Objectives To evaluate sexual activity and contraceptive use among secondary-school students in Slovenia.Methods A representative sample of 1095 third grade secondary-school students in Slovenia in 2004 was assessed by means of a self-administered questionnaire.Results The average age of the students was 17.4 ± 0.7 years. Most students had experienced being in love (92%), dating (82%), kissing (87%), caressing (78%) and petting (61%). One half (53%) of them had already had coitus. Homosexual contacts had occurred among 2% of the boys and 11% of the girls. The main reason for the first sexual intercourse was love (44%) but it occurred by chance in 27% of the cases. Contraceptive methods used foremost at first intercourse were the condom (75%) and the pill (7%). Contraceptive methods resorted to on the occasion of the last intercourse were the condom (50%), the pill (32%), a double method whereby a condom is used in addition to the pill (4%), withdrawal (4%), periodic abstinence (1%), emergency contraception (1%), and other methods (1%); no contraceptive measures at all were applied in 7% of the encounters.Conclusions At the age of 17 about one half of secondary-school students in Slovenia have already had sexual intercourse. Most students resort to effective contraception, but the double method is underused.
Abnormalities of fetal growth are more common in twins. We introduce the growth curves for monitoring fetal growth in twin pregnancies in Slovenia. Slovenian National Perinatal Information System for the period between 2002 and 2010 was used to calculate birth weight percentiles for all live born twins for each week from 22nd to 40th week. The calculated percentiles of birth weight for all live-born twins in Slovenia served as the basis for drawing 'growth' curves. The calculated growth curves for twins will help accurately diagnose small or large twin fetuses for their gestational age in the native central European population.
To evaluate the possible relationship between maternal height and fetal size.We used a population-based cohort of apparently healthy mothers of singletons to evaluate quartiles of the maternal height distribution for parity, being overweight or obese, and for gestational age and birth weight parameters. We also generated birth weight by gestational age curves for each quartile.We analyzed data of 198,745 mothers. Mother from the four quartiles had similar parity, pre-gravid BMI, and gestational age at birth. Short mothers had a significantly higher rate of VLBW and LBW and 2501-4000 g infants, for an OR = 1.38 (95% CI: 1.17-1.62), OR = 2.2 (95% CI: 2.05-2.37) and OR = 1.82 (95% CI: 1.73-1.87) between the shortest and tallest mothers, respectively. By contrast, the opposite trend was noticed for birth weights >4000 g, for an OR = 2.77 (95% CI: 2.65-2.89) between the tallest and shortest mothers. A very similar "growth curve" was apparent until 33 weeks, when a slower growth velocity was observed for shorter compared with taller women.Maternal stature does not appear to be associated with gestational age but significantly influences birth weight. Height-related differences between mothers appears to begin after 33 weeks' gestation.
To identify the effect of cervical muscle activity as an additional factor influencing the duration of the latent and active phase of labour.Prospective observational study.The Ljubljana Maternity Hospital.Fifty healthy nulliparous women requiring induction of labour having relatively unripe cervices.At the onset of labour an open-ended catheter was inserted to measure intrauterine pressure during the latent and active phase of labour. Electromyographic activity of the cervix was registered by two bipolar spiral needle electrodes placed in the transverse direction on the proximal part of the cervix in the vagina. The mean intensity of distinctive peaks in an electromyographic spectrogram were calculated in the time/frequency domain. Multiple linear regression was used to find factors affecting the duration of the latent and active phase of labour.Duration of the latent and active phase of labour.Eleven independent variables explained 64% of the variance of the latent phase duration, the most important being the effacement and consistency of the cervix, and intensity of electromyographic signals. For the duration of the active phase the same variables explained 36% of the variance; the most important variables were mean duration of uterine contractions, mean maximum intensity of uterine contractions and the newborn's head circumference.The cervical smooth muscle activity, expressed as an electromyographic signal, contributes to the duration of the latent phase but not to the duration of the active phase. However, frequent cervical contractions are not associated with a longer latent phase.
Aim: The etiology of endometriosis remains unknown, but increasing evidence suggests that immune regulation may be important. Our study aimed to evaluate peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations during the menstrual cycle in women with peritoneal and ovarian endometriosis relative to healthy women. Methods: In this study, 65 women with endometriosis (37 in the follicular phase and 28 in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle) and 61 healthy women (33 in the follicular phase and 28 in the luteal phase) were enrolled. Flow cytometric analysis measured peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations. The serum levels of cortisol were also determined. Results: In healthy controls, we detected an increased concentration of cytotoxic (CD8+) T cells and activated (HLA-DR) T cells in the luteal phase compared with the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle (p = 0.020 and p = 0.045), whereas no such fluctuation was detected in endometriosis. However, a marked increase in regulatory T-cell concentration in the luteal phase was detected only in endometriosis patients (p = 0.005). Women with endometriosis had higher levels of serum cortisol (p = 0.022), which correlated with the concentration of regulatory T cells (p = 0.048). Conclusions: Women with endometriosis do not exhibit fluctuations in the concentrations of cytotoxic and activated peripheral blood lymphocytes during the menstrual cycle. The marked fluctuation of regulatory T cells detected in endometriosis could be attributed to altered immune response.
Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is associated with ovarian cancer progression but the origin of its soluble form (sVCAM-1) in serum is not well investigated. The purpose of this study was to elucidate whether the concentration of sVCAM-1 in serum correlates with the concentration in ascites, that represents local tumour environment, and with systemic inflammation, various clinicopathological characteristics, and patient outcome.Thirty-six patients with advanced ovarian cancer were included in the study. Serum for sVCAM-1 analysis was obtained prior to surgery. Ascites samples were collected at the beginning of the operation. Clinical data were collected from patients' medical records. sVCAM-1 in samples was analysed by flow cytometric bead-based assay. The mean follow-up period was 11 months (range 0-23) from the time of surgery.Serum sVCAM-1 concentrations are positively correlated to ascites sVCAM-1 concentrations. There was a weakly positive correlation of serum sVCAM-1 with tumour size and no correlation with inflammatory tumour markers, FIGO stage or grade. Higher concentrations of sVCAM-1 were associated with poor disease outcome (death from ovarian cancer) in almost all cases before chemotherapy was started.This is the first study demonstrating that serum concentrations of sVCAM-1 in advanced ovarian cancer patients correlate with sVCAM-1 concentrations in ascites, thus expressing the biologic potential of malignant disease to metastasis, rather than systemic inflammation. Higher serum and ascites sVCAM-1 concentrations might have predictive potential for different biologic behaviour.
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