Salivary progesterone as predictors of spontaneous preterm birth in comparism with cervical length

Abstract

Background: Preterm labour still one of important causes of neonatal mortality and morbidity. Many researches on preterm labor were conducted in order to decrease the incidence, prevent complications, and improve survival rate for infants. Objective: To assess if salivary progesterone can be used sa a predictive marker for preterm labour and to compared it to the use of cervical length measurement. Study design: This Prospective observational study Setting: The study was performed at AL-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Baghdad – Iraq) for the period from February 2015 to February 2016 Patients and methods: The study involved 60 pregnant women between 28 weeks-34weeks gestation were divided into two groups; group A 30 patients with uterine contraction or history of previous preterm .group B 30 patient as control, cervical length of all patients was measured by transvaginal ultrasound ,saliva sample(washings) also collected and the level of progesterone in the saliva was measured by ELISA and the results were compared. Results: statistical analysis of data showed that there was a significant relationship between salivary progesterone levels and preterm birth Sensitivity, specificity , predictive values (positive and negative) of progesterone were 96.7,90.0,90.6,96.4 respectively Conclusion: salivary progesterone can be used as a predictor of preterm delivery in high risk group.