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Query: UMLS:C0409974 (lupus)
 22,386 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

There are many pregnant mothers who have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or who require immunosuppressive therapy for sundry reasons. Despite this, we have been able to find only one English-language report of placental cryptococcosis. We have had an opportunity to treat a pregnant mother who suffered from cryptococcal meningitis that complicated steroid treatment for lupus erythematosus. At 31 weeks' gestation, fetal distress necessitated delivery by cesarean section. The placenta had focally abundant intervillous and perivillous cryptococcal yeast cells, but there was no chorioamnionitis or villitis. Although there were no clinical or placental signs of transplacental infection, immunohistochemical labeling of villous stromal cells showed a conspicuously increased number of fetal macrophages.
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PMID:Placental cryptococcosis in a mother with systemic lupus erythematosus. 802 15

This article on the placenta includes considerations of chorioamnionitis, villitis, preeclampsia, and other low placental blood flow states and aspects of the circulating lupus anticoagulant syndrome. The author explains that, although gross and microscopic placental findings document placental features at one point in time, they also reflect ongoing pathophysiologic changes. Pathogenetic relationships between placental pathology, fetal hypoxia, intrauterine growth retardation, and cerebral palsy are discussed. The reader will learn that low placental blood flow states and chorioamnionitis are important means by which endothelins may eventually participate in the production of placental and fetal vasoconstriction and critical hypoperfusion. The author explains means by which reduced umbilical, placental, and fetal blood flow can result from chronic fetal exposure to meconium, meconium-induced vasoactivity, and ultimate vascular necrosis. Clinically important complications therein may include anoxic-ischemic neuronal necrosis in the brain, necrotizing enterocolitis, and ischemic lesions in the fetal heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver. The article includes a review of nucleated red blood cells that most often signify chronic fetal hypoxia rather than infrequent acute intrapartum asphyxia. The reader will also find information on chorangiosis (placental villous capillary hypervascularity), an important sign of placental malperfusion and very long-standing fetal hypoxia.
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PMID:Role of the placenta in perinatal pathology (revisited). 902 28

This review considers six main situations in which pathologists are expected to report and interpret placental messages for obstetricians, neonatologists and, indirectly, parents: (1) abortion is the body's corrective response to the embryonic defect suggested by malformed chorionic villi; (2) infection causing chorionic villous inflammation is specific and haematogenous; pathogen identification is mandatory, in contrast to chorioamnionitis caused by increased local immunosuppression allowing indiscriminate bacterial entry; (3) prematurity and (4) intrauterine growth restriction are often associated with pregnancy-specific disease (pre-eclampsia) or pre-existing maternal conditions (systemic lupus); parental studies may improve outcome in subsequent pregnancies; (5) intrauterine death near term is often due to placental dysmaturity featuring a severely reduced number of syncytiocapillary membranes; it accounts for the death in utero of 3 in 1000 pregnancies; detection helps to minimise recurrence in subsequent pregnancies; (6) twins are best confirmed as monozygous by the absence of chorionic tissue in the dividing membranes; most monochorionic twins have vascular connections whose detailed analysis is requested only if there are inter-twin differences in growth and colour. From a formal point of view, many more bits of pathology than discussed in this review can be found in placentas and, with the advances in ultrasonography, might even be seen prior to birth. The extent of such a disturbance might ultimately affect fetal growth, which is amenable to prenatal detection offering the chances for an appropriate management. In contrast, dysmaturity is a great challenge as no predictive tests are as yet available.
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PMID:Placental pathology: its impact on explaining prenatal and perinatal death. 1513 17