Comparative study of three vaginal markers of the premature rupture of membranes: Insulin like growth factor binding protein 1 Diamine-oxidase pH

Objective. To assess the diagnostic value of three vaginal markers - insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1 (=1GFBP1), diamine-oxidase (=DAO) and pH - for diagnosis of the premature rupture of membranes. Study. One hundred pregnant women participated in the study. They were divided into three groups: group A (34 cases with intact membranes), group B (35 cases with total rupture of the membranes), group C (31 cases of suspected rupture of the membranes). Each patient underwent three successive tests for each of the three markers. The test order was allocated at random. For pH the reaction is colorimetric, for DAO the reaction is radio-enzymatic and for IGFBP1 the reaction is immuno-chromatographic. All three reactions are qualitative in nature. The parameters studied were conventional statistical parameters (sensitivity=SN, specificity=SP, positive predictive value=PPV and negative predictive value=NPV). Results. The analysis of the statistics gave the following results in percentages for SN, SP, PPV and NPV respectively: pH: 90.7%, 77.2%, 75%, 91.7%. DAO: 83.7%, 100%, 100%, 89%. IGFBP1: 95.3%, 98.2%, 97.6%, 96.5%. Conclusion. The determination of variations in pH is not satisfactory. IGFBP1 is at least better than DAO with, additionally, advantages of rapidity and simplicity.