title: The significance of amniotic fluid interleukin-6 levels in preterm labour.
abstract: This study was performed to determine the prevalence of subclinical intraamniotic infection in patients with preterm labour and intact membranes, and to evaluate the significance of interleukin-6 levels for diagnosis and prognosis of tocolysis failure, amniocentesis-delivery interval and neonatal mortality and morbidity. Transabdominal amniocentesis was performed on 74 randomly-selected patients with preterm labour and intact membranes. The prevalence of amniotic fluid infection in this group was found to be 33.7% (25 of 74). The most sensitive test to identify the intraamniotic infection was found to be the measurement of interleukin-6 level. However the most specific test was confirmed to be Gram staining. Interleukin-6 level measurement was the best test to correlate with positive amniotic fluid culture and histological chorioamnionitis. Also, interleukin-6 level measurement had the advantage of predicting preterm delivery risk and neonatal complications compared to the other tests.
authors.affiliation: Zeynep Kamil Women and Children's Hospital, Department of High Risk Pregnancy, Erenköy, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kara
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ozden
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Arioglu
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cetin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000653:Amniotic Fluid / Q000382:microbiology; D002821:Chorioamnionitis / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000032:analysis*; D007752:Obstetric Labor, Premature; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6