J Pediatr. 2020 Jul;222:71-78.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.03.021.
Abstract
Objective: To assess whether chorioamnionitis is associated with cerebral palsy (CP) or death at 2 years’ corrected age in infants born before 32 weeks of gestation after spontaneous birth.
Study design: EPIPAGE-2 is a national, prospective, population-based cohort study of children born preterm in France in 2011; recruitment periods varied by gestational age. This analysis includes infants born alive after preterm labor or preterm premature rupture of membranes from 240/7 to 316/7 weeks of gestation. We compared the outcomes of CP, death at 2 years’ corrected age, and « CP or death at age 2 » according to the presence of either clinical chorioamnionitis or histologic chorioamnionitis. All percentages were weighted by the duration of the recruitment period.
Results: Among 2252 infants born alive spontaneously before 32 weeks of gestation, 116 (5.2%) were exposed to clinical chorioamnionitis. Among 1470 with placental examination data available, 639 (43.5%) had histologic chorioamnionitis. In total, 346 infants died before 2 years and 1586 (83.2% of the survivors) were evaluated for CP at age 2 years. CP rates were 11.1% with and 5.0% without clinical chorioamnionitis (P = .03) and 6.1% with and 5.3% without histologic chorioamnionitis (P = .49). After adjustment for confounding factors, CP risk rose with clinical chorioamnionitis (aOR 2.13, 95% CI 1.12-4.05) but not histologic chorioamnionitis (aOR 1.21, 95% 0.75-1.93). Neither form was associated with the composite outcome « CP or death at age 2. »
Conclusions: Among infants very preterm born spontaneously, the risk of CP at a corrected age of 2 years was associated with exposure to clinical chorioamnionitis but not histologic chorioamnionitis.