Antenatal Cases Research Articles

Auxiliary Nurse-Midwives in Family Planning

In India after 2 years of training an auxiliary nurse-midwife becomes responsible for the subcenter of a Primary Health Center caring for about 10000 people. She surveys the villages in her area developing a good relationship with the mothers and collecting data on births deaths antenatal and postnatal cases and information relevant to a family planning program. She also has the role of health educator discussing such topics as hygiene diet and family planning with the mothers. Couples who are infertile are referred to urban clinics and fertile couples are motivated to undergo sterilization. When a large number of individuals wish to become sterilized the auxiliary nurse-midwife organizes vasectomy and tubectomy camps and follows-up discharged cases. This important member of a health team functions as a valued and trusted member of the community and as such is an effective agent for family planning efforts.

The effects of parity on the leucocyte count in pregnant and non-pregnant women.

In a study of the total and differential leucocyte counts in 180 antenatal cases, a progressive rise in the total leucocyte and neutrophil counts occurred, with a peak about 8 weeks before parturition. The lymphocyte count, apart from a lower mean count in the first trimester, attained a steady state throughout pregnancy. No statistically significant effect of parity on the total and differential leucocyte count was demonstrated, although a tendency for the total leucocyte count to rise with increasing parity was noted.

DETECTION OF STAPHYLOCOCCAL ANTIBODIES BY GEL DIFFUSION.

A simple method using the Elek-Ouchterlony gel diffusion method is described for the detection of anti-alpha haemolysin and anti-leucocidin antibodies. Two hundred and forty-six sera from patients known or suspected to have staphylococcal infection and 48 normal sera from antenatal cases are included in the survey. It is evident that the gel diffusion method compares favourably with the haemagglutination method for detecting anti-leucocidin. The conventional tube method still has advantages of speed and accuracy in the estimation of anti-alpha haemolysin, as the diagnostic reagent used contains other antigens which confuse the picture in gel diffusion.

Pregnancy anaemia survey; Coombe Lying-in Hospital, Dublin, 1953.

1. An heematological survey carried out on 1,000 unselected antenatal cases showed an incidence of hypochromic anemia of 31·4 per cent.

The Rhesus Antibody Anti-E in Pregnancy and Blood Transfusion: I. The Frequency of Occurrence of Pure Anti-E. Report of 12 Cases II. The Demonstration by Pure Anti-E Serum of Dosage Effect of the Antigen E in the Presence or Absence of the Antigen D

Abstract 1. Twelve cases of immunization by pregnancy or blood transfusion in which the Rhesus antibody anti-E was found, to the exclusion of anti-D or any other Rh antibody are reported. 2. Two hundred and fifty Rh antibodies were discovered in this laboratory during 1949 in 37,972 antenatal cases not previously tested, i.e., 1 in 152. Seven of these were pure anti-E, i.e., 2.8 per cent. This frequency is considerably higher than any previously reported. 3. All of the anti-E sera tested possessed to some degree, and 5 of them to a marked degree, the property of distinguishing cells with a double from those with a single dose of the antigen E. 4. The presence, in cells of various genotypes, of tine antigen D in association with the antigen E reduced their agglutinability with the same anti-E serum in such a manner as to suggest that the agglutinability of these cells depends upon the relative quantities of the E and D anitigens present. 5. By means of parallel titrations with a genotyping anti-E serum, against cells of known and unknown genotypes, it was possible to distinguish E/E from E/e cells in the presence or absence of associated D and, as a corollary, to distinguish D/D from D/d cells in the presence of associated E/E or E/e. 6. These results fit the hypothesis that the specific Rhesus antigens C, D and E are produced from a limited amount of "basic raw material" by the activity of the three genes: that the genes act independently and in competition and that the amount of each antigen produced is proportional to the dosage and "competitive value" of the corresponding gene.

The differential diagnosis of Spalding's sign.

Two antenatal cases are recorded, the films of which showed fœtal skull changes similar to those described by Spalding. Both were alive at birth, although one, a craniostenotic rapidly died, and the other, a microcephalic, is now subject to fits.

ETIOLOGY OF CEREBRAL PALSIES IN CHILDREN.

A number of classifications have been suggested for the cerebral palsies of children; some based on their pathology, others on the clinical manifestations and one on the time of their occurrence. The latter, suggested by Sachs, is very convenient. He divides them into antenatal, natal and postnatal cases. It is not always easy to determine the etiology of cerebral palsies in individual cases. This is due chiefly to their coming late under observation or because the autopsy findings, obtained sometimes years after the onset of the disease, may not reveal the nature of the initial lesion and its cause. This applies more particularly to prenatal palsies and those occurring after birth. The cerebral lesions having their origin<i>in utero</i>seem to depend partly on conditions affecting the mother and secondarily the fetus and partly on the development of the fetus. The brain of the fetus may suffer lack of or