Background: One of the main factors contributing to prenatal morbidity and death is preterm birth. There have been some investigations describing the connection between vitamin D deficiency and serum ferritin during gestation and increasing the incidence of preterm birth.
Aim of the work: To assess the connection between maternal blood ferritin levels, vitamin D insufficiency, and premature labour.
Patients and Methods: A Case Control trial involved 200 women divided into two groups; research group of 100 women, preterm labor was clearly apparent between 28 and 37 weeks of pregnancy. 100 women in the control group had straightforward pregnancies and gave birth to healthy babies at full term [≥37 to 40 weeks]. All women subjected to history taking, clinical assessment, ultrasound and laboratory tests [as a complete blood count, a serum ferritin level, a vitamin D level, a serum creatinine level, and a random blood sugar reading].
Results: The median of Vitamin-D in research group [14.58 ±7.26] was substantially lower than control group [37.15 ±11.43], while the median of the ferritin in research group [237.15 ±149.32] was statistically higher than the control group [48.64 ±25.11]. Our Receiver operating curve [ROC] findings showed that serum ferritin cutoff value is more than 85 and the area under curve [AUC] is 0.714 with sensitivity of 94% and specificity of 70%. Also, Vit. D cutoff value is less than 25 and the AUC is 0.723 with sensitivity of 67.3% and specificity of 82%.
Conclusion: The present study recommends the use of serum ferritin and vitamin D as a marker of preterm labor. It assisted in the development of a cutoff value of ≤20 nmol/L of serum 25 [OH] D and ≥85 ng/ml of serum ferritin for the predicting of premature labor.