Changing Laboratory Practice for Early Detection of a Fetal Inflammatory Response: A Contemporary Approach.

Neonates born with the fetal inflammatory response (FIR) are at risk of complications such as early-onset neonatal sepsis, meningitis, and pneumonia. Providing an early histopathological diagnosis of FIR is important to guide management but can be a challenge in busy laboratories. This is a retrospective cross-sectional study over a four-month duration recruiting all placental cases with histological chorioamnionitis in our institution. The diagnostic performance of the umbilical cord (UC) section in identifying FIR, relative to the corresponding subsequent placental sections, was assessed. Clinical predictors of umbilical cord FIR were also investigated. A total of 390 UC sections were analyzed, of which 206 (52.8%) were found positive for FIR: 111 cases (53.9%) stage 1, 87 (42.2%) stage 2, and 8 (3.9%) stage 3. Our data revealed a good diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and accuracy of 76.2% (95%CI: 68.6-82.7%), 82.4% (95%CI: 65.5-93.2%), 95.0% (95%CI: 90.2-97.6%), and 77.3% (95%CI: 70.6-83.1%) respectively, in cases when clinical chorioamnionitis, fever and/or prolonged rupture of membrane (PROM) were suspected, with the area under the curve of 0.793. A maternal inflammatory response (MIR) was correlated with FIR (p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that the higher the gestational age, clinical suspicion of chorioamnionitis, fever, and/or PROM, and the higher the stage of MIR significantly increased the odds of FIR (p < 0.001). UC section diagnosis of FIR is reasonably accurate in cases with clinical chorioamnionitis, fever, and/or PROM. Changing current laboratory practice to rapid processing of UC ahead of the rest of the other placental sections can be recommended in busy pathology departments.

The relationship between histological chorioamnionitis,fetal vasculitis and the morbidity of neonatal respira-tory distress syndrome / 中国小儿急救医学

Objective To explore the relationship between histological chorioamnionitis(HC),fetal vasculitis(FV)and the morbidity of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome(RDS).Methods Three hundred and forty-seven cases of infants at the gestational ages of 28 +0 to 31 +6 weeks who were admitted to the Neo-natology Department of our hospital from October 2009 to June 2013 were analyzed retrospectively.They were divided into four groups according to the occurrence of HC and FV,namely,HC positive group and HC negative group,FV positive group and FV negative group.The patients in the HC positive group were further divided into FV positive group and FV negative group according to the occurrence of FV.The morbidity of RDS among above-mentioned groups was compared.Results The clinical characteristics including propor-tion of male,gestational age,birth weight,cesarean delivery,antenatal corticosteroid use,gestational hyperten-sion,gestational diabetes and cholestasis of pregnancy showed no statistically significant difference among all the groups(P 〉0.05).The incidence of RDS in the HC positive group(145 cases)was 49.6%(72 cases), which was significantly lower than that in the HC negative group(67.3%,126 /202,P 〈0.05).The incidence of RDS in FV positive group(64 cases)was 42.2%(27 cases),which was significantly lower than that in FV negative group(63.3%,179 /283,P 〈0.05)In the HC positive group(145 cases),the incidence of RDS in FV positive group (64 cases)was 42.2% (27 cases),and 55.6% (45 cases)in FV negative group (81 cases),which showed no significant difference(P ﹦0.01 ).Conclusion (1 )HC or FV can reduce the incidence rate of RDS in premature infants.(2)HC combined FV cannot furtherly reduce the incidence of RDS.

A correlational analysis of histological chorioamnionitis and brain injury in preterm infants / 临床儿科杂志

Objective To explore the correlation between histological chorioamnionitis (HC) and brain injury in preterm infants. Methods Three hundred and forty-seven cases of infants at the gestational age of 28-31 weeks who were admitted to the neonatology department of our hospital were analyzed retrospectively. They were divided into the HC group and the control group according to the pathological examination. Moreover, HC group was divided into FV group and non-FV group according to the pathological findings of fetal vasculitis (FV). Based on the findings of periodical ultrasonography, the incidences of periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), periventricular-intraventricular hemorrhage (PVH-IVH), and the PVL+PVH-IVH were compared among groups. Results The incidences of PVL in the HC group and the control group were 17.9% and 10.3%respectively. The incidences of PVL+PVH-IVH in the two groups were 5.5%and 1.48%respectively, and the difference between two groups was signiifcant (P0.05). In the HC group, the incidences of PVL in FV group and non-FV group were 28.1%and 9.87%respectively, and the difference between two groups was signiifcant (P0.05). The incidences of PVL+PVH-IVH in FV group and non-FV group were 7.81%and 3.70%respectively, and the difference between the two groups was not have signiifcant (P>0.05). Conclusions HC may increase the ncidences of PVL and PVL+PVH-IVH in the preterm infants, while its effect is minimal on PVH-IVH. FV could increase the incidence of brain injury in preterm infants.