Study May Help Predict Premature Pregnancy

Premature birth could be predicted as early as 10 weeks pregnant by testing for specific chemicals and bacteria.

Around 60,000 babies are born prematurely in the UK each year, which makes them vulnerable to lifelong health problems and is one of the leading causes of newborn death.

The reasons for a premature birth may not be clear, making predictions difficult for doctors.

The Tommy’s charity studies clues in the mother’s vaginal microbiome (all the tiny organisms living in or on the human body that can affect health, such as bacteria and viruses) and also the metabolome, which is the range of small molecules naturally created by the body, such as sugars and acids.

Study author Andrew Shennan is Professor of Obstetrics at King’s College London and runs the Tommy’s Preterm Surveillance Clinic at St Thomas’ Hospital. He said: “My team has developed preterm birth prediction tools that are very accurate later in pregnancy, like fetal fibronectin testing – but at this point you can only manage the risk, not prevent it. to occur. The sooner we can find out who is at risk, the more we can do to keep mothers and babies safe.

Researchers at King’s College London looked at data from four UK hospitals on 346 mothers, 60 of whom gave birth prematurely – before 37 weeks pregnant.

They analyzed cervico-vaginal samples taken at 10-15 weeks gestation, and again at 16-23 weeks, then grouped the women according to their typical communities of bacteria and biochemicals.

This was checked against cervical length measurements and followed to see who gave birth early.

For the first time, it has been discovered that a specific bacteria limits the risk of early preterm delivery, which the researchers hope will lead to new preventive therapies.

A combination of metabolites and bacteria was linked from birth to or before 34 weeks.

Seven different metabolites have been associated from birth to or before 37 weeks.

The researchers found that these links were just as significant when mothers were tested in the first and second trimester.

This suggests that people at risk of preterm labor could be identified much earlier in pregnancy than current tests allow.

This would then allow them to benefit from medical or surgical treatments that are not possible at the end of pregnancy.