Amnionitis with Ureaplasma urealyticum or other microbes leads to increased morbidity and prolonged hospitalization in very low birth weight infants.

Objective: To investigate the influence of culture proven intrauterine infection on preterm morbidity and to test the effect of antimicrobial treatment.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study conducted between October 1997 and February 2001 in patients with preterm premature rupture of membranes or preterm labor. Vaginal swabs were sampled and amniocentesis for microbiologic culture of the amniotic fluid was performed.

Bacterial vaginosis as a risk factor for preterm delivery: a meta-analysis.

Objective: We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate bacterial vaginosis as a risk factor for preterm delivery.

Study Design: Selection criteria were (1). the data appeared in original, published English-language reports of prospective studies or control groups of clinical trials that included women at <37 weeks of gestation with intact amniotic membranes, (2).

Antibiotic treatment of bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy: a meta-analysis.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment of bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy to reduce preterm delivery.

Study Design: We performed a meta-analysis of published, English-language, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials of antibiotic treatment of bacterial vaginosis in pregnant women with intact amniotic membranes at <37 weeks of gestation. Primary outcomes included preterm delivery, perinatal or neonatal death, and neonatal morbidity.

Production of oxytocin receptor and cytokines in primary uterine smooth muscle cells cultivated under inflammatory conditions.

Objective: We studied the production of the oxytocin receptor and interleukins in human uterine smooth muscle cells cultured in vitro in the presence of cytokines that were shown to be elevated in gestational diseases such as intrauterine infections and chorioamnionitis.

Methods: Human uterine smooth muscle cells were cultured in the absence or presence of interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha), or lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Additionally, cells were cultivated under hypoxic conditions (3.