The King's College London has developed a new app that can help doctors better identify women who are at risk of giving birth prematurely, Times Of India reports.
Called QuiPP, the app was tested in two studies of women who were at high risk of giving birth prematurely and were being monitored at the clinics.
The app relies on an algorithm that combines the gestation of previous pregnancies and the length of the cervix with levels of fetal fibronectin to predict a woman's risk of giving birth prematurely.
"Doctors need reliable ways of predicting whether a woman is at risk of giving birth early. It can be difficult to accurately assess a woman's risk, given that many women who show symptoms of preterm labour do not go on to deliver early," said professor Andrew Shennan, lead author and professor of obstetrics at King's College London.
In the first study, the researchers collected data from 1,249 women at high risk for pre-term birth attending pre-term surveillance clinics. The study focused on women who were to be a high risk of preterm birth because of a previous early pregnancy.
The second study predicted the likelihood of early delivery in 382 women showing symptoms of early labour that often doesn't progress to real labour.
Both the studies were published in the journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology.
"Despite advances in prenatal care the rate of preterm birth has never been higher in recent years, including in the US and UK, so doctors need reliable ways of predicting whether a woman is at risk of giving birth early," said Andrew Shennan, according to NDTV.
"It can be difficult to accurately assess a woman's risk, given that many women who show symptoms of preterm labour do not go on to deliver early," he added.
In both studies, the app was found to be a reliable predictive tool.
"The app can be used by clinicians to improve the estimation of the probability of premature delivery (before 34 weeks' gestation or within two weeks of the fetal fibronectin test) and to potentially tailor clinical management decisions," the authors noted.
"The more accurately we can predict her risk, the better we can manage a woman's pregnancy to ensure the safest possible birth for her and her baby," Shennan said.
QUiPP is available to download for free from the Apple store.
