The significance of amniotic fluid interleukin-6 levels in preterm labour

This study was performed to determine the prevalence of subclinical intraam niotic infection in patients with preterm labour and intact membranes, and to evaluate the significance of interleukin-6 levels for diagnosis and prog nosis of tocolysis failure, amniocentesis-delivery interval and neonatal mo rtality and morbidity. Transabdominal amniocentesis was performed on 74 ran domly-selected patients with preterm labour and intact membranes. The preva lence of amniotic fluid infection in this group was found to be 33.7% (25 o f 74). The most sensitive test to identify the intraamniotic infection was found to be the measurement of interleukin-6 level. However the most specif ic test was confirmed to be Gram staining. Interleukin-6 level measurement was the best test to correlate with positive amniotic fluid culture and his tological chorioamnionitis. Also, interleukin-6 level measurement had the a dvantage of predicting preterm delivery risk and neonatal complications com pared to the other tests.