Cervicovaginal fetal fibronectin testing in threatened preterm labour - Translating research findings into clinical practice

A retrospective audit was undertaken involving 70 women with a singleton pregnancy who attended hospital with symptoms of threatened preterm labour prior to 34 weeks' gestation and who had a bedside fetal fibronectin (FFN) Membrane Immunoassay Kit Test (Adeza Biomedical) performed. The aim of the study was to determine if the results of the FFN test when used in routine clinical practice would be similar to those of a previous research study (1) that was performed at the same centre, and whether or not knowledge of the result of the FFN test might influence clinical management. The audit revealed that the sensitivity of the FFN test in the prediction of delivery prior to 34 weeks' gestation was 90%, the specificity was 82%, whilst the positive and negative predictive values were 45% and 98% respectively. These results were very similar to those of the previous, blinded research study. Compared to women with a negative FFN test, more women with a positive FFN test received corticosteroids (100% versus 71%, p = 0.02) and tocolysis (35% versus 12%, p = 0.04) and more remained in hospital longer than 24 hours (85% versus 56%, P = 0.1).