After steadily declining, the rate of spontaneous preterm births in the U.S. rose to 10 percent in 2018. Preventing premature births would save the nation over $26 billion per year. However, diagnostic tests that claim they can predict premature births are unreliable and should not be used as part of routine evaluation of women with symptoms of preterm delivery. That, at least, is the conclusion of new guidance issued by the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC). The Diagnostic Challenge  “Identifying women who will deliver preterm is critical to allow selective initiation of appropriate therapy, while preventing unnecessary treatment of women who will deliver at term,” the AACC notes. But this task is “inherently challenging” because the best way to predict premature birth is by determining if the patient has a history of giving birth before term. Obviously, that solution is not available for first time pregnancies. Another problem is that the signs that labor is beginning, things like backache and pelvic pressure, are “ubiquitous.” Heck, you do not have to be pregnant to experience a backache. (Our words, not the AACC’s.) The New AACC Guidance Currently available diagnostic tests using more specific biomarkers usually identify risk of premature birth […]