Dear Editor-in-Chief High Alcohol intake (over 48– 60 gr. ethanol/day) during pregnancy may cause Fetal Alcohol syn-drome (FAS). The criteria of FAS diagnosis are prenatal Alcohol consumption, newborn's growth retardation, newborn’ s characteristic facial fea-tures and newborn's neurological abnormalities (1). The exposure to Alcohol before birth can cause developmental disabilities and birth defects known as Fetal Alcohol spectrum disorders. Fetal Alcohol spectrum disorders can cause certain pregnancy problems (miscarriage), premature birth and stillbirth. ...

Background and Objective: Alcohol is a teratogenic agent for humans and can easily pass through the placenta. Low doses of Alcohol are commonly found in Alcoholic drinks, therefore the purpose of this study was to investigate the histological changes of Fetal rat livers influenced by low doses of Alcohol consumption.Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, pregnant female rats were divided into a control group and three experimental groups which were on a diet of 5%, 10% and 20% of Alcohol in their drinking water.The specified doses of Alcohol were delivered from the 8th day of pregnancy until the 20th day. On the 21st day of pregnancy, the fetuses were surgically removed from the mother's uterus and the livers of the fetuses were removed with the help of a stereo microscope. Following fixing, processing and sectioning, the Fetal livers were stained using H& E and were studied under a light microscope. Data were analyzed by SPSS software and ANOVA.Results: Alcohol doses of 10% and 20% significantly increased histopathological liver factors (p<0.001).But a 5% dose of Alcohol didn' t have a significant effect on liver histology.Conclusion: Alcohol usage during pregnancy, even at low doses, may lead to pathologic changes in the liver of a developing rat fetus. A 5% dose of Alcohol does not lead to significant pathologic changes in the histology of the Fetal rat liver, while doses of 10% and 20% of Alcohol significantly increases inflammatory factors in histological studies.

Maternal Alcohol abuse causes abnormal Fetal development, a condition called Fetal Alcohol syndrome (FAS). Hydrocephalus is one of the main features accompanying this condition. The early sign of hydrocephalus in the Fetal period is ventricolumegaly, followed by reduction in the cortex thickness. In this research hydrocephaly and its effect during ethanol exposure was investigated .To inducing FAS, pregnant Wistar rats were fed with 5) %w/v (liquid Alcoholic diet from day 8 of pregnancy to delivery. Embryos of E18 and E19 days were decapitated and brains were removed and sectioned and stained by H&E and immunohistochemistry. The analysis of the brain sections revealed significant decrease (p).

Background: Prenatal exposure to Alcohol can result in Fetal Alcohol syndrome, first defined in the early 1970s, and is characterized by growth retardation, facial dysmorphologies, and a host of neurobehavioral impairments. Alcohol drinking has led to serious problems including health, ethical, social, economical etc. According to Islam rules Alcohol can be freely used for all purposes except as a drink. Materials and Method: Using radial maze we explored effects of Alcohol on spatial learning memory in the rats born from the mothers administered by Alcohol during different part of pregnancy period consisting of 1- first and 2- second half, and, 3- first, 4- second5- third and forth 5 days of pregnancy period. Control group born from mothers reared in normal condition. The criterion for learning was two consecutive trials in which the animal enters all baited arms with no error.Results: Our findings resulted in a superiority of the control group on the groups receiving Alcohol during either the first or the second half of pregnancy period. In addition, the animals exposed to Alcohol in the first half outperformed those in the second half of prenatal life.Thus, we concluded that the first half of the pregnancy period is more sensitive to Alcohol effects. No noticeable variation was evident between the control group and the animals exposed to Alcohol during the second half of the Fetal life.Conclusion: All together, the present data led us to conclude that exposing the animals to ethanol during the Fetal life can impair spatial learning. Moreover, the second 5 days of prenatal life is more sensitive to Alcohol effects. From these considerations it can be said that Alcohol impairs leaning in the animals via affecting a well-known area of brain involving in spatial learning and memory hippocampus.

The intragastric exposure of Quackenbush Special (QS) mice to Alcohol both under short-term (6-day period, 3.0 g/kg, but not 1.5 g/kg, body weight/day through gestation days GD 7 to GD 12) and long-term (15% ethanol in drinking water beginning several weeks before mating and continuing in to pregnancy) conditions, reduced the weight, size, and protein content of GD 12 embryos, and the weight of GD 18 embryos. Compared to control, the incidence of brachydactyly with delayed ossification was also significantly greater in embryos chronically exposed to Alcohol (45% vs. 6.7%). The short-term and long-term exposure regimens produced incidences of only 1% and 5.8% respectively, of forelimb ectrodactyly in GD 18 embryos. It was concluded that Alcohol exerts embryo growth retarding effects in pregnant QS mice without inducing a high incidence of skeletal defects. Thus, the QS mouse could serve as an excellent model to resolve the mechanisms whereby Alcohol induces pre - and post-natal growth restrictions during pregnancy.

Objectives: Fetal cardiac arrhythmia has good prognosis. However, some can lead to hydrops Fetalis and perinatal mortality. There are not sufficient studies on the prevalence and complications of Fetal arrhythmias in Iran, thus, making parents anxious. Therefore, we performed this study to determine its proper management and to prevent its complications during pregnancy. Then we can help parents by giving them sufficient information about their Fetal problem.Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytic study included 81 pregnant women with Fetal arrhythmia detected in routine monitoring. For cases, we performed Fetal echocardiography. Data was analyzed by SPSS 20 (P<0.05).Results: This study assessed the Fetal period until 28 days after labor. Fetal arrhythmia was confirmed in 37 cases through echocardiography. The most prevalent arrhythmia was extrasystole with 27 cases (72.97%). Two cases with congenital heart disease experienced heart failure and hydrops Fetalis and died in neonatal period and 25 cases survived. Eight cases had bradycardia including 5 with sinus bradycardia and 3 with atrioventricular block. Seven cases had congenital heart problems and 4 of them led to heart failure. Perinatal mortality was seen in six cases. Tachycardia was seen in two cases (5.4%) with no heart failure or hydrops Fetalis. One case died of preterm delivery.Conclusion: Congenital heart disease is considered as an important risk, affecting Fetal and neonatal outcome in fetuses with arrhythmias. As pregnancy advances, the frequency of arrhythmias decreased and converted to sinus rhythm.