Using new technology, Stanford researchers in California reported on Monday that they looked at fluid samples from 166 women in preterm labor; 113 of the women went on to deliver premature babies. The women were patients at Hutzel Women's Hospital in Detroit between October 1998 and December 2002.
Researchers used a highly sensitive technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to track down micro-organisms in amniotic fluid samples collected from women in preterm labor. Fluid from women in preterm labor shows that 15 percent of the fluid samples harbored bacteria or fungi an increase of 50 percent over estimates using traditional testing.
The more heavily infected the amniotic fluid, the more likely the woman was to deliver a younger, sicker baby, researchers reported in PLoS One, the online journal of the Public Library of Science.
More than half a million babies a year are born premature, before completion of 37 weeks of pregnancy. Premature babies are vulnerable to breathing problems, underdeveloped organs, infections and cerebral palsy.
