Premature Labour
Screening for premature labour…saliva will do! A new study from King’s College has identified. Predicting Premature Labour couldn’t be easier…
News emerging from London report a study that shows that women at risk of going into premature labour (before 34 weeks of pregnancy), can be identified much earlier by testing a sample of saliva. Researchers at University College London and King’s College London have found that at risk pregnant women do not show the normal rise of a hormone progesterone as their counterparts.
Screening for premature labour could be as simple as “lick here”
The simplicity of the test means that once results are confirmed by larger studies, screening for women at risk will be non-invasive and much earlier. Currently, testing for risk of premature delivery relies on acting on symptoms and testing for special substances in the vaginal fluids. This, “fetal fibronectin” test is useful in the sense that if negative the risk of premature labour is minimal over the next 7- 10 days.
Source:
- http://www.rcog.org.uk/news/bjog-release-new-study-cause-early-preterm-birth
- Accuracy of cervicovaginal fetal fibronectin test in predicting risk of spontaneous preterm birth: systematic review.
Honest H, Bachmann LM, Gupta JK, Kleijnen J, Khan KS.
BMJ. 2002;325(7359):301
