CONCLUSION
FUPR measured by simple, safe, non invasive, easy to perform ultrasonographic examination is yet underinvestigated. Reduced FUPR is an early sign of reduced fetal renal blood flow which occur in FIRS in PPROM. Further studies are required to substantiate our findings. In the interim, the establishment of pathogenesis of FIRS in causing reduced FUPR might open new avenues for early prediction of fetal inflammation leading to adverse neonatal outcome and thereby timely intervention can be taken to prevent such adverse outcomes.
Acknowledgements: We are deeply grateful to all participants in the study and to hospital staff for their cooperation.
Disclosure of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interests.
Contribution to Authorship: AJ recruited patients, performed the study and prepared the initial draft of manuscript. RA conceptualised the study, analysed the data and helped in manuscript preparation. NG helped in measuring fetal urine production rate needed for the study. MM supervised the laboratory assay of Interleukein-6 levels. PG preformed the histopathological analysis of placental membranes. PB supervised neonatal assessment needed for the study. RA helped in designing the study.
Details of Ethics Approval: All the procedures performed in this study on human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (IEC-HR/2018/36/76R, dated 26/10/2018). Written Informed consent was obtained from all the individual participants included in the study.
Funding: The study was funded solely by institutional funds - Intramural grant from University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.