Development and Clinical Evaluation of an Innovative Medical Device to Predict Preterm Birth: From Basic Research to Obstetric Emergencies

Preterm delivery (birth before 37 weeks of gestation) accounts for 12% of worldwide births each year: 15 million children. It is the leading cause of infant mortality. In France, it accounts for 60,000 births per year, 10,000 of them very preterm (before 32 weeks) and at very high risk of neonatal complications and childhood sequelae Given the high risks of death and of neurodevelopmental disabilities and learning disorders among survivors, preterm birth (PTB) is a major public health problem .

Over the past 30 years, measures to prevent preterm deliveries have not proved effective, and the incidence of PTB is rising or at best stable in most developed countries, including France. Important advances have nonetheless improved the management of pregnancies at risk of PTB and of preterm children.

From 100,000 to 150,000 women a year come to maternity unit EDs for symptoms suggesting PTL. Although fewer than half will be admitted to the hospital, our team has shown that PTL is the leading reason for hospitalization among pregnant women (45,000 admissions/year) in France [4]. In the USA, PTL is also the main cause of hospitalization during pregnancy, with costs estimated at $820 million annually . This hospitalization benefits only those women who finally do give birth preterm.

The PrediMAP project's ambition is to use new markers involved in the mechanism of PTL in clinical practice - biomarkers that are the fruit of more than 10 years of basic research at the Institut Cochin. The objective is to combine their measurement with clinical and ultrasound data to construct an algorithm to predict PTB within 7 days after the test, one that medical teams can use in obstetric EDs.

The final objective is to obtain a personalized prediction of delivery within 7 days via an algorithm integrated in the IVD-MD that includes clinical and ultrasound data with these biomarker measurements.