Cervical Stiffness in Women With Threatened Preterm Labor

Women giving birth prematurely due to spontaneous preterm labor may exhibit signs and symptoms of preterm labor (PTL) which are mostly nonspecific. Among all women presenting in emergency with some complaints suggesting preterm labor, only about 10% will give birth within 7 days.

Current clinical methods to improve diagnosis of PTL include digital examination, transvaginal cervical length assessment or the use of biomarkers; however, none of these methods have high accuracy, and it is therefore important to improve diagnosis of spontaneous PTL.

There is a need for more accurate methods and tools to correctly identify imminent preterm labor in order to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and therapy, as well as give better care for those women truly in PTL who need focused attention.

Recently, cervical stiffness has been evaluated as a novel biomarker for prediction of spontaneous preterm birth. The Pregnolia System is a new CE-marked device for measuring cervical stiffness in a simple and quantitative way, providing clinicians with an immediate and actionable result.

The device has been evaluated for risk stratification of women at higher risk of delivering prematurely in some European countries. However, data on cervical stiffness in Czech healthcare setting are lacking, and these findings have not yet been confirmed in this population.

In this cohort study, the investigators aim to assess cervical stiffness in women with threatening PTL in a Czech cohort and to evaluate its association with delivery outcomes. Ultimately, the investigators seek to determine whether findings from other European populations can be reproduced in a Czech setting.