Ascending Infection: Acute Chorioamnionitis

Füsun Gündoğan; Monique E De Paepe

doi:10.1016/j.path.2012.11.002

Ascending Infection: Acute Chorioamnionitis

Surg Pathol Clin. 2013 Mar;6(1):33-60. doi: 10.1016/j.path.2012.11.002. Epub 2012 Dec 21.

Authors

Füsun Gündoğan¹, Monique E De Paepe²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology, Women and Infants Hospital, 101 Dudley Street, Providence, RI 02905, USA; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 222 Richmond Street, Providence, RI 02905, USA.
² Department of Pathology, Women and Infants Hospital, 101 Dudley Street, Providence, RI 02905, USA; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 222 Richmond Street, Providence, RI 02905, USA. Electronic address: mdepaepe@wihri.org.

PMID: 26838702
DOI: 10.1016/j.path.2012.11.002

Abstract

Acute chorioamnionitis is a major cause of spontaneous preterm birth, accounting for more than 40% of deliveries complicated by preterm premature rupture of membranes or preterm labor. In the majority of cases, especially in preterm births, acute chorioamnionitis is caused by ascending polymicrobial infection. Recent evidence suggests that in some cases acute chorioamnionitis may have a noninfectious cause. In addition to the nonspecific patterns of conventional acute chorioamnionitis, this article describes characteristic inflammatory patterns indicative of a specific infectious cause. Several inflammatory entities of putative immunologic (noninfectious) etiology are addressed, including eosinophilic/T-cell vasculitis and chronic chorioamnionitis.