Prediction of inappropriate myometrial function
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Prediction of inappropriate myometrial function
IRAS ID
140732
Contact name
Siobhan Quenby
Contact email
Research summary
Preterm delivery (onset of labour and delivery before 37 weeks) is the leading cause of health problems in newborn babies in the United Kingdom, these can have lifelong consequences. There are approximately 50,000 preterm deliveries per year. To identify women who are at risk, we currently rely on talking to patients about their previous pregnancies and medical problems. However this only allows us to identify approximately 1 in 10 women who actually go into early labour. \n\nWhen women come to hospital with symptoms which suggest that they could be going into preterm labour, there are tests available to help us. But the tests used only assure us that a woman is not going into early labour and are less useful at warning us about those who are actually in preterm labour.\n\nCurrently there is research going on around the world looking into developing tests which might be able to accurately predict who is going to go into preterm labour. We would like to develop a test. \n\nWe would like to take a cervical (neck of the womb) swab to look at what genes and compounds are expressed and released from the cells of the cervix. We would like to see if there is a difference in these cells between women who go into preterm labour and those who go into labour at term (37-42 weeks). We will use this information with the aim to develop a test to determine who is going to go into labour.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/WM/0486
Date of REC Opinion
14 Jan 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion