Background: Enabling women to make informed decisions is a key objective in the guidelines governing prenatal screening and diagnostics. Despite efforts to provide information, research shows that women's choice of prenatal screening is often not based on informed decisions. The aim of this study was to investigate pregnant women's perceptions of the use of an interactive web-based DA, developed t

Objective: To explore the underlying structure of the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (PAI) and to assess the psychometric properties of the subscales. Background: The establishment of the mother-fetus relationship is an important developmental task for successful adaption to pregnancy, with implications for the well-being of mother and child. The PAI was developed to measure the relationship betwee

Background: Social support is important during pregnancy and childbirth and the partner is usually the main source of support. Lack of partner support is associated with less emotional well-being and discontinuation of breastfeeding. Research problem: The purpose of the study was to investigate the proportion of women dissatisfied with partner support in early pregnancy, and to identify risk facto

Objectives: Open abdomen therapy may be necessary to prevent or treat abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS). The aim of the study was to analyse the primary delayed fascial closure (PDFC) rate and complications after open abdomen therapy with vacuum and mesh mediated fascial traction (VACM) after aortic repair and to compare outcomes between those treated with open abdomen after primary versus seco

Accumulating evidence suggests altered energy metabolism as a key feature in Huntington's disease (HD) pathology. Hyper-catabolism, including weight loss and muscle atrophy, is seen in HD patients and HD mouse models. Metabolic hormones are key players, not only in energy metabolism, but also in neurodegenerative processes. Ghrelin, a gut peptide-hormone, plays an important role in regulating ener

The role of CD4+ T cells in atherosclerosis has been shown to be dependent on cytokine cues that regulate lineage commitment into mature T helper sub-sets. In this study, we tested the roles of IL-1R1 and MyD88 signalling in CD4+ T cells in atherosclerosis. Methods and results We transferred apoe-/-myd88\+/\+ or apoe-/-myd88-/- CD4+ T cells to T-A nd B-cell-deficient rag1-/-apoe-/- mice fed high f

Background: Growing up with congenital heart disease (CHD) often means transfer to adult care and lifelong medical follow-up. An optimal transition process usually involves a multipart collaboration between the patient, their parents and other family members, and the healthcare providers. Taking an active role while knowing when it is time to step aside can be difficult for all the concerned parti

Aims: To evaluate hope in hepatitis C patients 9 years after curative treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. Background: Successful treatment of hepatitis C leads to improved quality of life in responders compared with non-responders. The long-term effect of successful treatment on hope in these patients is not known. Design: Cross-sectional follow-up study of patients who displayed a

Development of molecular markers that help to identify high-risk individuals or diagnose indeterminate pulmonary nodules could have a major impact on lung cancer clinical management. In this study, we evaluated the diagnostic potential of a newly-developed ELISA that specifically detects complement C4d. We measured this marker in five independent cohorts of plasma and bronchoalveolar lavage sample

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes is highly prevalent and devastating. Obesity is a diabetogenic factor, driving insulin resistance and a compensatory demand for increased insulin secretion from the pancreatic cells; a failure to address this demand results in diabetes. Accordingly, primary and secondary prevention of obesity are at the core of diabetes prevention programs. The development of obesity an

Peatlands are important carbon reserves in terrestrial ecosystems. The microtopography of a peatland area has a strong influence on its carbon balance, determining carbon fluxes at a range of spatial scales. These patterned surfaces are very sensitive to changing climatic conditions. There are open research questions concerning the stability, behaviour and transformation of these microstructures,

The "habitat heterogeneity hypothesis" predicts positive effects of structural complexity on species coexistence. Increasing habitat heterogeneity can change the diversity (number of species, abundances) and the functional roles of communities. The latter, however, is not well understood as species and individuals may respond very differently and dynamically to a changing environment. Here, we exp

BACKGROUND - Multiple laboratory tests are used to diagnose and manage patients with diabetes mellitus. The quality of the scientific evidence supporting the use of these tests varies substantially. APPROACH - An expert committee compiled evidence-based recommendations for the use of laboratory testing for patients with diabetes. A newsystemwas developed to grade the overall quality of the evidenc