Chorioamnionitis and the prognosis for term infants.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of clinical chorioamnionitis and labor complications on short-term neonatal morbidity, including seizures. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of all live-born term infants who weighed more than 2500 g delivered between 1988 and 1997 at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Texas. Infant outcomes were compared between women with and without clinical diagnoses of chorioamnionitis. Chorioamnionitis was based on maternal fever of 38C or greater with supporting clinical evidence including fetal tachycardia, uterine tenderness, and malodorous infant. RESULTS: A total of 101,170 term infants were analyzed, 5144 (5%) of whom were born to women with chorioamnionitis. Apgar scores of 3 or less at 5 minutes, umbilical artery pH of 7.0 or less, delivery-room intubation, sepsis, pneumonia, seizures in the first 24 hours, and meconium aspiration syndrome were all increased in infants exposed to chorioamnionitis. After adjustment for confounding factors, including route of delivery and length of labor, chorioamnionitis remained significantly associated with intubation in the delivery room (odds ratio [OR] 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.5, 2.6), pneumonia (OR 2.2; 95% CI 1.7, 2.8), and sepsis (OR 2.9; 95% CI 2.1, 4.1). Short-term neurologic morbidity, manifest as seizures, was not related to maternal infection during labor, but was significantly related to other labor complications. CONCLUSION: The main short-term neonatal consequence of chorioamnionitis is infection. Short-term neurologic morbidity in infants is related to labor complications and not chorioamnionitis per se.

Clinical chorioamnionitis and the prognosis for very low birth weight infants.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of clinical chorioamnionitis on neonatal morbidity and mortality in very low birth weight infants. METHODS: This was an observational cohort analysis of all singleton live-born infants weighing 500-1500 g at 24 weeks' or greater gestational age and born between 1988 and 1996 at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, Texas. Chorioamnionitis was diagnosed on the basis of maternal fever of 38C with supporting clinical evidence, which included fetal tachycardia, uterine tenderness, and/or malodorous infant, and the absence of another source of infection. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for outcomes of interest. RESULTS: Ninety-five of 1367 very low birth weight infants (7%) were exposed to chorioamnionitis. Neonatal sepsis, respiratory distress syndrome, seizure in the first 24 hours of life, intraventricular hemorrhage (grade 3 or 4), and periventricular leukomalacia were all significantly increased with chorioamnionitis, after adjusting for preterm ruptured membranes, pregnancy-associated hypertension, cesarean birth, gestational age, and birth weight. The odds ratios for intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia, and seizures in the first 24 hours were 2.8 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.6, 4.8), 3.4 (95% CI 1.6, 7.3), and 2.9 (95% CI 1.2, 6.8), respectively. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest a link between clinical chorioamnionitis and several indices of neonatal morbidity in the very low birth weight infant. Chorioamnionitis appears to make the very low birth weight infant particularly vulnerable to neurologic damage.

Penicillin levels following the administration of benzathine penicillin G in pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the distribution of penicillin in the maternal-placental-fetal unit at term gestation. METHODS: Twenty-five healthy gravidas at 38-39 weeks' gestation scheduled for elective repeat cesarean delivery under spinal anesthesia received benzathine penicillin G, 2.4 million units intramuscularly (IM) preoperatively. Ten women delivered 1 day after injection, five delivered 2-3 days after, and ten delivered 7 days after. We collected maternal serum and cerebrospinal fluid, amniotic fluid (AF), and cord serum at delivery. Penicillin levels were measured using a validated agar disc diffusion method (sensitivity 0.006 micrograms/mL) with Micrococcus lutea as the test organism. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in mean penicillin levels at day 1, day 2-3, or day 7 for maternal serum, maternal cerebrospinal fluid, cord serum, or AF. The mean (+/- standard error) penicillin concentration (range 0.005-0.59 micrograms/mL) in maternal serum declined from 0.14 +/- 0.04 micrograms/mL 1 day after injection to 0.08 +/- 0.06 micrograms/mL 7 days after injection. The proportion of patients with a penicillin concentration at or above 0.018 micrograms/mL in the maternal serum declined significantly from day 1 to day 7 (P = .03). Overall, nine of 25 women (36%) had serum penicillin levels that were less than 0.018 micrograms/mL. CONCLUSION: A wide range of penicillin levels were observed in gravidas at term in the maternal serum, cerebrospinal fluid, umbilical cord serum, and AF within 1 week after 2.4 million units of benzathine penicillin G IM. We speculate that altered pharmacokinetics may affect the efficacy of this drug for prevention of congenital syphilis in the near-term gestation.