The Biomarker Study

Study Summary

Preterm birth (PTB) is a leading contributor to perinatal morbidity and mortality. While patients with preterm labor (PTL) are at an increased risk for PTB, not all PTL patients will deliver preterm. In patients with PTB, there is a high prevalence of 'intrauterine inflammation' as demonstrated by a large body of evidence. The presence of inflammation is noted by infiltration of inflammatory cells in the placenta and/or maternal fever in labor and/or elevation of cytokines in the amniotic fluid. Despite this significant association of inflammation with PTB, identification of women destined to deliver preterm by inflammatory markers in maternal blood has not been successful. To date, it has been difficult to determine which patients with PTL will experience PTB. Identification of biomarkers, such as high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP) as well as others such as sICAM, Pentraxin, sE-Selectin, and CxCL-10 in maternal serum and in placental cord blood, may help to serve three very important clinical aims. 1) Identification of novel biomarkers in maternal serum could help to distinguish those women with PTL who are most likely to deliver PTB. 2) These biomarkers may have a high negative predictive value and thus identify those women who are not likely to deliver preterm, avoiding undue hospital admission and medical therapies. 3) Select biomarkers in the mother and/or in cord blood may serve to identify those preterm neonates at greatest risk for adverse outcome. Through improved identification of these infants, studies with targeted therapies to reduce adverse neonatal outcomes in preterm neonates become feasible. This study involves a cohort assessment of women at risk for Preterm birth secondary to preterm labor, preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), and cervical insufficiency (CI), between 22-0/7 and 33-6/7 weeks gestational age. We will obtain information regarding patients' pertinent past medical and obstetric history as well as small samples of