According to MSNBC, a simple treatment help prevent preterm births by nearly half. A late-stage study of the vaginal gel made by Columbia Laboratories Inc and Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc found hope in preventing premature birth in women with a short cervix. Treating pregnant women participants with the hormone progesterone cut their rate of premature delivery by 45 percent, the researchers said.
The study published in the journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology will be used to support the companies’ application for marketing approval of the hormone gel. The gel is known by the brand Prochieve. In the study, researchers at the National Institutes of Health and 44 medical centers around the world looked at effects of giving progesterone to women with a short cervix. Researchers suspect that women with a short cervix do not have enough of the hormone, and giving it during pregnancies helps prolong the gestational period.
The team studied 458 women with a short cervix who used either a vaginal progesterone gel or a placebo between the 19th and 23rd week of pregnancy. About 8.9 percent of women who used the gel delivered babies before the 33rd week of pregnancy, compared with 16.2 percent of women using a placebo.
The researchers found that babies benefited from progesterone as well, as only 3 percent of babies born to women treated with the gel experienced respiratory distress syndrome. In the U.S., 12.8 percent of babies were born preterm in 2008. Preterm birth raises the risk of development disorders, brain injuries, breathing difficulties, and death.
