Assessing for prenatal risk factors associated with infant neurologic morbidity using a multivariate analysis

To characterize the biochemical and demographic profiles of pregnant people with maternal immune activation (MIA) and identify the prenatal characteristics associated with neurologic morbidity in offspring.

This was a retrospective cohort study of 602 mother-infant dyads with births between 2009 and 2010 in California. Multivariable logistic regression was used to build a MIA vulnerability profile including mid-pregnancy biochemical markers and maternal demographic characteristics, and its relationship with infant neurologic morbidity was examined.

Of the 602 mother-infant dyads, 80 mothers and 61 infants had diagnoses suggestive of MIA and neurologic morbidity, respectively. Our model, including two demographic and seven biochemical characteristics, identified mothers with MIA with good performance (AUC:0.814; 95% CI:0.7-0.8). Three demographic and five inflammatory markers together identified 80% of infants with neurological morbidity (AUC:0.802, 95% CI:0.7-0.8).

Inflammatory environment in mothers with pre-existing risk factors like obesity, poverty, and prematurity renders offspring more susceptible to neurologic morbidities.