New Prospective Studies of the Association of Ureaplasma urealyticum Colonization and Chronic Lung Disease

This study examined the association between Ureaplasma urealyticum colonization and the development of chronic lung disease (CLD) in 93 premature infants who were treated with surfactant and who had birth weights <1251 g. Nasopharyngeal and tracheal cultures for U. urealyticum were obtained at 2±1 and at 14±1 days after birth and were positive in 17 (18%) of 93 patients. Infants born vaginally were 4.5 times more likely to be colonized than were those born by cesarean section