The investigators have found a noninvasive way to analyze the vaginal fluids of pregnant women in pre-term labor and have found intra-amniotic infections that can identify pre-term births.
Pre-term births are identified as those that occur at 34 weeks or less gestation.
The study research was conducted by analyzing the vaginal samples from 284 women who were in pre-term labor at 20 to 34 weeks of gestation. Among this group of women being studied, 153 women (54 percent) delivered pre-term babies and 56 women (37 percent) were identified with the intra-amniotic infections.
There were no significant demographic or reproductive differences found among the mothers who had no infection but delivered premature babies with those who did have an infection and delivered prematurely, and with those mothers who carried their babies to full-term delivery.
"This is a very important study, because predictors of preterm birth is an understudied area" stated James McManaman, PhD, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, via an interview conducted by Medscape.
"The current thinking is that inflammatory factors in the cervix and vagina can promote preterm birth. The investigators are studying these ... [so] that may eventually identify the ... predictors of preterm birth so that we can test for them in a noninvasive way and then, ... [when] found, [we can] identify treatments that can be administered in a timely manner," adds Dr. McManaman.
Although Dr. McManaman was not one of the investigators of the current study, he has also been conducting research on pre-term births.
"This is an outstanding study," according to Dr. McManaman.
"Preterm birth extracts a significant toll on infants, families, and society, and at this point we have no way to predict which women will have threatened preterm birth. This study is a significant contribution in that direction," said Dr. McManaman.
The results of this study may possibly result in particular importance for mothers who are of African American descent, because another recent study found that these women are three times more likely to deliver premature babies in comparison with Caucasian women. However, there was no indication in the current study of whether or not race was accounted for in the group of women studied for the results indicated by this noninvasive test.
