Active clinical trials for "Premature Birth"

Globally, preterm birth (15 mill. per year) is the leading cause of under-5 child mortality (1 mill. per year) and morbidity. Important pathways include preterm labor contractions, Preterm Prelabor Rupture of the Fetal Membranes (PPROM), and iatrogenic delivery. At labor, the fetal amniochorionic membrane undergoes a cellular senescence and shed fetal amniochorionic membrane cells (ACM cells) to the maternal circulation. In collaboration with the private firm ARCEDI Biotech and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Aarhus University has identified specific antibodies, which can be used to isolate ACM cells from maternal blood. Thus, the aim of this study is 1) to characterize ACM cells by histological and immunological techniques, and 2) in a cohort assess their performance as biomarkers of amniochorionic membrane dysfunction, including early detection of threatening preterm birth. In perspective, the findings are expected to improve the diagnostics and treatment of preterm birth.

The objective of the study is to assess the psychic profile of parents of children born prematurely

This study evaluates the usefulness of liver perfusion and oxygenation status using regional oxygen saturation (RSO2) values obtained via near-infrared spectroscopy in assessing the hemodynamical significance of patent ductus arteriosus in preterm infants.

Currently, transvaginal cervical length measurement is used to screen in asymptomatic pregnant women with a history of PTB. In symptomatic women, presenting with threatened PTB cervical length in combination with the fibronectin test is used to identify women at high risk to deliver preterm. However, the predictive capacity of transvaginal cervical length measurement is limited. In pregnant women with a history of PTB, it only identifies a proportion of women who will have recurrent PTB. For symptomatic women, 30-60% of these women admitted to the hospital, do not deliver within seven days, leading to overtreatment of these women. Cervical softening is precursor of cervical shortening, effacement and dilatation and therefore cervical softening is a promising new marker that is based on tissue elasticity. However, the predictive value of cervical softening and the relation with spontaneous PTB still has to be determined. With the newly developed Pregnolia® System cervical softness could be measured on a standardized and safe manner. This study could help to improve care for women with a history of spontaneous PTB.

The EU-ROP registry is a European wide multicenter non-interventional observational registry study intended to run open-ended in as many countries as possible including infants treated for retinopathy of prematurity irrespective of the used treatment modality. The registry is strictly observational; only clinical routine data is collected, no study-specific examinations or interventions are to be performed. The aim of the EU-ROP registry is to collect information on as many patients as possible treated for ROP in Europe. Both the number of study centers as well as the number of patients to be included into the registry are not limited. The primary objective is to describe the typical clinical features of infants with severe ROP, variations in phenotype, and the clinical progression of the disease over time (natural history) in different European countries as well as to study treatment patterns, follow-up patterns, as well as long-term outcomes.

Although much investigation has been done on the use of ferning in the second and third trimesters, particularly with the development of rapid protein clinical assays, there appears to be lower ferning rates in clinical practice with traditional techniques compared to previous published research on the subject. Much of the older study designs are lacking in detail and lack a large enough sample sizes at each gestational age to appropriately interpret the significance of ferning results by gestational age. Additionally, a large premise for the current tests used to diagnose rupture of membranes is based on these older studies. Given this, we propose collecting amniotic fluid vaginally to evaluate for the presence of ferning in the second trimester to determine if there is a difference in ferning based on gestational age as well as the time interval after rupture of membranes in which ferning can observed on microscope examination.

The aim is to study how a digital follow up tool can identify the preterm born children and their families who need further support or clinical interventions

This is a single center, prospective cohort study of pregnant patients at high risk for spontaneous preterm birth: patient's with history of spontaneous preterm birth, patient's with a short cervix and patient's symptomatic for preterm birth will be included. A control cohort of nulliparous patients without a short cervix will be recruited to provide baseline data. Plan to enroll 240 patients identified through our ultrasound unit with goal of 60 patients in each group.

The purpose of this study is to determine if concentrations of hormones in prepared human milk (HM) feeds are associated with metabolic disturbances in the recipient premature infant. To do so, prospectively 100 infants receiving HM-derived fortifiers as part of clinical care will be studied, saving aliquots of daily prepared feeds until any fortification ceases.

Despite improved survival of extremely premature infants in recent decades, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) graduates are diagnosed with asthma, sleep disordered breathing (SDB) in childhood, and neurodevelopmental impairments (NDI) at significant rates, disproportionate to their term peers. Early detection and intervention are critical to mitigate the impact of these impairments. Mechanisms leading from premature birth to these undesirable outcomes remain unclear, and accurate prognostic measures are lacking. This study wants to learn if these problems are related to certain patterns of breathing that babies had while they were in the NICU.