Transboundary air pollution balance in the new integrated European environment

Ten out of the 12 new EU members, used to belong to the so-called “former eastern block”, with a post WWII environmental policy radically different from the tendencies followed in Western Europe. The lack of conservation regulations has resulted in a rather harmful industrialization, regarding natural resources and environmental quality. While air pollution transfer is a phenomenon of transboundary level, there is a particular interest in examining the contribution of the new EU member states to the environmental pressure faced by the older member states and vice versa. The current study utilises the official data for almost 20 years published by the European Monitoring and Evaluation Program concerning the transboundary transfer of NO_x and SO₂ in order to analyse the situation and discuss the present and future environmental policy regarding air pollution.     

First-trimester prenatal diagnosis in quintuplets: A practical approach using step-by-step embryo reduction

A multiple pregnancy of high rank may occur in a couple at risk for a Mendelian disorder. Prenatal diagnosis is hampered by the difficulty of (1) obtaining chorionic villi from each zygote arid (2) unequivocally relating each sample to the corresponding embryo. The calculation of the genetic risk according to the number of zygotes led us to propose a diagnostic strategy based on embryo reduction, a technique initially designed to improve the perinatal outcome of multiple pregnancies with normal embryos. We report a case in which this approach allowed rational use of first-trimester chorionic villus sampling in a quintuplet pregnancy at risk for non-ketotic hyperglycinaemia, resulting in the selective birth of unaffected twins.     

The significance of prenatal diagnosis of choroid plexus cysts

A case is described of the prenatal diagnosis of choroid plexus cysts at 17 weeks' gestation which persisted beyond 36 weeks but could not be detected after delivery. At birth the child was found to have trisomy 18.     

Carrier screening for cystic fibrosis

A number of different models of CF carrier screening have now been tested in pilot trials. Apart from opportunistic and cascade testing (which are strictly speaking not true forms of screening), the major programmes have been directed either to young adults in primary care or to pregnant women in antenatal clinics. Only in the latter form of screening has sufficient data been collected to allow conclusions to be reached on the optimum mode of delivery. It seems very probable that when CF carrier screening passes into routine service, it will be the antenatal couple model that is used.     

Prenatal diagnosis of Chediak-Higashi syndrome

We report the first prenatal diagnosis of an affected fetus with Chediak-Higashi syndrome (CHS). Diagnosis was accomplished via fetal blood sampling at 17 menstrual weeks and was confirmed after birth. Retrospective measurement of the largest acid phosphatase-positive lysosomes in cultured amniotic fluid cells and chorionic villus cells showed that in CHS these lysosomes are significantly larger than those in normal cells. This method may be used for prenatal diagnosis of CHS by amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS).     

Neonatal lung function following mid-trimester amniocentesis

Three hundred and fifty-four women who underwent midtrimester genetic amniocentesis were matched for age, parity, indication, and smoking history, with an equivalent number of women who had declined the procedure, for the purpose of comparing the neonatal respiratory status of their offspring. There was no evidence that the infants exposed to genetic amniocentesis were compromised.     

Prenatal diagnosis of gastrointestinal obstruction: A correlation between prenatal ultrasonic findings and postnatal operative findings

The impact of prenatal sonographic diagnosis of oesophageal and gastrointestinal obstructions has been analysed over a 10-year period. Three groups of patients were evaluated. The first group consisted of 46 newborns with abnormal prenatal sonogratns, 41 of which were confirmed to have intestinal obstruction postnatally. The second group consisted of 17 neonates with normal prenatal sonograms who had intestinal obstruction postnatally. The third group included 56 newborns who did not undergo a prenatal sonogram but who had intestinal obstruction confirmed at surgery. Polyhydramnios without the appearance of a stomach on ultrasound was diagnostic of pure oesophageal atresia. Polyhydramnios with intestinal dilation was diagnostic of intestinal obstruction. Although surgery was performed earlier in the infants diagnosed prenatally with ultrasound, mortality was no less than in the group that did not undergo a prenatal sonogram, probably because of the high incidence of associated anomalies.     

Serum alpha-fetoprotein and neural tube defects in the first trimester of pregnancy

As part of the Medical Research Council randomized trial of vitamin supplementation in the prevention of neural tube defects (NTDs), maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) was available for 19 NTD pregnancies. Each of these was matched with four unaffected controls, by maternal age, participating centre, and duration of sample storage. The samples came from women whose gestational age ranged from 6 to 14 completed weeks. The median AFP level in the affected pregnancies was 1·2 multiples of the median value in unaffected pregnancies of the same gestational age (95 per cent confidence interval (CI) 0·83–1·59). This confirmed the view that serum AFP measurement is of no practical value in the detection of NTDs in the first trimester of pregnancy. The study also showed that folic acid supplementation, used as a method of preventing NTDs, had no effect on the concentrations of maternal serum AFP up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.