Maternal Serum and Cervicovaginal IL-6 in Patients with Symptoms of Preterm Labor.

BACKGROUND Preterm birth is a common problem in obstetrics. OBJECTIVE To measure maternal serum interlukin-6 in mothers with preterm uterine contractions and compare it with cervicovaginal interlukin-6 in the same women. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, we measured interlukin-6 in the sera and cervicovaginal fluids of 86 women with preterm uterine contractions. All participants had an intact membrane. Interlukin-6 was measured by using ELISA method. Statistical analysis was done using U-Mann Whitney, Chi-Square and Kendall's tests. RESULTS The mean and median (Quartile25, Quartile75) of interlukin-6 in cervicovaginal fluid was higher than maternal serum interlukin-6. There was a statically significant difference in the median of interlukin-6 in sera and cervicovaginal fluid (P<0.0001). There was no significant correlation between serum and cervicovaginal interlukin-6 (r=0.048, p=0.548). CONCLUSION We found no relationship between serum interlukin-6 and preterm labor and the maternal serum Interlukin-6 does not seem to be a suitable biomarker for predicting preterm delivery.