Women aged 40–54 had a rate of low birth weight at 11.8 percent. The lowest rates of low birth weight happened among babies whose mothers were between the ages of 25–29 years (4.4%) and 30–34 years (7.6%). Stress
Stressful events have been demonstrated to produce significant effects on birth weight. Those mothers who have stressful events during pregnancy, especially during the first and second trimester, are at higher risk to deliver low-birth weight babies. Researchers furthered this study and found that maternal stressful events that occur prior to conception have a negative impact on birth weight as well, and can result in a higher risk for preterm and lower birth weight babies. Women who experienced abuse (physical, sexual, or emotional) during pregnancy are also at increased risk of delivering a low-birth weight baby. For example, in a study completed by Witt et al., those women who experienced a stressful event (i.e. death of close family member, infertility issues, separation from partner) prior to conception had 38% more of a chance to have a very low birth weight baby compared to those who had not experienced a stressful life event. The theory is that stress can impact a baby based on two different mechanisms: neuroendocrine pathway or immune/inflammatory pathway. Stress causes the body to produce stress hormones called glucocorticoids that can suppress the immune system., as well as raises levels of placental corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) which can lead to preterm labor. These findings can pose evidence for future prevention efforts for low birth weight babies.
Both duct widening and duct ectasia syndrome are frequently bilateral, hence systemic causes are likely involved. Diagnosis
Noninvasive methods to determine duct diameter in live patients are available only recently and it is not clear how the results should be compared with older results from biopsies. Histologically, dilation of the large duct is prominent. Duct widening with associated periductal fibrosis is frequently included in the wastebasket definition of fibrocystic disease. In plasma cell rich lesions diagnosed on core biopsies, steroid-responsive IgG4-related mastitis can be identified by IgG/IgG4 immunostaining. Duct Ectasia Syndrome
The term duct ectasia syndrome has been used to describe symptoms of nonpuerperal mastitis, possibly associated with nipple inversion and nipple discharge. In some contexts, it was used to describe a particular form of nonpuerperal mastitis coincident with fibrocystic disease, frequently involving pasty (coloured) nipple discharge, nipple retraction, retroareolar abscess and blue dome cysts. Abscessation is not very frequent but by some definitions recurrent subareolar abscess is merely a variant of duct ectasia syndrome - abscessation would be obviously more frequent with this definition. Duct ectasia syndrome has been associated with histopathological findings that are distinct from a simple duct widening. In addition to nonspecific duct widening the myoepithelial cell layer is atrophic, missing or replaced by fibrous tissue. The original cuboidal epithelial layer may be also severely impaired or missing. Characteristic calcifications are often visible on mammographic images. Periductal mastitis, comedo mastitis, secretory disease of the breast, plasma cell mastitis and mastitis obliterans are sometimes considered special cases or synonyms of duct ectasia syndrome.