Norwegian University of Science & Technology

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 6, 2024 -- Women who are pregnant but who also have the ovarian cyst disorder polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are at higher odds of giving birth to an underweight baby, new Norwegian research shows. The risk rises even higher if the woman with PCOS is also obese, the study found. “In women of normal weight who have PCOS, we only find that their children have a lower birth weight compared to women who do not have PCOS," noted study lead author Dr. Eszter Vanky . "It is the group of children born to mothers with obesity that stands out the most," she added. "These babies have lower weight, shorter stature and a smaller head circumference. Obesity places an additional burden on mothers who have PCOS and their children." Vanky is professor of clinical and molecular medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. PCOS is a common gynecologic disorder, affecting about 1 in every 8 women. It's a hormonal condition that's characterized by elevated levels of male hormones that can cause infrequent or irregular menstrual periods and the growth of small cysts on the ovaries. The new study looked at data on more than 70,000 children, 390 of who were born to women diagnosed with PCOS. Babies born to women with PCOS tended to have smaller birth weights, were shorter and had a smaller head circumference, compared to women born to women without the disorder. However, the differences in newborn sizes was most pronounced if the mom with PCOS was also obese, Vanky's group said. One issue is that obesity and PCOS often occur together, the researchers noted. The findings were somewhat surprising, Vanky said, because "women who are generally overweight and gain a lot of weight during pregnancy usually have an increased risk of giving birth to large babies." "This also applies to women who develop gestational diabetes," she added in a university news release. "On average, women with PCOS have higher BMIs, gain more weight during pregnancy and 25 percent of them develop gestational diabetes. However, the outcome is the opposite: these women give birth to babies who are smaller than average." "We still don’t know why, but we see that the placenta is affected in these women," Vanky said. As she explained, "the placenta delivers nutrients to the baby through the umbilical cord. In women with PCOS, we see that the placenta is generally smaller in size. At the same time, it must provide everything the baby needs, so it has to work very hard to meet these demands. Sometimes, however, the placenta can’t keep up, which can lead to placental insufficiency and, in rare cases, fetal death.” How PCOS might be affecting the health of the placenta is not yet known, according to the researchers. As to the longer term effects of PCOS during pregnancy on a child's health, the Norwegian team noted that they have gathered data on some affected children up to the age of 7. “We saw that the children born to mothers with PCOS generally had more central obesity, meaning they were larger around the waist,” Vanky said. “They bear small signs that their mother has PCOS. It may therefore be an advantage to know about this so we can provide guidance on lifestyle and diet." The study was published recently in the journal JAMA Network Open . Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

MONDAY, Aug. 12, 2024 -- For children with cerebral palsy (CP), a single injection of botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT-A) into the calf muscles does not affect the gross energy cost of walking, according to a study published online July 26 in Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology . Siri Merete Brændvik, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, and colleagues conducted a quadruple-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial involving 61 children with spastic CP and classified in Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels I and II. Participants were randomly allocated to single injections of BoNT-A or 0.9 percent saline into the calf muscles. The researchers found that the mean change in energy cost did not differ significantly between the groups at the primary time point of 12 weeks or at four weeks or 24 weeks after the injection. There was some evidence for a larger reduction in pain intensity for participants receiving BoNT-A with respect to secondary end points of walking capacity, habitual physical activity, perceived change in mobility tasks, and calf pain. "The results suggest that BoNT-A injected into the calf muscles may reduce pain in children with CP classified in GMFCS levels I and II, although this requires further research," the authors write. Abstract/Full Text Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

While previous studies suggested an association of the most common cerebral small-vessel disease with dementia risk, new research provides evidence of causal link, identifying it as a major vascular factor. Research led by in part by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) finds that the most common cerebral small-vessel disease feature seen in brain magnetic resonance imaging is a primary vascular factor associated with dementia risk. Results of the major international study emphasize the significance of that feature, known as white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden, in preventive strategies for dementia. "Our findings provide converging evidence that WMH is a major vascular factor associated with dementia risk," said Muralidharan Sargurupremraj, PhD, an assistant professor at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio. "They also support WMH as a surrogate marker for clinical trials to prevent dementia by controlling vascular risk." Sargurupremraj is the first and co-corresponding author of the research, titled, "Genetic Complexities of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease, Blood Pressure, and Dementia," published May 22 in JAMA Network Open, a monthly open-access medical journal published by the American Medical Association. The study notes that with increasing life expectancy, the prevalence of dementia is expected to reach 75 million people globally by 2030, which makes devising strategies to prevent or delay its occurrence a major public health priority. The scientific community widely recognizes that most dementia cases, including Alzheimer's disease, are related to a combination of vascular and neurodegenerative lesions. And cerebral small-vessel disease is thought to be the main underlying contribution to cognitive decline and dementia, with nearly half of dementia cases showing both Alzheimer's and cerebral small-vessel disease neuropathologic characteristics, the study notes. Still, while observational studies had shown evidence of an association between white matter hyperintensity burden and increased risk of stroke and dementia, causal evidence had been limited. White matter hyperintensities are lesions in the brain that show up as areas of increased brightness in T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. In the new study, researchers were able to provide evidence of a causal link between vascular traits and Alzheimer's disease, using genetic instrument variable analyses known as Mendelian randomization -- a method that leverages the natural randomization of genetic alleles to test how differences in the genetic effect on modifiable exposure influence disease risk. Specifically, in a two-year analysis ending July 24, 2022, and using Alzheimer's disease genome-wide association studies of up to 75,000 European dementia cases, they found causal evidence of an association of larger WMH burden with increased risk of the disease, accounting for pulse-pressure effects. The study also highlighted the importance of combining several complementary epidemiological approaches and data types, and of accounting for caveats of instrumental variable analyses when exploring the impact of vascular traits on late-onset diseases like dementia. "As vascular disease is a treatable contributor to dementia risk, our findings have broad significance for prevention strategies of Alzheimer's and dementia as a whole," Sargurupremraj concluded. The researchers advise future studies to examine whether their findings can be generalized to non-European populations. Other institutions and entities represented in the study include the University of Bordeaux (France); University of Washington; University of Michigan; University of Tartu (Estonia); Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam (Netherlands); Boston University and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Framingham Heart Study; Icelandic Heart Association (Iceland); Washington University, St. Louis; University of Oxford (United Kingdom); Department of Public Health, Bordeaux (France); University of Pittsburgh; University of Lille (France); Radboud University, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago (Chile); University of Iceland (Iceland); Oslo University Hospital, Oslo (Norway); Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Imperial College London (United Kingdom); National Institute on Aging; and Bordeaux University Hospital (France). UT Health San Antonio is a primary driver of San Antonio's leading $44.1 billion health care and biosciences sector, and is the largest academic research institution in South Texas with an annual research portfolio of $413 million.