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Cohen, Allison

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Cohen

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Allison

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Cohen, Allison

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    Time-specific placental growth factor (PlGF) across pregnancy and infant birth weight in women with preexisting diabetes
    (Informa Healthcare, 2016) James-Todd, Tamarra; Cohen, Allison; Wenger, Julia; Brown, Florence
    Objective: Determine the independent association between time-specific placental growth factor (PIGF)—a marker of placental vasculature—and infant birth weight in offspring of mothers with preexisting type 1 and 2 diabetes. Methods: A total of 150 women were recruited from Joslin Diabetes Center’s/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Diabetes in Pregnancy Program. PlGF was measured up to four times during pregnancy. Infant birth weight and covariate data were collected from medical records. Hemoglobin A1c was assessed from drawn blood samples. We used generalized linear and log-binomial models to calculate the change in continuous birth weight, as well as macrosomia for every unit change in time-specific ln-transformed PlGF, respectively. Models were adjusted for potential confounders. Results: Approximately 75% of women had type 1 diabetes. Third trimester PlGF levels were significantly associated with infant birth weight (r = 0.24, p = 0.02 at 27–34 weeks; r = 0.26, p < 0.009 for 36–40 weeks). After full adjustment, there was a 6.1% and 6.6% increase in birth weight for gestational age percentile for each unit increase in ln-transformed PlGF level at 27–34 weeks and 35–40 weeks, respectively (95% CI for 27–34 weeks gestation: 1.1, 11.0, and 95% CI for 35–40 weeks gestation: 0.7%, 12.5%). We found a statistically significant increased risk of macrosomia among women with higher ln-transformed PlGF levels (RR: 1.72; 95% CI: 1.09, 2.70). Associations were not mediated by hemoglobin A1c. Conclusions: Third trimester PlGF levels were associated with higher birth weight in women with preexisting diabetes. These findings may provide insight to the pathophysiology of fetal overgrowth in women with diabetes.
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    Opposing Effects of Particle Pollution, Ozone, and Ambient Temperature on Arterial Blood Pressure
    (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 2012) Luttmann-Gibson, Heike; de Souza, Celine; Foley, Christopher; Hoffmann, Barbara H.; Cohen, Allison; Zanobetti, Antonella; Suh MacIntosh, Helen H.; Coull, Brent; Schwartz, Joel; Mittleman, Murray; Stone, Peter; Horton, Edward; Gold, Diane
    Background: Diabetes increases the risk of hypertension and orthostatic hypotension and raises the risk of cardiovascular death during heat waves and high pollution episodes. Objective: We examined whether short-term exposures to air pollution (fine particles, ozone) and heat resulted in perturbation of arterial blood pressure (BP) in persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: We conducted a panel study in 70 subjects with T2DM, measuring BP by automated oscillometric sphygmomanometer and pulse wave analysis every 2 weeks on up to five occasions (355 repeated measures). Hourly central site measurements of fine particles, ozone, and meteorology were conducted. We applied linear mixed models with random participant intercepts to investigate the association of fine particles, ozone, and ambient temperature with systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial BP in a multipollutant model, controlling for season, meteorological variables, and subject characteristics. Results: An interquartile increase in ambient fine particle mass [particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter of \(\leq\) 2.5 \(\mu\)m (PM\(_{2.5}\))] and in the traffic component black carbon in the previous 5 days (3.54 and 0.25 \(\mu\)g/m\(^3\), respectively) predicted increases of 1.4 mmHg [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.0, 2.9 mmHg] and 2.2 mmHg (95% CI: 0.4, 4.0 mmHg) in systolic BP (SBP) at the population geometric mean, respectively. In contrast, an interquartile increase in the 5-day mean of ozone (13.3 ppb) was associated with a 5.2 mmHg (95% CI: –8.6, –1.8 mmHg) decrease in SBP. Higher temperatures were associated with a marginal decrease in BP. Conclusions: In subjects with T2DM, PM was associated with increased BP, and ozone was associated with decreased BP. These effects may be clinically important in patients with already compromised autoregulatory function.