New test could ‘save lives of premature babies by predicting labour’
Reported December 11, 2008
The test could allow doctors to prescribe drugs which help babies organs to develop faster in the womb, increasing their chances of survival.
Around 80,000 children are born prematurely in Britain every year.
Despite recent advances in treatment, around one third of those born at 26 weeks will not survive and almost a quarter of all premature babies need intensive care, often for months.
The test looks for a chemical which can become more prevalent in the 48 hours before a woman goes into labour.
Experts said that the breakthrough could mark an “important advance” in treating premature babies.
Doctors have traditionally relied on assessing a set of symptoms to try to predict whether or not a woman will go into early labour.
The study looked at 86 women who were between 20 and 36 weeks pregnant.
The findings show that the test was 87 per cent accurate in predicting women who would go into labour within 48 hours.
On average women who were deemed positive on the test went into labour within an average of 13 hours, the scientists found.
Those for whom the test was negative took an average of another 48 days to have their baby, the findings, published in the BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, show.
The test is designed to look for Preterm prelabour rupture of membranes (PPROM), a syndrome which accounts for one third of all premature births.
Called the ‘Lac-test’, it measures levels of lactic acid, which can indicate that amniotic fluid is leaking from the womb, a key sign of PPROM.
If the test comes back positive doctors can prescribe antenatal steroids to improve the development of the organ of the foetus and the women can be referred to specialist care services.
Dr Eva Wiberg-Itzel, from Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm, Sweden, who led the study, said that the diagnosis of PPROM was often “difficult”.
“Thanks to this new method, a reliable diagnosis of PPROM could be made. We believe that the ‘Lac-test’ adds important information in clinical practice.”
Professor Philip Steer, editor-in-chief of the BJOG, said “Lactate determination seems promising as a tool to predict the onset of preterm labour in women with suspected PPROM.
“A positive ‘Lac-test’ is more strongly associated with spontaneous onset of labour than visible amniotic fluid.
“If these findings can be confirmed by further studies, the ‘Lac-test’ may be an important advance in the clinical management of suspected PPROM.
“A more reliable diagnosis of PPROM could help doctors determine when to keep women in hospital, and improve the timing of antenatal steroid therapy.”
