Insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1 (IGFBP-1) in vaginal fluid in pregnancy

To examine vaginal insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1 (IGFBP-1) as a marker of preterm delivery, amniotic fluid leakage or vaginal infection.

The material consisted of a nested case-control study (67 with idiopathic preterm delivery and 406 randomly selected women with term deliveries) from a prospective cohort of 2,846 women.

Vaginal npIGFBP-1 was weakly associated with preterm delivery. Elevated npIGFBP-1 gave an increased risk of preterm delivery (OR 2.8 [1.4-6. 7]). Elevated IGFBP-1 provided a sensitivity of 13% at a false-positive rate of 4.4% in a low-risk population. When adjusting for other covariates associated with preterm delivery the association between npIGFBP-1 and preterm delivery disappeared; there was an interaction between alcohol consumption and npIGFBP-1.

The current study found vaginal npIGFBP-1 to be weakly associated with gestational age at delivery. However, in this study the association may potentially be explained by alcohol consumption.