Prediction of respiratory distress syndrome by the level of pulmonary surfactant protein A in cord blood sera.

The purpose of this study was to determine the utility of measuring the level of pulmonary surfactant protein A (SP-A) in cord blood sera to predict for respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). SP-A levels in cord blood sera from 48 infants born at gestational ages < 32 weeks were measured by a sandwich ELISA system. Mean value of SP-A in cord blood was 5.8 ng/ml in cases with RDS and 15.1 ng/ml in those without RDS (p = 0.002). The best cut-off point of cord blood SP-A to predict RDS was determined as 10 ng/ml. The sensitivity and the specificity of the cut-off point for predicting RDS were 81 and 76%, respectively. Multivariate regression analysis showed that high SP-A level in cord blood, premature rupture of the membranes longer than 24 h and heavy birth weight were all significantly related to the non-RDS outcome.