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Background: Preeclampsia and preterm delivery (PTD) are believed to affect women's long-term health including cardiovascular disease (CVD), but the biological underpinnings are largely unknown. We aimed to test whether maternal postpartum metabolomic profiles, especially CVD-related metabolites, varied according to PTD subtypes with and without preeclampsia, in a US urban, low-income multi-ethnic population., Methods: This study, from the Boston Birth Cohort, included 980 women with term delivery, 79 with medically indicated PTD (mPTD) and preeclampsia, 52 with mPTD only, and 219 with spontaneous PTD (sPTD). Metabolomic profiling in postpartum plasma was conducted by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Linear regression models were used to assess the associations of each metabolite with mPTD with preeclampsia, mPTD only, and sPTD, respectively, adjusting for pertinent covariates. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis was applied to investigate interconnected metabolites associated with the PTD/preeclampsia subgroups. Bonferroni correction was applied to account for multiple testing., Results: A total of 380 known metabolites were analyzed. Compared to term controls, women with mPTD and preeclampsia showed a significant increase in 36 metabolites, mainly representing acylcarnitines and multiple classes of lipids (diacylglycerols, triacylglycerols, phosphocholines, and lysophosphocholines), as well as a decrease in 11 metabolites including nucleotides, steroids, and cholesteryl esters (CEs) (P < 1.3 × 10 -4 ). Alterations of diacylglycerols, triacylglycerols, and CEs in women with mPTD and preeclampsia remained significant when compared to women with mPTD only. In contrast, the metabolite differences between women with mPTD only and term controls were only seen in phosphatidylethanolamine class. Women with sPTD had significantly different levels of 16 metabolites mainly in amino acid, nucleotide, and steroid classes compared to term controls, of which, anthranilic acid, bilirubin, and steroids also had shared associations in women with mPTD and preeclampsia., Conclusion: In this sample of US high-risk women, PTD/preeclampsia subgroups each showed some unique and shared associations with maternal postpartum plasma metabolites, including those known to be predictors of future CVD. These findings, if validated, may provide new insight into metabolomic alterations underlying clinically observed PTD/preeclampsia subgroups and implications for women's future cardiometabolic health.

Background: When delivery is indicated prior to 34 weeks, many providers perform a cesarean delivery rather than induce labor based on perceptions of a high failure rate. Given the morbidity of cesarean delivery, an accurate estimate of the success rate and factors associated with success in preterm induction of labor is important in management decisions., Objective: We sought to develop a prediction model for successful induction of labor in preterm patients using factors known at the time the decision is made to deliver., Study Design: A retrospective cohort study of all live singletons undergoing an indicated induction of labor between 23 and 34 0/7 weeks from 2011 through 2015. Pregnancies with major fetal anomalies or no intrapartum fetal monitoring were excluded. Successful induction of labor was defined as vaginal delivery. The cohort was randomly split into a training cohort to develop a prediction model for vaginal delivery and a validation cohort to test the model. Factors significantly associated with vaginal delivery were identified using univariate analyses, and candidate factors were used in the multivariate logistic regression model. Only factors known at the start of the induction of labor were used in the model. Receiver-operating characteristic curves were created to estimate the predictive value of the model. Sensitivity and specificity of the model were assessed., Results: Of 331 patients who underwent induction of labor, 208 (62.8%) delivered vaginally and 123 (37.1%) by cesarean delivery. Of the factors significantly associated with cesarean delivery, the final model included gestational age, simplified Bishop score, suspected intrauterine growth retardation, chronic hypertension, and body mass index. In the training cohort, the model correctly classified 72.3% of subjects with a sensitivity (cesarean delivery predicted/cesarean delivery performed) of 56.7% and a specificity (vaginal delivery predicted/vaginal delivery performed) of 84.1%. When applied to the validation cohort, 73.9% of subjects were correctly classified, with a sensitivity of 44.6% and specificity of 89.0%. Receiver-operating characteristic curves had an area under the curve of 0.75 for the training cohort and 0.77 for the validation cohort., Conclusion: More than 60% of women undergoing induction of labor at <34 0/7 weeks deliver vaginally. For women undergoing induction of labor at <34 0/7 weeks, this prediction model rarely classifies individuals who can have a vaginal delivery as needing a cesarean delivery. This model may provide an accurate assessment tool to evaluate which patients will likely deliver vaginally to avoid the morbidity of cesarean delivery while conversely identifying subjects at high risk of cesarean delivery <34 0/7 weeks., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Maternal stress during pregnancy may increase the risk of preterm delivery (PD), but the associations between stress and subtypes of PD are not clear. We investigated maternal loss of a close relative and risks of very and moderately PD (<32 and 32-36 weeks, respectively) and spontaneous and medically indicated PD., Method: We studied 4 940 764 live singleton births in Denmark (1978-2008) and Sweden (1973-2006). We retrieved information on death of women's family members (children, partner, siblings, parents), birth outcomes and maternal characteristics from nationwide registries., Results: Overall, the death of a close family member the year before pregnancy or in the first 36 weeks of pregnancy was associated with a 7% increased risk of PD [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04-1.10]. The highest hazard ratios (HR) for PD were found for death of an older child [HR (95% CI) 1.20 (1.10-1.31)] and for death of a partner [HR (95% CI) 1.31 (1.03-1.66)]. These losses were associated with higher risks of very preterm [HR (95% CI) 1.61 (1.29-2.01) and 2.07 (1.15-3.74), respectively] than of moderately preterm [HR (95% CI) 1.14 (1.03-1.26) and 1.22 (0.94-1.58), respectively] delivery. There were no substantial differences in the association between death of a child or partner and the risk of spontaneous v. medically indicated PD., Conclusions: Death of a close family member the year before or during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of PD, especially very PD. Possible mechanisms include both spontaneous and medically indicated preterm birth.