Informatics Publishing Limited

Hassan Saad Sakap ¹, Jabbar S. Hassan ², Sahar Hisham Abdul Razak ³

Affiliations
1 Medical Laboratory Techniques, IQ
2 Medical Microbiology, College of Medicine, Al‑Nahrain University, IQ
3 Gynecology and Obstetrics, College of Medicine, Al‑Nahrain University, IQ

Abstract

Group B Streptococcus is Gram‑positive cocci non motile encapsulated bacteria which produce an arrow zone of beta‑hemolysis on blood agar. It belongs to Lancefield group B antigen. Group B Streptococcus is the mainly cause of neonate’s invasive bacterial disease such as neonatal sepsis meningitis, septicemia and pneumonia. The study planned to evaluate the vaginal colonization rate of Streptococcus agalactiae and virulence genes in pregnant women with adverse pregnancy outcome. A cross‑sectional study was designed included 200 pregnant women at 34–37 weeks of gestation. A total of two hundred vaginal swabs was taken from all pregnant women enrolled in this project by the gynecologist. GBS isolated bacteria was evaluated by means of using classical microbiological approach, after DNA extraction the isolated GBS strains were screened for the presence of scpB gene by polymerase chain reaction. Thirty‑six (18%) out of 200 pregnant women enrolled in this project were positive for group B Streptococcus by culture method, the majority of them were from age ranged (18‑36 years), 20 (20.6%) of them with a history of abortion, females with positive vaginal colonization indicated that they had a history of rupture membrane only in 10 (9.9%) with prolonged rupture membrane >18hr in 3 (30%).The specific PCR primer was used for the detection of scpB gene. It was found that scpB gene was observed in 17 (47%) isolate.It can be conclude that there is no statistical significance between repeated abortions with the presence of scpBgene as a virulence factor in GBS while there are statistically significant between the presences of these virulence gene with rupture membrane.

Keywords

Group B streptococcus, Streptococcus agalactiae, Premature rupture of membrane (PROM), Maternal colonization

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