A comparison of booked and unbooked mothers delivering at the Port Moresby General Hospital: a case-control study

A case-control study of unbooked mothers delivering at the maternity unit of the Port Moresby General Hospital was undertaken over a period of 7 months. 48 mothers who had no antenatal attendances during pregnancy were recruited with 96 booked controls. Reasons for non-attendance, understanding of the importance of antenatal clinics and socioeconomic and demographic factors were recorded to assess likely risk factors for non-attendance. Almost half the mothers cited financial difficulties as the reason for non-attendance at antenatal clinics despite most of them knowing that it was important to have antenatal care during pregnancy. The two most important risk factors for being unbooked were mothers having no education (p <0.001) and the type of employment of their spouse (p <0.01). Unbooked mothers were more likely to have preterm babies (OR 16.1; 95%CI 3.4-75.7) and all 6 perinatal deaths occurred in babies born to unbooked mothers. Remedial approaches would need to take into account maternal education, education of partners and the fact that despite free antenatal services in urban clinics financial difficulties in terms of other costs involved still remain an obstacle to overcome.     

Hepatobiliary elimination of bile acid-modified oligodeoxynucleotides in Wistar and TR- rats: evidence for mrp2 as carrier for oligodeoxynucleotides

As therapeutic antisense tools, oligonucleotides (ODNs) must enter cells to bind to their target structures. ODNs distribute in nearly each tissue with relatively high concentrations in kidney and liver from where excretion into urine and bile occurs. To investigate mechanisms involved in hepatic ODN transport, normal mixed backbone phosphodiester/phosphorothioate ODNs (n-ODN) and two different bile acid-conjugated mixed backbone ODNs (1BA-ODN and 2BA-ODN) were applied to two different rat strains, normal Wistar rats and Wistar TR- rats. In normal Wistar rats, concentration-dependent hepatobiliary elimination of the ODNs was observed with a remarkable increase of excretion of the cholic acid BA-ODN conjugates. In contrast to normal Wistar rats, n-ODN excretion into bile by TR- rats, a mutant Wistar rat strain lacking a functional multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (mrp2) at the canalicular membrane, was strongly diminished, whereas these rats excreted an ODN conjugated with two cholic acid molecules (2BA-ODN) into bile. Concomitant application of substrates transported by mrp2 such as bromosulfophthalein (BSP) or the synthetic chlorogenic acid derivative S 3025 significantly reduced the biliary appearance of normal ODN and 2BA-ODN in Wistar rats and also in TR- rats. To inhibit the expression of cRNA derived from the Na+ -dependent taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (Ntcp), antisense ODNs were constructed which fully retained the antisense properties when coupled with two bile acid molecules. The results indicate that ODNs are secreted via the mrp2 into bile. In the absence of mrp2, further excretory transport systems with affinity for bile acids seem to be relevant for their excretion. The results further indicate that bile acid tagged ODNs are useful tools for liver specific antisense therapy.     

甲硝唑葡萄糖注射液细菌内毒素检查法的研究

目的;以细菌内毒素检查法对甲硝唑葡萄糖注射液进行试验研究。方法;采用抑制或增强试验,并将细菌内毒素检查法与家兔法检测结果作对比。结果：该注射液经一定稀释后对测定无干扰。结论：细菌内毒素检查法适用于检测该注射液。