Perinatal characteristics of low birthweight infants in postdate pregnancies.
BACKGROUND
Early literature discussed postdate pregnancy in relation to difficult delivery of mothers with an excessively large fetus; more recent reports imply that the risk of perinatal death exists especially for the small, growth-retarded fetus. However there is little in the literature concerning low birthweight infants in postdate pregnancies.


METHODS
A 6-year retrospective review of 135 low birthweight infants with 40 or more weeks' gestation was conducted. Among the subjects, 19 cases had a gestational age greater than 42 weeks (Group 1), 26 cases, between 41 and 42 weeks (Group 2), and 90 cases, between 40 and 41 weeks (Group 3). Assess was made of the outcomes of low birthweight infants in postdate pregnancies, comparing Group 1 with Group 2 and Group 3.


RESULTS
Group 1 infants had significantly higher rates of chromosomal (21.1%) and congenital (31.6%) abnormalities and perinatal mortality (21.1%) than either Group 2 or Group 3 infants. Also, in Group 1 there were two cases of polyhydramnios and they both had abnormal karyotypes.


CONCLUSIONS
The outcome of low birthweight infants in postdate pregnancies appears to be worse than predicted. This finding could offer for managing the cases which have a high frequency of abnormal karyotype (21.1%), especially when combined with polyhydramnios.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
S Y
SY
Lin
M H
MH
Lin
K G
KG
Wang
D000328:Adult; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011273:Pregnancy, Prolonged; D012189:Retrospective Studies