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Background To date, the role of male factor contributing in evaluation of spontaneous recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) has been less investigated and there is discrepancy in the role of Y chromosome microdeltions in RPL. Therefore, the current study was designed to examine whether Y chromosome microdeletions were associated with RPL in an Iranian population. Methods One hundred men from couples, experiencing three or more RPLs, and one hundred normal men from couples with at least one child and no history of miscarriages as control group were included. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood and tested for Y chromosome microdeletions in AZFa, AZFb and AZFc regions using two multiplex PCR. Results None of the men in the case and control groups had any microdeletions in the AZFa, AZFb and AZFc regions. Conclusion It seems that Y chromosome microdeletion is not associated with recurrent pregnancy loss, therefore performing this test in Iranian couples with RPL is not recommended.

Persistent organochlorine compounds (POC), such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and dioxins, are long-lived and highly lipophilic compounds which are present in all biota today. In Sweden, one of the major exposure routes for POC is through the consumption of fatty fish from the Baltic Sea, which is off the east coast of Sweden, and one of the most highly exposed populations is the fishermen's wives and sisters from the east coast. It has been suggested that the time elapsed between the cessation of contraceptive use and clinical recognition of pregnancy (the time to pregnancy) is useful to investigate a couple's fertility. Once a pregnancy is clinically recognised, reproductive loss can be measured by the frequency of miscarriages and stillbirths. Self-administered questionnaires were sent to the fishermen's wives and sisters from both coasts, and information was collected on each woman's first planned pregnancy. From a subgroup of women, blood samples were analysed for CB-153, a biomarker for POC. Among the fishermen's wives, an increased time to pregnancy was found for the east coast women (i.e. the exposed women) compared to the west coast women. The increase was due to a doubled time to pregnancy among east coast women who smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day compared to west coast women with the same smoking habits. Among the fishermen's sisters no effect was found from cohort affiliation. Among the east coast fishermen's wives and sisters, no indications were found of a prolonged time to pregnancy for women who had a high current consumption of fatty fish, had grown up in a fishermans's family and/or fishing village, or had a high concentration of CB-153. No increased miscarriage risk was found for the east compared to the west coast women. Neither did a high current fish consumption, growing up in a fisherman's family and/or fishing village, or a high concentration of CB-153 imply an increased risk for miscarriages.

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune condition characterized by the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) in subjects presenting with thrombosis and/or pregnancy loss. The currently used classification criteria were updated in the international consensus held in Sidney in 2005. Vascular events seem to result of local procoagulative alterations upon triggers influence (the so called "second-hit theory"), while placental thrombosis and complement activation seem to lead to pregnancy morbidity. The laboratory tests suggested by the current classification criteria include lupus anticoagulant, a functional coagulation assay, and anticardiolipin and anti-β2-glycoprotein-I antibodies, generally detected by solid phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The real challenge for treating physicians is understanding what is the actual weight of aPL in provoking clinical manifestations in each case. As thrombosis has a multi-factorial cause, each patient needs a risk-stratified approach. In this review we discuss the role of thrombotic risk assessment in primary and secondary prevention of venous and arterial thromboembolic disease in patients with APS, focusing on new antibody specificities, available risk scoring models and new coagulation assays.