For many years it had been universally taught that administration of the commonly used analgesic agents retards the progress of labor. It was therefore advised that these agents should not be administered until the labor was active and progress was rapid. In recent years, more scientific analysis of the progress of labor and accurate recording of uterine contractility revealed that this classical teaching was inaccurate. Despite the increasing use of regional analgesia during labor, systemic medications are still widely used to relieve pain and anxiety. There is no ideal, generally applicable analgesic agent for use during childbirth. All systemic medications used for pain relief in labor cross the placenta and may have a depressant effect on the fetus and injudicious administration of an overdose can cause some depression of uterine activity. It is suggested that elimination of pain or anxiety will decrease adrenal medullary release of epinephrine. Since epinephrine is a known inhibitor of uterine activity, a decrease in its serum level should lead to increased uterine activity. Thus it was decided to make an objective estimation of the effects of morphine, meperidine, diazepam and ketamine upon uterine contractility of pregnant rat uteri, in vitro. The results are as follows: 1) Morphine caused a significant concentration dependent decrease in the contractility of pregnant rat uteri. 2) Meperidene did not cause any significant change in the contractility of pregnant rat uteri. 3) Diazempam caused a concentration dependent decrease in the contractility and the contraction disappeared at a concentration of 80 ug/100ml. 4) Ketamine caused a significant concentration dependent decrease in the contractility of pregnant rat uteri. 5) Addition of CaCl2 to the K-H solution did not cause any significant change in the result.
Analgesia ; Analgesics ; Animals ; Anxiety ; Depression ; Diazepam* ; Epinephrine ; Fetus ; Ketamine* ; Meperidine* ; Morphine* ; Parturition ; Placenta ; Rats* ; Uterus*

Trisomy 18 is the second most common chromosomal anomaly that reach to live birth after Down syndrome. Several methods were proposed to screen patients on the risk of Edward syndrome like maternal serum levels using total human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and unconjugated estriol (uE3), or free beta hCG with AFP, but the serum screening has only 50-60% detection rate with a 1-2% of false positive rate. So to cover the limitations that serum marker has, detailed ultrasound examination is also necessary and sensitivities of 65-70% were reported. We report a case of trisomy 18 fetus in which second trimester triple markers of maternal serum was normal, but by detailed ultrasound examination, unilateral radius aplasia was diagnosed cytogenetic study confirmed the fetus as trisomy 18.
alpha-Fetoproteins ; Biomarkers ; Chorionic Gonadotropin ; Cytogenetics ; Down Syndrome ; Estriol ; Female ; Fetus ; Humans ; Live Birth ; Mass Screening ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, Second ; Radius* ; Trisomy ; Ultrasonography

Differentiated thyroid cancer demonstrates a wide range of clinical presentations, from very indolent cases to those with an aggressive prognosis. Therefore, diagnosing and treating each cancer appropriately based on its risk status is important. The Korean Thyroid Association (KTA) has provided and amended the clinical guidelines for thyroid cancer management since 2007. The main changes in this revised 2024 guideline include 1) individualization of surgical extent according to pathological tests and clinical findings, 2) application of active surveillance in low-risk papillary thyroid microcarcinoma, 3) indications for minimally invasive surgery, 4) adoption of World Health Organization pathological diagnostic criteria and definition of terminology in Korean, 5) update on literature evidence of recurrence risk for initial risk stratification, 6) addition of the role of molecular testing, 7) addition of definition of initial risk stratification and targeting thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) concentrations according to ongoing risk stratification (ORS), 8) addition of treatment of perioperative hypoparathyroidism, 9) update on systemic chemotherapy, and 10) addition of treatment for pediatric patients with thyroid cancer.