István Sziller

Newborn infants detect the beat in music

To shed light on how humans can learn to understand music, we need to discover what the perceptual capabilities with which infants are born. Beat induction, the detection of a regular pulse in an auditory signal, is considered a fundamental human trait that, arguably, played a decisive role in the origin of music. Theorists are divided on the issue whether this ability is innate or learned. We show that newborn infants develop expectation for the onset of rhythmic cycles (the downbeat), even when it is not marked by stress or other distinguishing spectral features. Omitting the downbeat elicits brain activity associated with violating sensory expectations. Thus, our results strongly support the view that beat perception is innate.

Placental protein 13 (galectin-13) has decreased placental expression but increased shedding and maternal serum concentrations in patients presenting with preterm pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome

Placental protein 13 (PP13) is a galectin expressed by the syncytiotrophoblast. Women who subsequently develop preterm pre-eclampsia have low first trimester maternal serum PP13 concentrations. This study revealed that third trimester maternal serum PP13 concentration increased with gestational age in normal pregnancies (p < 0.0001), and it was significantly higher in women presenting with preterm pre-eclampsia (p = 0.02) and hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count (HELLP) syndrome (p = 0.01) than in preterm controls. Conversely, placental PP13 mRNA (p = 0.03) and protein, as well as cytoplasmic PP13 staining of the syncytiotrophoblast (p < 0.05) was decreased in these pathological pregnancies compared to controls. No differences in placental expression and serum concentrations of PP13 were found at term between patients with pre-eclampsia and control women. In contrast, the immunoreactivity of the syncytiotrophoblast microvillous membrane was stronger in both term and preterm pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome than in controls. Moreover, large syncytial cytoplasm protrusions, membrane blebs and shed microparticles strongly stained for PP13 in pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. In conclusion, parallel to its decreased placental expression, an augmented membrane shedding of PP13 contributes to the increased third trimester maternal serum PP13 concentrations in women with preterm pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome.

Effect of formalin, acetone, and RNAlater fixatives on tissue preservation and different size amplicons by real-time PCR from paraffin-embedded tissue.

RNA recovered from paraffin-embedded tissue has been reported to be a suitable substrate for polymerase chain reaction. During tissue fixation and paraffin embedding, RNA undergoes degradation, but with certain restrictions, it can be used for gene expression studies. At the same time, formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded histopathology archives contain an unestimable collection, which could be analyzed to investigate changes in mRNA expression in pathologic processes. To decide for future tissue conservation of pathology samples, it would be reasonable to satisfy both histologic and molecular biologic needs. The effect of three different fixation methods, RNAlater (SIGMA R 0901, St Louis, MO), acetone, and formalin, were compared by histology, immunohistochemistry, and real-time PCR. To assess tissue structure preservation and antigenicity, hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemistry were performed; to assess RNA quality, RNA was extracted and the transcription of different amplicon sizes (121, 225, 406 bp for GAPDH; 166, 310, 536 bp for β globin) were examined on human endometrium samples. The most adequate tissue preservation was found in case of formalin fixation, while there were no significant differences in the three fixatives’ yields for various size real-time PCR amplicons. Longer amplicons (above ∼225 bp) have limited use for gene expression studies, while shorter amplicons could give more reliable results.

Newborn infants process pitch intervals.

OBJECTIVE We investigated whether the auditory system of newborn babies extracts the constancy of a pitch interval from exemplars varying in absolute pitch. METHODS Event-related brain potentials (ERP) were recorded from healthy newborn infants in an oddball paradigm consisting of frequent standard and infrequent deviant tone pairs. Tone pairs varied in absolute frequency. Standard and deviant pairs differed in the amount of pitch difference within the pairs, but not in the direction of pitch change. RESULTS Deviant tone pairs elicited a discriminative ERP response. CONCLUSIONS This result suggests that the neonate auditory system represents pitch intervals similarly to adults. SIGNIFICANCE Adult-like processing of pitch intervals allows newborn infants to learn music, speech prosody, and to process various important auditory cues based on spectral acoustic features.

I. Hypogastric artery ligation for intractable pelvic hemorrhage

To assess the outcomes of bilateral hypogastric (internal iliac) ligation performed to control intractable pelvic hemorrhage and avoid hysterectomy.

