OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to assess whether antibiotic therapy plus tocolysis given to women in preterm labor would prolong pregnancy compared with tocolysis alone. METHODS A randomized, double-blind trial of intravenous mezlocillin and oral erythromycin therapy vs. placebo was used in addition to tocolysis among women in preterm labor < or =34 weeks gestation with intact memb...

Introduction Preterm birth is still a major health problem throughout the world. Preterm birth results in 75% of neonatal mortality. We sought to identify risk factors which cause preterm birth. Materials and Methods This cross-sectional study assessed all preterm neonates born in Asali Hospital in Khorram Abad (either by NVD or C/S) during the first 6 months of 2007. Sampling method was censu...

Preterm labor affects up to 20% of pregnancies, is considered a main cause of associated neonatal morbidity and mortality and is responsible for neonatal care costs of multimillion euros. In spite of that, the commercial market for this clinical indication is rather limited, which may be also related to high liability. Consequently, with only a few exceptions, preterm labor is not in the orbit ...

Aim To investigate a correlation between cervical canal infection and imminent preterm labor and to identify most frequent pathogens. Methods A prospective study was conducted in obstetrics/gynecology departments of Health Center and the University Clinical Center Tuzla, and General Hospital Tešanj (Bosnia and Herzegovina, B&H) between October 2013 and May 2014. An examined group included 50 he...

OBJECTIVE To determine the accuracy with which the absence of fetal breathing movements on ultrasound examination predicts spontaneous preterm birth in women with threatened preterm labor. METHODS Data sources included Medline, Embase, Pascal, Biosis, Cochrane Library, Medion, National Research Register, SciSearch, conference papers, and manual searching of bibliographies of known primary and...

Approximately half of the more than 500,000 preterm births each year result from preterm labor. Tocolytic therapy continues to be the focus of treatment of these women. Although a variety of tocolytics are used in clinical practice, magnesium sulfate remains one of the most commonly used agents. Magnesium sulfate has also been the focus of recent research for its potential neuroprotective effec...

Background: Group B streptococcus is regarded as a potential factor for adverse outcomes of pregnancy such as preterm birth. Objective: To study the association of maternal vaginal colonization with group B streptococcus (GBS) and preterm labor. Materials and Methods: From April 2005 to May 2006, vaginal culture for GBS were conducted in 101 laboring women with a gestational age of 24-37 weeks ...

AIMS Our aim is to investigate, in 13 cases (delivering preterm) and 21 matched (for age, parity, and gestational age) controls (delivering at term), whether midtrimester amniotic fluid concentrations of elastase, secretory leukocyte proteinase inhibitor (SLPI), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule predict asymptomatic intra-amniotic inflammatio...

BACKGROUND The existence of a "placental clock" which determines the duration of gestation has been previously proposed. It is related to placental CRH secretion and is active from an early phase in human pregnancy. Urocortin is a specific ligand for the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) receptor expressed by human trophoblast and fetal membranes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate wh...

Preterm birth remains the most prevalent cause of neonatal morbidity. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of SDF-1α, resistin, secretory RAGE (sRAGE), and endogenous secretory RAGE (esRAGE) in preterm labor. A total of 211 pregnant women participated in the study. Group A contained 72 women between 22 and 36 weeks of gestation, with premature labor, who finally had preterm birth. ...