Disease relevance of Postpartum Period

• Hyperammonemia in women with a mutation at the ornithine carbamoyltransferase locus. A cause of postpartum coma [1].
• An endotoxin produced by Escherichia coli caused a decrease in prolactin concentrations in the plasma of sows when given at low dosages 2 days postpartum [2].
• On transsphenoidal surgery three months postpartum, the unexpected presence of a large Rathke's pouch cyst with a microadenomatous or nodular hyperplasia type of prolactin-secreting tumor was observed to account for the preoperative clinical and radiological findings [3].
• This hypercortisolism causes a transient postpartum adrenal suppression that, together with estrogen withdrawal, may partly explain the depression and autoimmune phenomena of the postpartum period [4].
• Galactose toxicity was induced by feeding mothers a 40% galactose diet from the 12th day of pregnancy until 19 days postpartum when the offspring were weaned onto the maternal diet [5].

Psychiatry related information on Postpartum Period

• OBJECTIVE: Postpartum depressive disorders lead to maternal disability and disturbed mother-infant relationships, but information regarding the rates of major depressive disorder in minority women is noticeably lacking [6].
• The present study was designed to assess the proactive effects of late pregnancy benzodiazepine (BDZ) treatment on maternal behavior in the postpartum period, using cross-fostering procedures to control for the role of changes produced prenatally in the offspring [7].
• CONCLUSIONS: Divalproex was not significantly more effective than monitoring without drug for the prevention of postpartum episodes of bipolar disorder [8].
• We conclude that there is central suppression of hypothalamic CRH secretion in the postpartum, which might explain the increased vulnerability to the affective disorders observed during this period [9].
• Psychometric testing was performed monthly during pregnancy and postpartum on day 2 and weeks 2, 3, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 20, whereas serial ovine (o) CRH tests were performed postpartum at 3, 6, and 12 weeks [9].

High impact information on Postpartum Period

• The mean postpartum serum free-thyroxine index was 136.6 +/- 11.4 (P less than 0.05 as compared with values before and during pregnancy), and the mean postpartum serum thyrotropin level was 1.4 +/- 0.4 mU per liter (P less than 0.01 as compared with levels during pregnancy), demonstrating a decrease in the thyroxine requirement [10].
• Furthermore, progesterone may be involved in the premenstrual and postpartum syndromes [11].
• Prolactin levels and duration of postpartum anoestrus in lactating ewes [12].
• In contrast, evidence of increased dopamine-receptor sensitivity was observed in the pups if haloperidol was administered to their mothers postpartum during nursing rather than during pregnancy [13].
• Nonparetic cows showed initially a slight decrease in plasma 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D which was followed by a significant increase during parturition and 2 days postpartum [14].

Chemical compound and disease context of Postpartum Period

• The condition of a patient with postpartum nephrosclerosis improved during heparin therapy [15].
• Technetium Tc 99m uptake in postpartum thyrotoxicosis [16].
• To gain further insight into the mechanisms of postpartum infertility, plasma gonadotropins, prolactin, estradiol, and progesterone were measured following either iv LHRH or im menopausal gonadotropins (Pergonal) to postpartum women [17].
• Effect of administration of thyroxine on the risk of postpartum recurrence of hyperthyroid Graves' disease [18].
• PEG-catalase pretreatment (10-50 KU/kg 8 h before phenytoin) also produced a dose-dependent inhibition of phenytoin teratogenicity, with maximal decreases in fetal cleft palates, resorptions and postpartum lethality at a 50 KU/kg dose (p < .05) [19].

Biological context of Postpartum Period

• Strikingly, however, XOR+/- females, although of healthy appearance and normal fertility, are unable to maintain lactation and their pups die of starvation 2 wk postpartum [20].
• INTERVENTIONS: At their initial postpartum visit, 443 women selected a nonhormonal form of contraception, 383 received a low-dose, estrogen-progestin combination oral contraceptive (OC), and 78 breast-feeding women received the progestin-only OC [21].
• MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Parathyroid hormone-related peptide, prolactin, estradiol, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, 24-hydroxyvitamin D, femoral bone mineral density, and bone turnover markers were measured in 115 postpartum women at 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months postpartum [22].
• POMC transcripts were present in fetal testis (day 17 of gestation to newborn), could not be detected in prepuberal testis (days 7-8 postpartum), but reappeared in the adult testis [23].
• Whether this olfactory distinction of mothers' urine before and after birth reflects in part the odortype and hence genotype of the fetus, and not just the state of pregnancy per se, was tested in a second study in which each mother's postpartum urine was mixed either with urine from her own infant or with urine of a different, same-aged infant [24].

