American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Meeting paperSMFM paperShould patients with documented fetal lung immaturity after 34 weeks of gestation be treated with steroids?
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
This is a retrospective cohort study of pregnant women who underwent amniocentesis to determine fetal lung maturity at 34-37 weeks of gestation. All women received prenatal care and delivered at a tertiary medical center between January 2006 and July 2011. The study was approved by the Institutional Research Ethics Board of Sheba Medical Center.
Fetal lung maturity was determined by fluorescence polarization (TDx-FLM II); a TDx-FLM-II test result of <50 mg/g was defined as an immature test.
Results
Of all the women who underwent amniocentesis for lung maturity during the study period, 167 had immature test results; 83 women were treated (study group) and 84 women were not treated (control group) with corticosteroids.
The major indications for amniocentesis and early delivery were distributed equally between the study and control groups and included bad obstetric history (20% vs 12%; P = .1), intrauterine growth restriction (16% vs 20%; P = .5), mild preeclampsia (13% vs 7%; P = .21),
Comment
Despite the increased neonatal mortality and morbidity rates that are associated with late preterm births, to date, no intervention has been shown to be valuable in improving neonatal outcome. It is against this background that treatment with corticosteroids therapy at >34 weeks of gestation was rekindled. However, a metaanalysis regarding the efficacy of steroids at >33 weeks of gestation has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to support the beneficial effect of antenatal
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Cited by (0)
The authors report no conflict of interest.
The first 2 authors contributed equally to this work.
Cite this article as: Yinon Y, Haas J, Mazaki-Tovi S, et al. Should patients with documented fetal lung immaturity after 34 weeks of gestation be treated with steroids? Am J Obstet Gynecol 2012;207:222.e1-4.