Ultrasound Markers of Fetal Infection, Part 2

Up to 1% of all pregnancies have clinically overt intra-amniotic bacterial infections, and an even larger percentage of pregnant women may be affected by silent infections. Although most pregnant women with overt intra-amniotic bacterial infection have experienced prolonged rupture of membranes (PROM), symptomatic and most silent nonviral intra-amniotic infections may occur with intact membranes. The etiology of intra-amniotic infection after PROM is almost always polymicrobial and consists of genital tract pathogens, such as group B streptococci, Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, mycoplasmas, aerobic Gram-negative bacilli, such as the coliforms, and facultative and anaerobic endogenous organisms, such as peptococci, peptostreptococci, and Bacteroides species. These organisms gain access to the uterine cavity by the ascending route. Organisms such as Treponema pallidum, Listeria monocytogenes, Toxoplasma gondii, trypanosomes, and plasmodia are capable of gaining access to the amniotic cavity by transplacental hematogenous spread, and cause devastating fetal infections. Symptomatic intra-amniotic infection is usually a diagnosis of exclusion. Diagnostic criteria based on both clinical and laboratory findings lack sensitivity and are nonspecific. It is difficult to obtain uncontaminated intra-amniotic samples, especially when there is PROM. The problem is even greater with silent infections. In most cases, fetal infection is suspected after an unexplained and unexpected adverse outcome. Maternal morbidity is increased with intra-amniotic infection; although maternal mortality is extremely rare in developed countries, this is not the case in societies where pregnant women have limited or no access to medical care. Although infected women who are treated early and aggressively with wide-spectrum antibiotics do well, more than 10% of these women develop bacteremia and up to half of them will require cesarean delivery because of poor uterine contractions and arrest of labor. The overwhelming majority of term neonates exposed to intrauterine infection after PROM do well, but up to 30% of these neonates require treatment of neonatal pneumonia or bacteremia. Outcomes for preterm neonates or for neonates who experienced silent fetal infections are more severe. Morbidity and mortality rates in these cases are high, and survivors may have long-term devastating sequelae. The ability to identify ultrasound markers of fetal infection will help clinicians identify etiologic agents with greater accuracy and correlate these infections with specific antepartum and postpartum syndromes. The recognition of markers of intrauterine infection will also reduce unexpected adverse outcomes that result from undiagnosed fetal infections.