Prolonged fetal bradycardia as the presenting clinical sign in Streptococcus agalactiae chorioamnionitis

Presta, Giuseppe
Rosati, Enrico
Giannuzzi, Raffaella
Del Vecchio, Antonio
Lozupone, Antonia
Criscuolo, Mario
Verrotti, Alberto
Latini, Giuseppe
De Felice, Claudio

¹Division of Neonatology, Perrino Hospital, Brindisi, Italy
²Pathology Unit, Perrino Hospital, Brindisi, Italy
³Clinical Physiology Institute (IFC-CNR), National Research Council of Italy, Lecce Section, Lecce, Italy
⁴Department of Medicine, Division of Pediatrics, University of Chieti, Chieti, Italy
⁵Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Senese, Viale Bracci 16, 53100 Siena, Italy

^*Corresponding author: G. Latini, MD, Division of Neonatology, Ospedale A. Perrino S.S., 7 per Mesagne, 72100 Brindisi/Italy, Tel.: +39-0831-537471, Fax: +39-0831-537861. E-mail: [email protected]

Received February 4, 2004. Revised June 14, 2004. Accepted July 5, 2004.

Journal of Perinatal Medicine 32(6):p 535-537, December 2004.

Group B Streptococcus remains a leading infectious cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. We report a case of a 37 weeks' gestation infant with severe birth asphyxia, status epilepticus and GBS chorioamnionitis, in which a prolonged fetal bradycardia was the only prenatal clinical sign.