OBJECTIVE To determine whether sonographically measured cervical length is an effective predictive tool in women with threatened preterm labor and a history of past spontaneous preterm delivery. METHODS This was a retrospective cohort study of all women with singleton pregnancies who presented with preterm labor at less than 34 + 0 weeks' gestation and underwent sonographic measurement of cer...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of and risk factors for preterm labor (< 37 weeks of gestation) among young pregnant women in Brazil. METHODS A national cross-sectional study was conducted among parturient women aged 15-24 years attending Brazilian public maternities in 2009. Questionnaires were administered by interviewers during parturient admission to the maternity clinic (or soon af...

This study investigated the relation between self-reported vaginal bleeding during pregnancy and preterm birth in a prospective cohort of 2,829 pregnant women enrolled from prenatal clinics between 1995 and 2000 in central North Carolina. The overall association between vaginal bleeding and preterm birth was modest (risk ratio (RR) = 1.3, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.1, 1.6). Bleeding in the...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to determine if the actions of progesterone on preterm labor are accomplished through modulation of the percentage of regulatory T-cells (Treg). METHODS The study was a cohort pilot study made in a single center tertiary obstetrical unit with women in preterm labor arrested with tocolytic treatment. Variation of the number and percentage of Treg cells obta...

BACKGROUND Preterm birth is a major cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity. As preventive strategies are largely ineffective, threatened preterm labor is a frequent problem that affects approximately 10 % of pregnancies. In recent years, risk assessment in these women has incorporated cervical length measurement and fetal fibronectin testing, and this has improved the capacity to identify wo...

OBJECTIVE Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a soluble pattern recognition receptor (PRR) that has an important role in immunoregulation and vascular integrity. The aim of this study was to determine if PTX3 is present in amniotic fluid (AF) and whether its concentration changes with gestational age (GA), in the presence of preterm or term labor, and in cases of intra-amniotic infection/inflammation (IAI) a...

Ulrich C, Quilici DR, Schlauch KA, Buxton IL. The human uterine smooth muscle S-nitrosoproteome fingerprint in pregnancy, labor, and preterm labor. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 305: C803–C816, 2013. First published August 15, 2013; doi:10.1152/ajpcell.00198.2013.—Molecular mechanisms involved in uterine quiescence during gestation and those responsible for induction of labor at term are incomplete...

OBJECTIVE Multiple studies suggest that bacterial vaginosis (BV) causes preterm labor; yet its routine treatment remains controversial. In order to help to elucidate this controversy, we performed a thorough review of studies with levels of evidence ranging from I to II-II. METHODS We searched for all of the studies from the years 1994 to 2001 via Medline's database, including MD Consult and ...

Premature delivery occurs in 12% of all births, accounts for nearly half of neonatal morbidity and is increasing in frequency. Current therapeutic approaches to preterm delivery are ineffective and present serious risks to both the mother and fetus. Although there are multiple factors that contribute to the etiology of preterm birth, the single most common cause is infection. Recently, using cD...