Metabolon, a provider of global metabolism, biomarker discovery and analysis, has published 'Metabolomics in premature labor: a novel approach to identify patients at risk for preterm delivery,' in The Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine.
The study, carried out in collaboration with co-authors Dr Roberto Romero and colleagues of the NICHD, NIH, and DHHS, aimed to identify prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers of preterm delivery in women with spontaneous preterm labor (PTL) and intact membranes.
Metabolon said that the spontaneous preterm labor does not always lead to preterm delivery and the accurate and rapid identification of the risk of preterm delivery to pregnant women with PTL is needed for physicians to make immediate patient management decisions.
According to Metabolon, the report describes the identification of biomarkers for PTL and delivery and concludes that the risk of preterm delivery, in the presence or absence of infection and inflammation, can be assessed by metabolic profiling of amniotic fluid.
In addition, the report presents a preliminary draft of the human amniotic fluid metabolome from women with PTL that shows biochemical intermediates of human metabolism as well as xenobiotics such as salicylamide and bacterial products can be measured in human amniotic fluid.