Abstract
Preterm labor affects up to 20% of pregnancies, is considered a main cause of associated neonatal morbidity and mortality and is responsible for neonatal care costs of multimillion euros. In spite of that, the commercial market for this clinical indication is rather limited, which may be also related to high liability. Consequently, with only a few exceptions, preterm labor is not in the orbit of great interest of the pharmaceutical industry. Coordinated effort of research community may bring the change and help required to reduce the influence of this multifactorial syndrome on society. Between the novel techniques that are being explored in a SAFE (The Special Non-Invasive Advances in Fetal and Neonatal Evaluation Network) group, there are new research models of preterm labor as well as novel methodology of analysis of biological signals. In this article, we briefly describe new clinical and nonclinical human models of preterm labor as well as summarize some novel methods of data processing and analysis that may be used in the context of preterm labor.
Highlights
Preterm labor constitutes the major cause for neonatal mortality in developed countries
Most of the pharmaceutical industry considers this segment of market as small one and which is connected to high liability, meaning: not attractive [3]
Considering the whole situation surrounding preterm labor, it appears that only a coordinated effort of research networks, such as SAFE (The Special Non-Invasive Advances in Fetal and Neonatal Evaluation Network) and those involved in preterm labour, is capable of bringing the new data that could be of potential use in discerning its pathophysiology and point to new pharmacological targets
Summary
Preterm labor constitutes the major cause for neonatal mortality in developed countries. Considering the whole situation surrounding preterm labor, it appears that only a coordinated effort of research networks, such as SAFE (The Special Non-Invasive Advances in Fetal and Neonatal Evaluation Network) and those involved in preterm labour, is capable of bringing the new data that could be of potential use in discerning its pathophysiology and point to new pharmacological targets In this setting there is much to be done towards solving this important problem. Our advanced methods of signal processing and analysis reported here give added support to the potential benefit of new preclinical and clinical models of preterm labor Such an attitude could provide new insights into "well known" phenomena such as uterine contractile activity. The results showed that the spontaneous uterine contractions are considered to contain nonlinear features [16] which indicated that nonlinear dynamics may increase the accessibility of data for the assessment of biology of uterus, and the nature of preterm labor
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