Korean J Perinatol.  2010 Sep;21(3):288-297.

The Clinical Features of the Infants Born from Mothers with Genital Ureaplasma urealyticum Colonization

• Chang JY
• Park YS
• Shim GS
• Bae CW
• Seol HJ

Abstract

PURPOSE
Regardless of premature rupture of membranes, the genital colonization of Ureaplasma urealyticum (Uu) in pregnant women could transmit vertical infections of their babies and cause neonatal infections, which ultimately result in infections in many other organs. The purpose of this study is to determine clinical influences on the infants born from mothers suffering genital Uu colonization.
METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the data for analysis of the 219 infants born from mothers who had been tested for genital Uu culture (about 470 cases) for past 3 years from Mar. 2006 to Jun. 2009, in East-West Neo Medical Center, Kyunghee University. The neonatal clinical manifestations such as duration of tachypnea, incidence of oxygen therapy, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), sepsis, jaundice, feeding intolerance, etc. were investigated during gestational period.
RESULTS
In case of positive genital Uu culture of mothers, the preterm infants (gestational period <35 weeks) had symptoms of increased heart rate within 6 hours after birth, prolonged tachypnea, short period of antibiotics use, and lower incidence of RDS and hypocalcemia. Durations of oxygen therapy, the methods and durations of positive pressure ventilation and incidences of BPD of preterm infants were not affected by maternal Uu results. The near and full term infants (gestational period > or =35 weeks) from Uu positive mothers showed the increased incidence of jaundice.
CONCLUSION
It is hard to say that genital Uu colonization in pregnant women influence the near and full term infants except jaundice. However, the data analysis of the preterm infants from Uu mothers demonstrated increased heart rate within 6 hours after birth, prolonged tachypnea, short period of antibiotics use, lower incidence of RDS and hypocalcemia.

Keyword

Ureaplasma urealyticum; Respiratory distress syndrome; Hypocalcemia; Premature infants

MeSH Terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia
Colon
Female
Heart Rate
Humans
Hypocalcemia
Incidence
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature
Jaundice
Membranes
Mothers
Oxygen
Parturition
Positive-Pressure Respiration
Pregnant Women
Respiratory Therapy
Retrospective Studies
Rupture
Sepsis
Statistics as Topic
Stress, Psychological
Tachypnea
Ureaplasma
Ureaplasma urealyticum
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Oxygen