Understanding the Maternal-Fetal Environment and the Birth of Prenatal Pediatrics

Lung Disease and Social Justice: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease as a Manifestation of Structural Violence

Lung health, the development of lung disease, and how well a person with lung disease is able to live all depend on a wide range of societal factors. These systemic factors that adversely affect people and cause injustice can be thought of as "structural violence." To make the causal processes relating to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) more apparent, and the responsibility to interrupt or alleviate them clearer, we have developed a taxonomy to describe this. It contains five domains: 1) avoidable lung harms (processes impacting lung development, processes that disadvantage lung health in particular groups across the life course), 2) diagnostic delay (healthcare factors; norms and attitudes that mean COPD is not diagnosed in a timely way, denying people with COPD effective treatment), 3) inadequate COPD care (ways in which the provision of care for people with COPD falls short of what is needed to ensure they are able to enjoy the best possible health, considered as healthcare resource allocation and norms and attitudes influencing clinical practice), 4) low status of COPD (ways COPD as a condition and people with COPD are held in less regard and considered less of a priority than other comparable health problems), and 5) lack of support (factors that make living with COPD more difficult than it should be, i.e., socioenvironmental factors and factors that promote social isolation). This model has relevance for policymakers, healthcare professionals, and the public as an educational resource to change clinical practices and priorities and stimulate advocacy and activism with the goal of the elimination of COPD.

Fertility treatment increases the risk of preterm birth independent of multiple gestations

Objective

To investigate the complex interplay between fertility treatment, multiple gestations, and prematurity.

Design

Retrospective cohort study linking the national Center for Disease Control and Prevention infant birth and death data from 2014 to 2018.

Setting

National database from Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

Patients

In total, 19,454,155 live-born infants with gestational ages 22-44 weeks, 114,645 infants born using non IVF fertility treatment (NIFT), and 179,960 via assisted reproductive technology (ART).

Intervention

Noninvasive fertility treatment or ART vs. spontaneously conceived pregnancies.

Main Outcome Measures

The main outcome assessed was prematurity. Formal mediation analysis was conducted to calculate the percentage mediated by multiple gestations.

Results

Newborns born using NIFT or ART compared with those with no fertility treatment had a higher incidence of multiple gestation (no fertility treatment = 3.0%; NIFT = 24.7%; ART = 32.7%; P<.001) and prematurity (no fertility treatment = 11.2%; NIFT = 23.4%; ART = 28.4%; P<.001). Mediation analysis demonstrates that 76.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 75.2%-78.1%) of the effect of NIFT on prematurity was mediated through multiple gestations. Similarly, 71.2% (95% CI, 70.8%-72.7%) of the effect of ART on prematurity is mediated through multiple gestation. However, the direct effect of NIFT on prematurity is 20.4% (95% CI, 19.0%-22.0%). The direct effect of ART was 24.7% (95% CI, 23.7%-25.6%).

Conclusion

A significant proportion of prematurity associated with fertility treatment is mediated by the treatment itself, independent of multiple gestations.

Associations between Maternal Risk Factors and Intrinsic Placental and Fetal Brain Functional Properties in Congenital Heart Disease

The relationship between maternal risk factors (MRFs) (particularly pre-gravid obesity, diabetes, and hypertension) and congenital heart disease (CHD) to placental and fetal brain outcomes is poorly understood. Here, we tested the hypothesis that MRF and CHD would be associated with reduced intrinsic placental and fetal brain function using a novel non-invasive technique. Pregnant participants with and without MRF and fetal CHD were prospectively recruited and underwent feto-placental MRI. Using intrinsic properties of blood oxygen level dependent imaging (BOLD) we quantified spatiotemporal variance of placenta and fetal brain. MRFs and CHD were correlated with functional characteristics of the placenta and fetal brain. Co-morbid MRF (hypertension, diabetes, and obesity) reduced spatiotemporal functional variance of placenta and fetal brain (p < 0.05). CHD predicted reduced fetal brain temporal variance compared to non-CHD (p < 0.05). The presence of both MRF and CHD was associated with reduced intrinsic pBOLD temporal variance (p = 0.047). There were no significant interactions of MRFs and CHD status on either temporal or spatial variance of intrinsic brain BOLD. MRF and CHD reduced functional characteristic of placenta and brain in fetuses. MRF modification and management during pregnancy may have the potential to not only provide additional risk stratification but may also improve neurodevelopmental outcomes.