First Trimester UTI's associated wth Cardiac Risk in Infants

UTI may cause infant heart anomalies
Source: Circulation 2007; Advance online publication
Assessing the association between congenital heart defects and maternal urinary tract infections.

MedWire News: Pregnant women who develop a urinary tract infection (UTI) in the first trimester of gestation through to 1 month pre-partum are at increased risk for conceiving infants with congenital heart defects (CHD), US study findings show.

The researchers found that infants born with heart defects had at least one cardiac abnormality, ranging from conotruncal, septal, or anomalous pulmonary venous return to hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).

The team assessed urinary tract bacteriuria in 3,690 women who had infants with "nonsyndromic" congenital heart defects, and 4,760 mothers of infants without heart defects.

Women who had infants with HLHS were 1.7 times more likely than mothers with healthy children to report having had a UTI at some point during pregnancy, remark Mario Cleves (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, USA) and team.

Maternal age and race, and in utero exposure to adverse environmental factors such as alcohol had no effect on the risk for HLHS, indicating that UTI diagnosis was an independent predictor for CHD.

This finding contradicts a previous study reported in MedWire News, which suggested that UTIs during pregnancy are not linked to cardiac abnormalities in infants.

The investigators conclude: "Periconceptional detection and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria and UTI in women of reproductive age may decrease the risk of having an infant with a left-sided obstructive cardiac defect."