الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract • Preterm birth remains a major cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality, and probably the most challenging problem in modern obstetrics. • Accurate prediction of preterm labor reduce hospitalization and unnecessary medications that drain the resources, and allow choosing the proper time for the selected intervention. • Recently the question has been raised of whether a high serum ferritin concentration is of value as a marker of impending preterm delivery. It has been hypothesized that high third trimester concentration correlates with very preterm delivery caused by subclinical maternal infection (Tamura et al, 1996) • Normally serum level lies within the range between 15-300 ng/ml but these concentrations are dependant on both age and sex, the level drops markedly in pregnancy because of feto-placental demand and the required expansion of the red cell mass. • To determine the role of maternal serum ferritin concentration in cases of spontaneous preterm delivery (as a predictive marker of preterm labor) and to compare its concentration at deferent grades of preterm labor, this study was performed. |