ABSTRACT
Background: To find out the correlation of bacterial vaginosis (BV) in idiopathic preterm labour and find its association with an adverse pregnancy outcome in patients with idiopathic preterm labour. Methods: This is a comparative study, comprising of 150 pregnant females in study group admitted with preterm labour without any obvious cause and 150 pregnant women with singleton pregnancy at term in the control group. Both the groups were tested for BV by using Amsel's criteria and Nugent's criteria. Diagnosis of BV was stamped based on gram staining of vaginal discharge smear. All patients were followed till delivery. Results: In the study group, significantly large number of women tested positive for BV on gram staining of vaginal discharge as compared to control group (20.6% vs 8.0%). In the study group, an adverse pregnancy outcome in the form of preterm delivery (<37 weeks) was noted in 93.4% women testing positive for BV and only in 47.9% women testing negative for BV. The majority of women with BV +ve were more likely to deliver before or at 34 weeks (58.06%) compared to women with BV-ve (14.28%).Conclusion: BV was significantly associated with preterm labour and preterm delivery and adverse perinatal outcomes.