Chorioamnionitis: Establishing a correlation between clinical and histological diagnosis

Chorioamnionitis that is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality needs an early diagnosis for effective treatment. However, views are conflicting on the effectiveness of a clinical versus a histological diagnosis of the disease. The accuracy of clinical diagnoses should be evaluated by determining their correlation with histopathological data.

A total of 696 placental records from single and multiple pregnancies between January 2011 and February 2018 were collected and reviewed to determine if chorioamnionitis was present.

Of the 696 records, 255 had histological data available, and of these, histological evidence for chorioamnionitis was recorded in 135 (52.9%). Clinical chorioamnionitis diagnosis was insensitive (26.7%; 95% confidence interval 19.43%-34.96%) and inaccurate (61.1%; 95% confidence interval 54.90%-67.19%). As well, 73.3% of histologically positive chorioamnionitis cases were missed using clinical indicators.

Clinical diagnosis for chorioamnionitis is inaccurate; in our study, most of the positive cases were not diagnosed using clinical indicators. However, of the clinical indicators examined, maternal and fetal tachycardia were the most reliable.