Introduction. A significant proportion of women globally, consti tuting 38%, are obese, among whom 24.5% reside in Europe. Obe sity elevates the risk of premature birth due to associated maternal conditions, such as preeclampsia. The objectives were to assess: variations in demographic and clinical characteristics among preg nant women across groups; the impact of obesity on the incidence of preeclampsia and preterm delivery; and the influence of obesity on newborn characteristics.

Methods. One-year prospective study included 133 pregnant wom en gestational age 11-14 gestational week (GW), divided into two groups: OB (41.35%) and CG (58.65%). The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23.

Results. There is statistically significant difference in average body mass index (BMI) (22.01 ± 1.83 vs. 30.26 ± 4.52; p < 0.001) and de livery time (37.94 ± 2.05 vs. 36.87 ± 2.45; p = 0.003) between CG and OB. Obese pregnant women developed preeclampsia significantly more often than normal weight (61.82% vs. 28.21%; p < 0.001). Body mass index has significant moderate predictive ability to predict preeclampsia (AUC 0.696 (95% CI: [0.601; 0.79]). Higher BMI (OR = 1.19, [1.09; 1.29], p < 0.0001) was associated with higher rates of pre eclampsia. Overweight (OR = 2.41, [1.07; 5.43], p = 0.0335), obesity class I, II and III (OR = 20.36, [4.32; 95.99], p = 0.0001) were associated with higher rates of preeclampsia. A poor negative correlation was found between BMI and GW of pregnancy outcome (p = -0.24; r2 = 0.104; p = 0.006). Higher BMI (β = -0.14, [-0.21; -0.07], p = 0.0002) was associated with lower values of GW of pregnancy outcome.

Conclusions. Presence of obesity or overweightness in the first tri mester of pregnancy poses a significant risk factor for preeclampsia and preterm delivery.

Introduction. Lyme borreliosis is a multisystem infectious disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex. It is transmitted by Ixodes ticks. Apart from erythema migrans, other manifestations require laboratory confirmation. The aim of our study was to analyze the results of Two-Tiered Testing in patients with possible Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB).

Method. We conducted a prospective diagnostic study at the University Clinical Centre of Republic of Srpska from October 2017 to October 2021. The study included 51 patients exam ined and treated under suspicion of Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB). We used Two-Tiered Testing through ELISA anti-Borrelia IgM/IgG and confirmatory Immunoblot anti-Borrelia test IgM/ IgG.

Results. ELISA anti-Borrelia IgM in serum was positive in 25.5% patients and IgG in 76.47%, while in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) IgM was positive in 13.7% patients and IgG in 39.2%. Immuno blot test of anti-Borrelia IgM in serum was at the borderline in 7.84% patients, positive in 6.17% and no data for 35.29%, while IgG was positive in 54.9% of patients and no data for 37.25%. A strong correlation between results of ELISA anti-Borrelia IgM in serum and CSF was observed (ρ=0.802, p<0.001) and also between ELISA anti-Borrelia IgG and Immunoblot IgG in serum (ρ=0.787, p<0.001).

Conclusion. Two-Tiered Testing is very important in patients with possible LNB. False positive and false negative results are possible and test should be interpreted with caution and in correlation with the clinical manifestation and other avail able tests. More work needs to be done to develop new reli able diagnostic test for LNB, such as detection of CXCL13 in CSF, titrate the interleukin-6 (IL-6) in addition to the CXCL13 chemokine.