β2-adrenergic receptor gene polymorphisms and pregnancy outcome

Abstract Aims: The association between alleles at two loci of the polymorphic β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR) gene and pregnancy outcome was determined. Methods: In a case-control study, buccal swabs obtained from 159 mother-infant pairs after a preterm or term birth were analyzed by gene amplification and endonuclease digestion for polymorphisms at codons 16 and 27 of the β2AR gene. Results: Homozygosity for allele A at codon 16 (Arg-16) occurred in 26 (20.5%) of 127 mothers with a term birth and in none of the mothers who had a spontaneous preterm birth (p = 0.002). Conversely, 24 of 32 (75.0%) mothers with a spontaneous preterm birth, as compared to 58 of 127 (45.7%) mothers with term births, were Arg-16/allele G (Gly-16) heterozygotes (p = 0.003). There was no relation between pregnancy outcome and infant genotype at codon 16 or maternal or infant genotypes at codon 27. The alleles at codon 16 and 27 were in linkage disequilibrium and the combinations of Arg-16-Gln-27 homozygosity (p = 0.04) and Arg-16/Gly-16-Gln homozygous (p = 0.01) were associated with a decreased and increased rate of spontaneous preterm birth, respectively. Conclusion: At codon 16 of the β2-AR gene, maternal Arg-16 homozygosity protects against, and Gly-16 predisposes to spontaneous preterm birth.

Hypogastric artery ligation for severe hemorrhage in obstetric patients

Abstract Ligation of the hypogastric arteries (HAL) was first introduced into surgery by the end of the 19th century to control intractable hemorrhage from the uterus of women with advanced cervical cancer. At present, HAL is one in a spectrum of operative methods to control life-threatening postpartum hemorrhage before hysterectomy. Bilateral ligation of the internal iliac artery does not result in complete blockage of but to a significant decrease in blood supply to the female pelvic organs. Soon after ligation three previously existent collateral circulations will develop. Due to the smaller caliber of these arteries, the arterial pulse and pulse pressure are virtually eliminated. The effectiveness of HAL in avoiding hysterectomy for postpartum hemorrhage has been reported in up to 50% of cases. HAL has no adverse effect on subsequent fertility or pregnancy outcome, however, assessment for intrauterine fetal growth restriction is recommended. This safe and effective procedure should be taught during obstetric and gynecologic training.

Timbre‐independent extraction of pitch in newborn infants

The ability to separate pitch from other spectral sound features, such as timbre, is an important prerequisite of veridical auditory perception underlying speech acquisition and music cognition. The current study investigated whether or not newborn infants generalize pitch across different timbres. Perceived resonator size is an aspect of timbre that informs the listener about the size of the sound source, a cue that may be important already at birth. Therefore, detection of infrequent pitch changes was tested by recording event-related brain potentials in healthy newborn infants to frequent standard and infrequent pitch-deviant sounds while the perceived resonator size of all sounds was randomly varied. The elicitation of an early negative and a later positive discriminative response by deviant sounds demonstrated that the neonate auditory system represents pitch separately from timbre, thus showing advanced pitch processing capabilities.

Circulating antibodies to a conserved epitope of the Chlamydia trachomatis 60-kDa heat shock protein is associated with decreased spontaneous fertility rate in ectopic pregnant women treated by salpingectomy.

Problem  This prospective study was aimed to evaluate whether non‐invasive clinical and serologic parameters of tubal disease are predictive for subsequent spontaneous conception and pregnancy outcome after first episode of ectopic pregnancy (EP).

Characteristic Laboratory Changes in Pregnancies Complicated by HELLP Syndrome

Introduction: HELLP syndrome (hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count) is a severe, life-threatening form of preeclampsia. Its development is accompanied by significant increase in maternal, as well as fetal, morbidity, and mortality rates. It is essential, therefore, for obstetricians to be familiar with the disease. Materials and Methods: In the past 10 years, 107 patients were treated for HELLP syndrome in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the First Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Semmelweis University. During this time, we studied the characteristic laboratory findings of the disease from the day of the diagnosis until the first few postpartum days. Results: HELLP syndrome was present in 0.37% of all women having live births. In our study, the liver enzymes AST, and LDH, and the level of total bilirubin (indicating the degree of hemolysis), and repeated thrombocyte counts were suitable for following the cases. The AST, LDH and bilirubin levels returned to normal between the third and seventh days postpartum. The platelet count passed the critical level of 100,000/μL on the third to fourth day. Conclusions: We have found that the platelet count, LDH, AST, and total bilirubin levels proved to be useful indicators of the progression of HELLP syndrome.