Premature birth tied to infections

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Premature birth tied to infections

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 |

CBC News

_http://www.cbc. ca/health/ story/2008/ 08/26/amniotic- fluid.html_

(http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/08/26/amniotic-fluid.html)

Undiagnosed infections may be causing more premature births than thought,

say researchers who found nearly 15 per cent of samples from women in pre-term

labour contained bacteria or fungi.

An increasing number of babies are being born prematurely both in Canada and

in the U.S. In 2006, an estimated 12.8 per cent of births, or more than

540,000 babies, occurred before the mothers completed 37 weeks of pregnancy in

the U.S.

'We don't think any organisms belong in the amniotic sac. You'd have to

presume there's something wrong'

— Study author Dr. Dan DiGiulio

While most of these babies grow up healthy, those born before 32 weeks face

a higher risk of death or disabilities such as breathing problems,

underdeveloped organs, infections and cerebral palsy. Only about one-third of

infants

delivered before 25 weeks survive.

" If we could prevent these infections in the first place, or detect them

sooner, we might one day be able to prevent some of these premature births, "

said study author Dr. Dan DiGiulio of the Stanford University School of

Medicine

in California.

DiGiulio and his team looked for the genetic fingerprints of microbes in

amniotic fluid samples from 166 women who went into pre-term labour in Detroit

between 1998 and 2002.

The samples were taken before each woman's water broke to prevent them from

being contaminated with post-labour germs.

Women with heavily infected amniotic fluid were more likely to give birth to

younger, sicker babies, the team reports in Tuesday's issue of the journal

PloS One.

" We don't think any organisms belong in the amniotic sac, " said Stanford

University microbiologist Dr. Relman, the study's senior author. " You'd

have to presume there's something wrong. "

All of the women who had bacteria or fungi delivered prematurely, the

researchers found.

Labour trigger

While conventional culturing tests found 11 species, the genetic method

detected 17 bacterial and one fungal species, including one species that the

team

suspects was previously unknown to scientists.

Infections such as gum disease, and urinary tract and vaginal infections are

known to increase a woman's risk of giving birth prematurely.

It's thought that the infections may cause inflammation that triggers

labour. But the precise role of infections, especially those that don't cause

symptoms, needs to be answered, said Dr. Katz, who's with the March of

Dimes and wasn't part of the study.

The researchers plan to study samples from 2,000 women receiving routine

amniocentesis during the second trimester to explore if having the germs

actually predicts who will go into labour prematurely.

With files from the Associated Press

Below is the link to the actual study:

Microbial Prevalence, Diversity and Abundance in Amniotic Fluid During

Preterm Labor: A Molecular and Culture-Based Investigation

_http://www.plosone. org/article/ info%3Adoi% 2F10.1371% 2Fjournal.

pone.0003056_

(http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0003056)

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