الفهرس 
Overview of Preterm BirthOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 16 |  |  |
| | | from | 16 | | |
Abstract
P
reterm labour continues to be a major public health problem with last¬ing family and societal repercussions.
Despite tremendous research effort, prevention strategies have failed, and the prevalence of preterm birth in the United States reached 12.3% in 2003.
In this study, fetal adrenal gland volume and fetal zone enlargement were used as predictors of preterm birth in comparison with cervical length measurement alone.
This study was carried out in Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital, over six months starting from August 2014 till January 2015.
This study included seventy-eight pregnant women presented to the Maternity Hospital Emergency Room with signs and symptoms of threatened preterm labour according to the previously approved inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Each eligible women had undergone full history taking, general examination, local examination, fetal ultrasound biometry, cervical length measurement, and fetal adrenal gland acquisitions.
Afterwards, all the enrolled patients had been followed up till delivery, and according to delivery interval from the day of enrollment, patients were categorized into two groups for statistical analysis purposes.
The first group (n=36) represented the patients that delivered within 7 days of enrollment into the study, and the second group (n=42) represented patients delivered after 7 days of enrollment.
A cervical length of ≤ 20mm was significantly associated with preterm delivery within 7 days of enrollment with sensitivity 77.8%, specificity 59.5%, positive predictive value (PPV) 62.2%, and negative predictive value (NPV) 75.8%.
A corrected fetal adrenal gland volume (cAGV) of > 345.3 mm3/kg was significantly associated with preterm delivery within 7 days of enrollment with sensitivity 100%, specificity 100%, positive predictive value (PPV) 100%, and negative predictive value (NPV) 100%.
A fetal zone enlargement (FZE) of > 43.16% was significantly associated with preterm delivery within 7 days of enrollment with sensitivity 100%, specificity 97.6%, positive predictive value (PPV) 97.3%, and negative predictive value (NPV) 100%.
Statistical analysis of the collected data concluded that fetal adrenal gland volume is the perfect predictor of preterm birth in patients with threatened preterm labour within 7 days of ultrasound scan, followed by fetal zone enlargement, and the cervical length was the least significant predictor compared to the other two variables.