Author(s)

Monya Todesco^1*, Moritz Hartog², Thomas Fabbro³, Olav Lapaire⁴, Irene M. Hoesli⁴

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kantonsspital Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland.
²Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Marien Hospital Witten, Witten, Germany.
³Clinical Trial Unit, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁴Department of Obstetrics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

Objective: To determine the value of fetal fibronectin (FFN), cervical length (CL) measurement and their combination as binary predictors for preterm birth (PB) in women with preterm labour (PTL) between 24 + 0 and 34 + 0 weeks. Methods: One hundred fifty-nine patients with signs of PTL (singleton pregnancies (SP) = 125, twin pregnancies (TP) = 34) were evaluated in a retrospective study. Inclusion criteria were contractions > 4/20 min, intact membranes, no bleeding. The cut-off was ≥50 ng/ml for FFN and ≤20 mm for CL measured by transvaginal ultrasound. The primary outcome variable was delivery within 7 days from admission. Results: We evaluated 125 SPs and 34 TPs. In SPs, both methods had a sensitivity of 80%; the specificity was 82% for FFN, and 50% for CL. For the combination of both tests sensitivity was 80% and specificity 88%. In TPs, the sensitivity of both tests was lower (FFN 33%, CL 67%) but the combination of both tests represented the highest result for specificity (77% compared to 68% for FFN alone and 32% for CL alone). Conclusion: The combination of FFN and CL in PTL results in a significant higher specificity in SPs. In TPs the performance of the tests is less accurate.

Preterm Labor, Fetal Fibronectin, Cervical Length, Preterm Birth

Todesco, M. , Hartog, M. , Fabbro, T. , Lapaire, O. and Hoesli, I. (2015) The Combination of the Fetal Fibronectin Bedside Test and Cervical Length in Preterm Labor Is Useful for Prediction of Preterm Birth. Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 5, 746-753. doi: 10.4236/ojog.2015.513105.