Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition 2008;93:F51-F54
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Fetal cortisol response to intrauterine microbial colonisation identified by the polymerase chain reaction and fetal inflammation
Department of Child Health, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
Correspondence to:
Professor S Kotecha, Department of Child Health, Cardiff University, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN; KotechaS{at}cardiff.ac.uk
Objective: To determine the fetal cortisol response to intrauterine infection.
Study design: 16s ribosomal RNA genes or the urease genes of Ureaplasma spp were identified by the polymerase chain reaction in intrauterine samples. Cord blood cortisol, interleukin 6 (IL6) and IL8 were measured in samples from 31 infants born at <32 weeks gestation.
Results: 13 infants (median gestation 30 weeks, birth weight 1350 g) had at least one positive intrauterine sample for microbial genes and 18 infants (31 weeks, 1320 g) did not. The cord blood cortisol concentration was significantly higher in fetuses exposed to intrauterine infection and significantly increased in fetuses/mothers presenting in preterm labour with intact membranes compared with infants delivered by elective prelabour caesarean section (p<0.05). The cord blood cortisol concentration was increased in the mothers with prelabour premature rupture of membranes but this was not significant compared with the caesarean section group. The cord blood cortisol concentration was significantly increased in the presence of chorioamnionitis or funisitis and was moderately correlated with cord blood IL6 (r = 0.64, p<0.01) and IL8 (r = 0.52, p<0.01).
Conclusions: In this study, cord blood cortisol was increased in the colonised group compared with non-colonised infants. It is unclear if infants born following prelabour premature rupture of the membranes mount an adequate anti-inflammatory response.
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
-
All Versions of this Article:
adc.2006.110130v1
93/1/F51 most recent - Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