Anatomical context of Postpartum Period

• Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) was measured in cord blood taken at delivery and in fasting blood taken from 44 Asian mothers in the first day of the puerperium [25].
• The corpus luteum of the guinea pig. III. Cytochemical studies on the Golgi complex and GERL during normal postpartum regression of luteal cells, emphasizing the origin of lysosomes and autophagic vacuoles [26].
• Prolactin secretion in mutant females is markedly reduced at 7 days postpartum compared with wild-type controls with an associated failure in mammary gland maturation [27].
• We have observed that relative to naive and male animals, huntingtin protein was significantly increased in the arcuate nucleus of postpartum rats [28].
• In addition, collagenase 2 was highly expressed in the postpartum uterus starting at 1 day postpartum and extending up to 5 days [29].

Associations of Postpartum Period with chemical compounds

• The mean postpartum thyroxine dose was decreased to 0.117 +/- 0.011 mg per day (P less than 0.01 as compared with the dose during pregnancy) [10].
• Maternal plasma CRH levels, which increased progressively during pregnancy, correlated well with both ACTH and cortisol in early labor, delivery, and postpartum samples, and also with cortisol levels in samples before labor [30].
• Insulin biosynthesis rates were determined in 4-wk-old animals that had been injected with 90 mg/kg of streptozotocin 2 d postpartum [31].
• The proposed mechanism implies, among other things, that postpartum supplementation with folic acid might prevent excess risk of unfavourable pregnancy outcome in women with short interpregnancy intervals [32].
• Also, the more rapidly absorbed polyglactin 910 material obviates need for suture removal up to 3 months postpartum for one in ten women sutured [33].

Gene context of Postpartum Period

• Interestingly, female Ncf1-mutated mice spontaneously developed severe arthritis during the postpartum period [34].
• During early puerperium of both normal pregnant women and patients, plasma PAI-1 antigen and activity decreased within one day to approximately the levels detected in normal nonpregnant women, while PAI-2 levels remained elevated for over 11 days [35].
• Mrp2 mRNA was stable in pregnancy and postpartum, whereas Mrp2 protein expression decreased significantly in pregnancy, but returned to control levels postpartum [36].
• IL-10 and sTNFR I levels were significantly higher during pregnancy and postpartum in SLE patients with active disease (P=0.03 and P=0.01, respectively) [37].
• Cryptdin, CRS1C, and CRS4C mRNAs are transcribed from separate genes, occur at equivalent abundance in small intestine, and appear in the small bowel in concert during the 2nd and 3rd weeks postpartum [38].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Postpartum Period

• Metabolic clearance rates (MCR) of arginine vasopressin (AVP) were measured serially in five women starting before conception, during gestational weeks 7-8 (early), 22-24 (middle), and 36-38 (late pregnancy), and again 10-12 wk postpartum [39].
• Each normal individual was subjected to an oral glucose tolerance test in midpregnancy, and all subjects were investigated late in pregnancy and again four to six weeks postpartum [40].
• Case-control study of pregnant SLE patients and nonpregnant SLE controls, using logistic regression analyses to assess the role of prepregnancy disease activity as a prognostic factor for flare during pregnancy or the postpartum followup period [41].
• Glucose intolerance was detected in 22 (31%) of the HELLP patients, 17 of them had impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and 5 had diabetes, whereas only 4 subjects (6.5%) with IGT at postpartum were found in the control group (P < 0.01) [42].
• Our results suggest that, for postpartum uterine pain, analgesia with anirolac, 50 or 100 mg, is equivalent to that with naproxen, 550 mg [43].

References