الفهرس 
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Abstract
Preterm birth complicates 5-11 % of all pregnancies and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. The clinical criteria for diagnosis of PTL are inaccurate until labor is well established, over diagnosis is common as regards false labor pains, vaginal discharge and vaginal bleeding.The physiological mechanism that initiates preterm delivery has not been substantially identified. Placental ischemia and acute inflammation are the most common two pathologies that have been implicated.
Microbial invasion of the amniotic cavity is present in about 10% of patients with PTL (PTL), and is a risk factor for impending preterm delivery.Serum ferritin is a high molecular weight glycoprotein which can be observed in the range of 20-120 ng/ml in healthy women in fertility ages and is the main protein for iron storage. It is also released by infiltrating leukocytes, in response to acute and chronic infection so it increases during infection and inflammation and considered to be an acute phase reactant. So serum ferritin can be used as a possible marker of PTL
This case control is carried out To predict early spontaneous PTL by detecting serum ferritin level. The objective of the study is Studying the relationship between elevated serum ferritin level and early spontaneous PTL. The objectives of the study were achieved through taking a sample of 100 singleton pregnancy females 50 of them experiencing PTL (between 24-36 weeks of gestation) and 50 delivering at term (at 37 weeks) but all fulfilling certain inclusion and exclusion criteria and the following was performed to them: 1) Complete personal obstetric and medical history was taken from them, 2) Complete general , abdominal and obstetric examinations were carried out to all patients.3) Abdominal ultrasound . 4) Laboratory investigations was carried out. 5) Serum ferritin level was assayed by using ELISA kits. 6) Results were compared between the two groups by using SPSS. The results of the study revealed that preterm cases and control groups had mean serum ferritin ± SD 35.84 ± 34.1ng/ml and 12.64 ± 11.7ng/ml respectively. Results were then compared by using student’s t test and were found to be highly statistically significant at p 0.0001.So we conclude from this study that serum ferritin level can be used as a predictor of early spontaneous PTL.