Predicting Preterm Birth With a Simple Urine Test

Experts have developed a simple urinary test that can help predict the risk of a preterm birth or poor fetal development, helping expecting mothers gain valuable information that could preserve their child's health.

According to a study published in BMC Medicine researchers have conducted the largest human study to date that measures the urinary metabolomics - or 'chemical fingerprints' - that cellular processes involved in pregnancy leave behind.

These biomarkers could help form the basis for a screening test that researcher hope could one day predict the presence of preterm or poor fetal growth conditions.

According to lead researcher Hector Keum, from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, this work was driven by concerning reports that the rate of preterm births in developed countries has increased by nearly 20 percent in the last 10 years.

In 2010 the United States accounted for more than 40 percent of all recorded births before the 37th week of pregnancy, and the CDC reports that premature births account for about 35 percent of all infant deaths in the country.

"The rate of the rise suggests an environmental and not genetic cause, and it is these environmental factors that we are actively researching," Keun told Medical News Today.

In this latest study, Keun and his colleagues analyzed the metabolites found in the urines of 438 pregnant women from University Hospital in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Past studies have revealed that Greece has experienced a sharp increase in preterm births over the past two decades.

According to the results, researchers found a number of remarkably clear biomarkers that may indicate conditions to determine preterm birth.

"We were surprised to see so early in pregnancy a link between metabolites that we could easily detect in a urine sample and low birthweight," Keuym said.

He now plans to use this information to build a model that will help experts detect preterm and poor fetal growth risks. If detected early enough, he and his colleagues are confident that professionals will be able to correct for healthy fetal development.

The study was published in BMC Medicine on July 11.