Maternal infection and risk of cerebral palsy in term and preterm infants.
OBJECTIVE
We tested the hypothesis that term and preterm infants exposed to maternal infection at the time of delivery are at increased risk of developing cerebral palsy (CP).


METHODS
A population-based case-control study was conducted using Washington State birth certificate data linked to hospital discharge data. Cases (688) were children <or=6 years old, singleton births, hospitalized during 1987 to 1999 with an ICD-9 diagnosis code for CP. Controls were 3,068 singleton birth infants randomly selected from birth records for the same years without CP-related hospitalizations. Infection information was available only for the birth hospitalization.


RESULTS
Infants of women who had any infection during their hospitalization for delivery were at increased risk of CP (odds ratio (OR) 3.1, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.3 to 4.2). This was observed for term deliveries (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.8) and preterm deliveries (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.3 to 4.2).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that maternal infection is a risk factor for CP in both term and preterm infants.
Neufeld
Michael D
MD
Department of Pediatrics (M.D.N.), Division of Neonatology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-6320, USA.
Frigon
Chantal
C
Graham
Alan S
AS
Mueller
Beth A
BA
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000209:etiology*; D002821:Chorioamnionitis / Q000150:complications; D003556:Cystitis / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious; D012307:Risk Factors; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000150:complications