. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Almost 90% of women continued antiepileptic therapy during pregnancy. 46% of patients had epileptic seizures during pregnancy. Any adverse pregnancy/neonatal outcome was found in 13% of women with epilepsy. The majority of patients delivered healthy babies. Further studies are needed to find risk factors for adverse pregnancy/neonatal outcomes in women with epilepsy in Poland.

Nuclear Factor I-C acts as a regulator of hepatocyte proliferation at the onset of liver regeneration.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Knockout studies of the murine Nuclear Factor I-C (NFI-C) transcription factor revealed abnormal skin wound healing and growth of its appendages, suggesting a role in controlling cell proliferation in adult regenerative processes. Liver regeneration following partial hepatectomy (PH) is a well-established regenerative model whereby changes elicited in hepatocytes lead to their rapid and phased proliferation. Although NFI-C is highly expressed in the liver, no hepatic function was yet established for this transcription factor. This study aimed to determine whether NFI-C may play a role in hepatocyte proliferation and liver regeneration. METHODS: Liver regeneration and cell proliferation pathways following two-thirds PH were investigated in NFI-C knockout (ko) and wild-type (wt) mice. RESULTS: We show that the absence of NFI-C impaired hepatocyte proliferation because of plasminogen activator I (PAI-1) overexpression and the subsequent suppression of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) activity and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) signalling, a potent hepatocyte mitogen. This indicated that NFI-C first acts to promote hepatocyte proliferation at the onset of liver regeneration in wt mice. The subsequent transient down regulation of NFI-C, as can be explained by a self-regulatory feedback loop with transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-ß1), may limit the number of hepatocytes entering the first wave of cell division and/or prevent late initiations of mitosis. CONCLUSION: NFI-C acts as a regulator of the phased hepatocyte proliferation during liver regeneration.

Investigation of the vibrational modes of edge-constrained fibrous samples placed in a standing wave tube.

In earlier work it was suggested that the frictional constraint of a porous sample around its circumference in a standing wave tube resulted in shearing resonances of the sample. In the present work that effect has been confirmed by direct measurement of the spatial distribution of the velocity of the solid phase of a fibrous sample placed in a rigidly terminated standing wave tube and driven into motion by a plane, incident sound field. The measurements were performed using a standing wave tube to which a transparent downstream section was attached. A laser Doppler velocimeter was then used to measure the velocity of the solid phase of acoustically driven samples. The materials considered here were two types of aviation-grade glass fiber. A poroelastic finite element model was used to simulate the response of the constrained fibrous samples. Good agreement between measured and predicted mode shapes was found both when the samples were constrained only around their edges, and when an additional constraint plane was inserted axially through the samples. The present results confirm that glass fiber samples placed in a standing wave tube exhibit shearing modes and that those modes are associated with previously observed transmission loss minima.