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Preterm Birth

The Mom and Baby Balance

A mom and her baby must maintain a delicate balancing act during pregnancy. For example, the growing baby must be tolerated by the mom's immune system, and the placenta must function properly to provide essential nutrients to the baby. The mom's systems must learn to manage various stresses, such as those from the environment, chemical, physical, or infection sources. Additionally, the mom's body must keep specific inflammation and coagulation processes in check to ensure that the baby remains in the womb until the natural 40-week period ends in a successful delivery near the expected due date.

In most pregnancies, successfully maintaining these balances results in welcoming a healthy “full-term” baby to the family.

However, in some pregnancies, spontaneous preterm labor can interrupt this network of balances and result in delivering a "preemie ."The majority of early deliveries occur in the week 35-37 time frame, but some infants are born as early as week 23, leading to a more challenging road ahead for the family and the baby.

Preventing Preterm Birth Is Important

Approximately 4 million births occur in the US annually, resulting in approximately 400,000 preterm births and creating a significant burden on affected parties. Preterm infants in the NICU have initial hospital costs ranging from 10x to over 100x that of normal full-term deliveries, not including potential long-term issues like cerebral palsy, cognitive delays, and more.

Currently, no marketed test effectively identifies early risk. However, our data shows we can identify higher-risk women 10-14 weeks earlier than existing tests, providing physicians with a critical advantage to enhance care paths and effective prevention. Early detection is key in the prevention of preterm birth.

List of Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • T.F. McElrath, D.E. Cantonwine, A. Jeyabalan, R.C. Doss, G. Page, J.M. Roberts, B. Brohman, Z. Zhang, K.P. Rosenblatt, Circulating microparticle proteins obtained in the late first trimester predict spontaneous preterm birth at less than 35 weeks' gestation: a panel validation with specific characterization by parity. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 220(5):488.e1-488.e11 (2019). doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2019.01.220.
  • D.E. Cantonwine, Z. Zhang, K.P. Rosenblatt, K.S. Goudy, R.C. Doss, A.M. Ezrin, G. Page, B. Brohman, T.F. McElrath, Evaluation of proteomic biomarkers associated with circulating microparticles as an effective means to stratify the risk of spontaneous preterm birth. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 214(5):631.e1-631.e11 (2016). doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2016.02.005.
  • A.M. Ezrin, B. Brohman, J. Willmot, S. Baxter, K. Moore, M. Luther, M.R. Fannon, B. Sibai. Circulating serum-derived microparticles provide novel proteomic biomarkers of spontaneous preterm birth. Am J Perinatol. 32(6):605-14 (2015). doi: 10.1055/s-0035-1547322.
  • D. Haas, K.P. Rosenblatt, R.C. Doss, S. Dowden, B. Brohman, Impact of progestin therapy on circulating microparticle proteins in women being treated to prevent preterm birth, Central Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists 85th Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, October 2018
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