The Power of The Fetal Fibronectin Test

Filed in archive Pregnancy on August 27, 2009

© Ernst Vikne

The power of the fetal fibronectin test has been demonstrated for the first time by a new study published in the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology.

The study conducted at the Maternal and Fetal Research Unit at St. Thomas' Hospital in London included nearly 100 clinically symptomatic and asymptomatic patients between 23 and 34 weeks gestation. After using the fFN test in both populations, clinicians were asked to determine if the results from the test changed the medical management of their patients. Clinician responses indicated that fFN testing had the potential to change management in nearly 90 percent of cases. The study concluded that fFN testing has the potential to improve risk assessment and impact treatment decisions including the administering of steroids, increased surveillance, or cerclage intervention in the asymptomatic high-risk population involved in the study.

"The results of our study clearly indicate that fFN testing influenced management in a significant number of patients. A large number of women were asymptomatic at testing. Fetal fibronectin testing could be offered more widely and has the potential to benefit patient management," said Prof. Andrew Shennan, study co-author and Ob/Gyn at St Thomas' Hospital in London. "Another important benefit of fFN testing is the ability to avoid overtreatment of women with negative test results. In addition to providing assurance to women and their doctors that preterm birth is not imminent, fFN testing-if more widely used in the asymptomatic population-could also translate into significant cost savings to the health care system."

The fetal fibronectin test - a product of Hologic, Inc. - is an FDA-approved noninvasive test that can identify a woman's risk for premature birth: a negative test result reveals with 99 percent certainty that a woman will not deliver her baby within the next 14 days.