Establishment of rapid detection system for intra-amniotic infection and drug susceptibility test by PCR using eukaryote-made Taq polymerase

We have established a novel method to detect bacterial, Mycoplasma, Ureaplasma and fungi in the amniotic fluid using eukaryote-made Taq polymerase. Using this system, we have evaluated the bacterial infection in amniotic fluid of 86 preterm labor cases. Surprisingly, we have detected double infection with bacterial Ureaplasma in 13 case, Ureaplasma infection cases in 5 cases, bacterial infection cases in 13 cases, and infection rate in preterm labor cases accounted for 37.2%. In double infection cases, amniotic fluid IL-8 was very high （mean: 129.5ng/ml), and frequency of chronic lung disease was also very high （38.5%) compared to those in non-infected cases （5.6%). The duration from the amniocentasis to delivery in double infection cases was significantly shorter than that in no infection cases.