Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D Wass.
The occurrence of multiple exostoses in a carrier of a balanced translocation t(8;11) (q24.11;p15.5) is described. The breakpoint on chromosome 8 is at proximal q24.1 within the critical region reported for Langer-Giedion syndrome.
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The development and validation of a radioimmunoassay for the measurement of human placental protein 14 in maternal serum is described. The mean concentration of this protein in serum from 22 normal pregnant women showed a decline during the third trimester from 120 micrograms/l at 27 weeks gestation to 65 micrograms/l at term. Serum samples from 16 patients with intra-uterine growth retardation tended to contain lower concentrations of placental protein 14, these results reaching significance at weeks 36-38 of gestation. Of seven patients with pre-eclampsia from whom two or more blood samples were taken, four showed increases in concentration of this protein as pregnancy proceeded, compared with the normal pattern of decreasing values.
A technique for sampling pure fetal blood in twin pregnancies using a single uterine entry with a fetoscope is described. The fetoscope was inserted into one sac and after blood had been obtained from that twin, the fetus in the other sac was sampled by trans-septal passage of the blood-sampling needle. This was done in six out of seven patients, the first in the series having two separate insertions of the fetoscope, one into each sac. Pure fetal blood was taken from all 14 fetuses, either from the placental insertion of the umbilical cord or the umbilicus, and the volume of the samples ranged from 200 mul to 1200 mul. In six patients the fetuses were at risk of beta-thalassaemia and in one of haemophilia A. Some observations are made relating zygosity to the ultrasonic and fetoscopic appearance of the septum between the sacs.