Early first trimester peripheral blood cell microRNA predicts risk of preterm delivery in pregnant women: Proof of concept.

Abstract

We investigated the capacity of first trimester peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) microRNA to determine risk of spontaneous preterm birth among pregnant women.The study included 39 pregnant women with the following delivery outcomes: 25 with a full term delivery (38-42 weeks gestation) 14 with spontaneous preterm birth (0.0001). The AUC-ROC for early preterm group (<34 weeks) was 0.98 (p<0.0001) and the AUC-ROC for the late preterm group (34-<38 weeks) was 0.92 (p<0.0001).Quantification of first trimester peripheral blood PBMC MicroRNA may provide sensitive and specific prediction of spontaneous preterm birth in pregnant women. Larger studies are needed for confirmation.