Tate Gisslen, Manuel Alvarez, Casey Wells, Man-Ting Soo, Donna S Lambers, Christine L Knox, Jareen K Meinzen-Derr, Claire A Chougnet, Alan H Jobe, Suhas G Kallapur
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether exposure to acute chorioamnionitis and fetal inflammation caused short-term adverse outcomes. DESIGN: This is a prospective observational study: subjects were mothers delivering at 32-36 weeks gestation and their preterm infants at a large urban tertiary level III perinatal unit (N=477 infants). Placentae and fetal membranes were scored for acute histological chorioamnionitis based on the Redline criteria. Fetal inflammation was characterised by histological diagnosis of funisitis (umbilical cord inflammation), increased cord blood cytokines measured by ELISA, and activation of the inflammatory cells infiltrating the placenta and fetal membranes measured by immunohistology...
November 2016: Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition