Fem Tech World explores the latest research developments impacting on women’s health.

AI system detects heart defects on foetal ultrasound exams

A new study has evaluated whether an artificial intelligence (AI) system can improve the detection of congenital heart defects on foetal ultrasound exams among both general OBGYNs and maternal foetal medicine specialists.

The team found that assistance by the AI system significantly improved detection of studies suspicious for congenital heart defects. AI may play a pivotal role in improving prenatal detection of CHD.

Inhibitor drugs to treat aggressive breast cancer identified

Two inhibitor drugs with the potential to interrupt disease progression have been identified in a new study.

By examining the biology of metaplastic breast cancer and comparing it to non-metaplastic triple negative breast cancer, a team of researchers have discovered metaplastic breast cancers typically exhibit two unique signalling pathways in their cell interaction.

The team were able to disrupt these pathways using a class of inhibitors typically used to treat advanced cancers – phosphoinositide 3 kinase inhibitor (P13K) – in combination with a nitric oxide inhibitor (NOS) typically used to treat septic shock, cardiovascular disease and other conditions.

When introduced to the cell, these drugs disrupted these pathways, making the treatment more effective.

The team say the findings offer a promising therapeutic option for one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat subtypes of breast cancer.

Could the contraceptive pill reduce risk of ovarian cancer?

The oral contraceptive pill reduced the risk of ovarian cancer by 26 per cent among women who had ever used the Pill, and by 43 per cent for women who had used the Pill after the age of 45, a new study has found.

Biomarkers associated with ovarian cancer risk were also identified in the study, including several characteristics of red blood cells and certain liver enzymes in the blood, with lower body weight and shorter stature associating with a lower risk of ovarian cancer.

Researchers also found that women who had given birth to two or more children had a 39 per cent reduced risk of developing ovarian cancer compared to those who had not had children.

Maternal biomarker test significantly reduces neonatal morbidities

A biomarker test to identify pregnant people at higher risk of preterm birth significantly improved neonatal outcomes, including reducing infant morbidity as well as reducing admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the amount of time spent in the NICU.

In a clinical trial, the biomarker test, which analysed a participant’s blood, was administered in the middle of the second trimester of pregnancy to identify individuals at higher risk of delivering an infant preterm.

The test classified 23.5 percent of participants as higher risk within the preterm birth prevention arm. In addition to the traditional standard of care, individuals identified as high risk were given a low-risk and low-cost regimen of daily vaginal progesterone and low-dose aspirin and also assigned weekly standardised phone calls with a nurse.

The researchers say that the findings suggest a transformative strategy for reducing neonatal complications.

No evidence that maternal sickness during pregnancy causes autism

Of the few conditions truly associated with autism, a new study reveals that all of them are actually complications with the foetus — leading the authors to believe that those symptoms were early signs of autism in the child and not the cause of it.

The study included an analysis of the medical histories of more than 1.1 million pregnancies (among 600,000 mothers) from a national registry in Denmark.

The researchers corrected for factors that could confound, or offer an alternative explanation for, the link between the diagnosis a woman received and a child’s autism diagnosis.

These factors include sociodemographic status and the mother’s age during pregnancy, since children of older mothers are more likely to be diagnosed with autism, and their mothers are also more likely to receive certain diagnoses, such as hypertension, than their younger counterparts.

After accounting for these confounding factors, as well as for concurrent diagnoses, 30 were still statistically associated with autism in the child.

To determine if these happened to occur alongside rather than cause autism, the researchers then included the siblings of autistic children in the analysis. If a mother was diagnosed with the same condition during pregnancies of children with and without autism, then it would suggest that factors other than her diagnosis were influencing the link with autism.

The researchers say their interpretation is that these foetal diagnoses likely do not cause autism, but are instead early signs of it.