Jan 22, 2009 7:10 pm US/Eastern
HealthWatch: Test Could Predict Premature Labor
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
A new test may help predict if a pregnant woman will give birth prematurely.
Doctors say that the test could help them plan care and prevent some of the health risks that a premature baby faces.
Like most expectant mothers, Regina Biscoglio is worried about the health of her unborn baby.
"One of the things that's most concerning is if the baby is born prematurely," Biscoglio says. "There are so many potential consequences to that."
But according to a new study, a simple test could calm those fears by helping to predict premature labor.
It's called the Lac-Test, and it measures levels of lactic acid.
"In labor, the womb is contracting, and so that produces lactic acid," Professor Philip Steer, a consulting obstetrician for the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, says. "That's what's picked up on this test."
There are more than 500,000 premature births every year in the US, putting babies at risk of serious health problems.
"Premature deliveries are responsible for lung problems, responsible for a whole slew of problems," Dr. Jacques Moritz, director of gynecology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, says.
When a woman's water breaks sooner than expected, it's considered a sign that she will go into labor – but just a third of those women actually give birth prematurely.
Researchers in Sweden used the Lac-Test on women whose water broke early to determine which ones were in danger.
87 percent of those women with high levels of lactic acid went into labor within 48 hours.
Doctors say that knowing this could be vital when treating the mother, and in keeping the baby healthy.
"You want to give them steroids, the strong steroids, and it turns the baby's lungs on so that the baby will need less support to breathe in the ICU," Dr. Moritz says.
The Lac-Test kit is already available online.
It's most often used by athletes to measure the amount of lactic acid in their blood, to see if they're training hard enough.
Now, it could be a new tool for doctors and expectant moms.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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