Cerebral Palsy Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Cerebral Palsy, including details on symptoms, causes, types.

Maternal infection and risk of cerebral palsy in term and preterm infants.

Neufeld MD, Frigon C, Graham AS, Mueller BA

Department of Pediatrics (M.D.N.), Division of Neonatology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-6320, USA.

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). STUDY DESIGN: 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.

Published 20 January 2005 in J Perinatol, 25(2): 108-13.
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