Predictors of the vaginal microflora.

Objective: Our purpose was to define influences on the patterns of the vaginal microflora.

Study Design: We enrolled 617 African American and Mexican American women in a 1-year longitudinal study of sexual behaviors and the vaginal microflora on the basis of the presence of gonorrhea, chlamydial infection, trichomoniasis, or syphilis at the initial visit. The patients were assigned randomly to a behavioral intervention or standard counseling regarding sexually transmitted disease.

Meconium: a marker for peripartum infection.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that the presence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid (AF) is associated with maternal and neonatal infection, both before and after delivery.

Methods: Nine hundred thirty-six laboring women were analyzed for the presence of meconium in amniotic fluid and occurrence of peripartum infection. Meconium was assessed clinically as thin, moderate, or thick.

Bacterial vaginosis and intraamniotic infection.

Objective: We sought to determine the predictors of intraamniotic infection with use of the presence or absence of vaginal microbes and clinical variables.

Study Design: Vaginal fluid was collected and analyzed on 936 of 2711 (35%) consecutive patients who were delivered over a 7-month period. Subjects were followed up prospectively for the development of intraamniotic infection.

Platelet-activating factor antagonists and implantation in rabbits.

In an initial experiment, rabbits were injected i.v. with a platelet-activating factor (PAF) antagonist CV-3988 twice a day on days 5 and 6 of pregnancy.

Perinatal effects of Gardnerella vaginalis deciduitis in the rabbit.

Objective: We determined the effects of intrauterine infection with Gardnerella vaginalis on maternal and fetal outcome in the rabbit.

Study Design: Both uterine horns of rabbits on day 20 or 21 of gestation (70% of gestation) were inoculated hysteroscopically with either 0.2 ml of 10(5) to 10(7) CFU/ml of G.